1 Corinthians 13:11 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.

When do we begin to want to be an adult?

Notice I said want. Being an adult and wanting to be an adult are two very different things. If I were to examine my natural growth and compare it with spiritual growth, then I would say a common point in both would be love.

God made us because He loved us. We hear it in the law, summed up by Jesus so aptly, “Love God, love one another.” Love is a compelling force that seeks to pour itself out upon others. The love chapter of the bible is 1 Corinthians 13. The King James Version uses the word charity to emphasize the outpouring qualities of love. This is how love acts.

As a teen I wanted to love without understanding love. As a born again love once again is a compelling force without understanding love. Not because you cannot love but because it isn’t natural love. It is God’s love, perfect love, Agape love.

Romans 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

The distributer of love is the Holy Spirit. In the natural we choose to love those qualities of love which are represented by natural love, eros, philia, ludus, pragma, and philatia. None of those love descriptions are God’s love.

If you knew what each of those types of love were, and most do not, none of them would compare in performance as to how love acts in 1 Corinthians 13. Can I meet those standards of perfection? If I am going to be brutally honest with myself, the answer is no. As much as I would love to love like that, I do not.

The best I can do is in response to God’s call to put away childish things.

God will handle the rest.

Am I alone in this? What do you think?