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Life Over Coffee Devotions
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28).
What do you hope your child will be after he grows up? Many Christians would say they wish their child loved God and others as he loves himself (Matthew 22:36-40). Those are two great goals, but what do they mean?
If you told your child that you wanted him to love God and others as much as he loves himself, what would he hear? Would he know what to do? Maybe the better question is, how are you training him to accomplish the goal of loving God and loving others? We wanted to implement the Matthew 22:36-40 plan into our children to help them think practically about it. When our kids were younger, they knew they were supposed to love God and others as they loved themselves, but they didn’t understand what it practically meant to live that kind of life.
Not practically living the two great commandments raises an important point: kids must learn more than Bible facts. Knowing and living the Bible are radically different things, though both pieces are needed to be mature. Knowledge only was one of the rebukes Paul leveled on the Corinthians. You see it in 1 Corinthians 8:1-2. He acknowledged that they had Bible knowledge. Knowing theology was not the issue that Paul had with the Corinthians. His rebuke was their inability (or lack of awareness) to apply the Bible to their lives.
He taught how stand-alone-Bible-knowledge led to arrogance. He warned them about this when he said, “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” He began teaching them how to apply the Bible so their brothers would not trip up over the meat-eating problem they had with the Jews who had just become Christians. He taught that mature Christians were not just Bible-smart but practically equipped. A helpful equation is Knowledge + Application = Wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to apply the knowledge of the Bible in practical ways that make sense. If you know only, there will be a temptation to be arrogant. If you have an application without knowledge, you will stumble into subjective weirdness.
Suppose you have a clear understanding of the Bible and can bring practical application of the Bible to your life and the lives of others. In that case, you’ll experience wisdom, which is biblical maturity. There are a lot of intelligent Bible people walking around our world today, and many biblically illiterate individuals are subjectively applying the Bible in ways the biblical writers never intended. We need students of the Word of God who know how to practically apply the Word of God to their lives and their culture. What the world needs are mature adults, and that is the goal for our children. To be more specific, we want them to be relationally mature Christians.
That is how we thought about practicalizing Matthew 22:36-40 into their lives. Think about it with me. What are some of the more significant problems you see in yourself and others? If you could use a word, I think immaturity would be a good one.
Rick launched the Life Over Coffee global training network in 2008 to bring hope and help for you and others by creating resources that spark conversations for transformation. His primary responsibilities are resource creation and leadership development, which he does through speaking, writing, podcasting, and educating.
In 1990 he earned a BA in Theology and, in 1991, a BS in Education. In 1993, he received his ordination into Christian ministry, and in 2000 he graduated with an MA in Counseling from The Master’s University. In 2006 he was recognized as a Fellow of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC).
