LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Precocity versus Maturity
How early is a young believer ready to serve God? This is a question that is receiving strong influences from the world today. In the world we are surrounded by a wave of youthful triumphalism. The best athletes, the most successful businessmen, the most beautiful women, do not exceed 30 years of age. The world reveres lush skins, strong muscles, reckless dexterity.
Various altars are raised to precocity. Barely weaned children and beardless boys are transformed overnight into stars of the show; girls suddenly turned into women are raised as icons of 'glamour'. New and bolder moral standards are being embodied by shameless young men.
This trend is framed by the philosophy of immediacy, which has accustomed us to push a button to get what we want. Everything must be obtained now, and at the lowest possible price. It is also the philosophy of the 'light', in which things look good, but have no consistency. A lot of paraphernalia, but little content.
But youth is short and disenchantment is long. When the youthful years pass, one is left with the sensation that one was not prepared to live, only to succeed. Is it also like this in the spiritual world? Can a young Christian reach spectacular, dazzling spiritual achievements in the shortest time and at the lowest cost?
We cannot rule out that God's sovereignty can produce a Samuel almost from the cradle, or a Spurgeon at the age of 20. However, let us attend to the constant example of the Scriptures, which shows us the long and patient formation of a character before the manifestation of the fruits of that character.
The example of such men as Jacob, receiving early and severe training in the house of Laban; of Joseph, scourged by unjust treatment in Egypt; of Moses, hardened by the rigors of the wilderness; of Joshua, learning long under the wing of Moses, should speak to us; of David, learning to bear the heavy hand of Saul as if it were that of an enemy; of Saul of Tarsus, so foolish in youth, so wise in old age; of a John the apostle, so violent in his youth, so delicate and tender in his old age. What to say of our greatest example, the Lord Jesus Christ, who prepared himself thirty years in an obscure city to serve in public a little more than three years?
In them, time and dealings were fundamental. There were long periods of silence in which one learned self insufficiency, and great sufferings in which one learned obedience. Yet how beautiful the character looks later as the years go by! How God is glorified in it!
Therefore, let the vain rose wither, and we shall have true beauty; let the luxuriant skin show its first furrows, and then it may begin to express true loveliness. Let us wait for the vanity of the flesh to die, before the riches of the spirit delight the soul.