“Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” 1 Corinthians 14:20 ESV
An innocent baby knows nothing of the evil in the world today. Soon enough that little one will realize this is a fallen world into which they were born. But there is something about that innocence that protects them from evil in their early years. They do not know evil exists and they are not being capable to think about it or get involved with it. As adults we have lost that innocence long ago, but there is a time to go back to that way of thinking.
The apostle Paul was writing to the troubled church in Corinth knowing they lacked wisdom and had a difficult time recognizing evil. He wrote to them, “do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil.” (1Cor.14:20 esv) Their thinking was misdirected and immature. Evil was having an effect on them. They were allowing evil to influence their lives by not thinking as mature adults as to its danger. Paul’s readers were acting as children, not infants, in rationalizing the effects of sin and evil. Paul encouraged them to think in a mature manner.
Today mature thinking is not only needed but essential in every Christian’s life. As adults we now know that evil is around us. To be infants in evil is for it to have no effect on us. In order for evil to have no effect on us we need to be mature in all our thinking. Mature thinking in the ways of God and proper Christian living come about by constant prayer and reading His Word. Living in a sinful world will have some sort of effect on us, but it is an indirect effect. What we do not want is for it to affect us in a way that we engage in it. Let our thinking be mature.
