Several years ago I heard a guy preach about Christians who are afflicted with the "Peter Pan Syndrome." You remember Peter Pan -- he never grew up. Too many believers fall into this category. While it may have been 20 or 30 years since they were saved, they do not have the maturity of a 20 or 30 year old Christian. The reality is that they have been a Christian for one year, 20 or 30 times. This is nothing new.
Paul addressed it with the church at Corinth: "But I, brothers,could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?" 1 Corinthians 3:1-3
The Hebrew writer chastised his readers for the same thing: "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity..." Hebrews 5:12-6:1
What do you do with Peter Pan Christians? How do you help them grow up?>
1 comment:
It's crazy.
Maybe it's me, but many of the "mature" Christians are only mature in age.
Many of them are stuck on the things that make them happy (pews, carpet, Bible school classes, music styles) when instead, they should be an example to the younger men and women of the church.
What do you do with them?
I dont know. Many of them we are told to love and we accept their behavior and say things like, "well, thats just how they are."
To me, that isn't a valid excuse. No where in Paul's letters does he say, "well, such and such is still drinking spiritual milk and that's because it's their personality."
We are called to higher things, and better examples! I know there will come a day when things will be different and I pray that I am able to change and grow.
How do we get them to grow? I don't know!
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