The Prison of God’s Love 2

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. (Galatians 4: 1, 2)

I want us to look at our last topic so that we can continue past where we left, though I will do it differently today.

The main purpose is to help us to grow into God’s likeness as that is how we will be able to possess His love.

Let us take the first level as the infantile level of accessing God’s love.

Why does an infant cry? What does it take for them to stop crying?

An infant is focused on its interests and comforts. Nothing else will draw their attention. If a child is hungry and wet, there will be no peace in the house until the needs are met.

Interesting enough you will find that children being raised by harsh minders or careless parents do not cry much as they rarely have their needs met from their protests. Their cries will therefore be mostly noise and meaningless, sometimes even attracting a thrashing. And children learn very fast.

A child is selfish. That is a given. They take the love being given or showed to them as a right. But they learn to recognize when it is absent and behave otherwise. Gratitude is as foreign to an infant as consideration.

That is the point at which we understand the first level of God’s love. It is all about acceptance and assurance and possession of that love.

Sadly, many believers stop at the point of accessing that love. They remain at the infantile level all their lives.

But it gets even worse. Shepherds thrive at keeping believers at that level. They are only expecting and receiving and possessing.

That is what motivational teaching and preaching feeds on. We feed on the promises and the miracles and breakthroughs with not a care in the world. But like the loved infant we are doing nothing than crying for our needs to be met. We are not even caring whether others can access that same love we are accessing. We preach as a favor to the source of the love we are possessing. It is no wonder that we are overly focused on the promises God has given, sadly (but naturally for that stage) overlooking the conditions in those promises we claim.

A spiritual infant exists for the single purpose of having all their needs met by God because God loves them and nothing else.

Another trait a child has is an impossibility to share. Give a child ten sweets (candies) and require him to share with his elder siblings and you will see how difficult it can be. They only share when they are full. They only give what they can eat no more. The closest they come to sharing is swapping, in other words trading.

How many times have you heard preachers teaching that you only give where you are feeding from? In other words, only your pastor, preacher, church is entitled to your offerings. Then the infant church can in the same nature give to causes their childish nature agrees with. Or haven’t you seen rich churches giving to other rich churches instead of struggling churches?

A child grosses over their mistakes instead of owning them. Again they take love as the excuse for the same. Where they are unable to make you overlook their mistake (even swimming in mud with their sparkling white outfit you had warned them against), they will divert attention, and offense, to someone or something else.

There is something I make fun of with my children. A child rushes into the house and knocks the table or something else and injures themselves. They then start crying that the table has knocked them (meza imenigonga). Kiswahili says is better.

I will then ask them who hit the other and who should be apologizing to the other. Of course we will have a laugh and the pain will be forgotten in a short while.

Yet that is the mindset of many believers concerning sin. They will blame everybody but themselves for their sin. Of course they will not grow.

With a childish perspective on God’s love, we will many times disqualify ourselves from spiritual resources. Like the verse I quoted, it is impossible to be handed spiritual victory if you are a spiritual infant. We will inherit victory and breakthrough not from our proclamations but by our growth into maturity.

That infantile outlook in the spiritual has devastating impact on all of life. You see, if I do not relate well with God, it means I relate worse with others.

That explains why Christian relationships and marriages are a disaster in many places. Divorce is being accepted as normal yet God says that He hates divorce. Single parent families are on the increase mainly due to that factor. Widowhood is normally not included in that statistic.

Let us look at a few scenarios.

A woman takes her husband’s love the same we are taking God’s. She therefore makes no effort to carry her weight in the marriage. She even becomes an expert at nagging. His spirituality becomes a liability as he can’t batter her into submission or sleep outside for her to know that he is a man like others. She throws all sort of mud to him showing him that he does not qualify to be a man. And she does this because she is assured of his love and commitment to the marriage.

One of three things can happen.

The lady might get frustrated by this womanish man and leave him. And this happens a lot, especially for ministers as their commitment does not bring as much bread on the table as the mammon worshippers. She might go to her parents, start living alone or even get a better man.

She then realizes that the fool she left had a spiritual cover and that she became exposed when she left him. Her pride does not allow her to confess her folly and repent, coming back as a result. But many years down the line she may attempt a comeback and realize that he moved on.

Or the man may snap, choosing to be a man like the others to relieve the pressure of all that nagging. He joins mammon like them and starts bringing as much bread on the table like the rest. Initially this makes the wife very happy. But mammon has different standards. In a short while the sweet man starts becoming unavailable. He starts having extra affairs to be like the other men you had challenged him to be. He stops being the spiritual leader as you had become tired of that. When you ask why he is unfaithful, he asks you what it is you are lacking.

Others are simply tortured (nagged) to death. God rescues them from that torture. Then the woman realizes the kind of giant she had leading her. But her regrets have no way of correcting her initial error.

Christian ministers go through a lot of this. I know of quite a few who have been left just because they decided that God was the one whose orders they will follow. Yet I know many Christians suffer in silence when their love is taken for granted and as a right with no corresponding responsibility. Many a marriage may fail because a spouse could insist on the romantics they see on soap operas on a spouse who has been toiling all day.

It also happens to women. A man may take his wife’s love as a right and start mistreating her as if she has nowhere else to go. Battery, verbal abuse, unfaithfulness, etc., it is when the snap occurs that this man will realize the kind of treasure God had entrusted to him. But then it could be too late.

Now take two believers who have the same infantile theology. They are fed with the same theology by their infantile leading pastor. They read the portions of scripture advocating the same theology. What are the chances of these believers making it in life socially or spiritually? It would be worse than marrying two modern TV raised teenagers who think that sex is the only ingredient in marriage.

I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1John 2: 12 – 15)

God expects us to grow beyond assurances. A child needs assurance. As they grow they will need to put that assurance to work.

A normal child will be toilet trained so that they stop crying after wetting themselves. They will be taught to feed and eventually dress. Then they will take over some responsibilities at home as they grow. And that growth will be smooth because that love will be assured. They are not loved less when they are washing dishes or cooking for the parents. They are just growing normally. Again we have a problem parent who takes their love too far that a child becomes an adult without knowing how to take care of themself. Woe to them if they marry lower than their strata (especially the woman)! She doesn’t know how to cook. She can’t wash clothes. And they cannot afford to pay for the services!

We must grow beyond the assurance of our salvation just like a normal child must grow past having everything done for them.

Our parent and instructor is the Bible. We must be consistent in our Bible intake to have our concept of God’s love grow beyond meeting our every need and covering our every sin.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (1Corinthians 13:11)

We will look at the next growth level next time, God willing.

Are you willing to grow past the infantile level of accessing God’s love?