Be Childlike

“Kids Say the Darndest Things” was a television show hosted by Bill Cosby from 1998-2000.  The premise of the show was that Bill would ask a question to a child about anything from dead goldfish to love letters in anticipation on an unpredictable or “cute” response.  For example, during one interview Bill Cosby asked a little boy, “who was George Washington’s wife?” and the boy replied, “Miss America”.  Cosby asked another boy, "how would you make marriage work?" and he boy replied "Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck."  Children definitely have an honesty and innocence about them that is sweet, charming, and irresistible.  It is these, and many other characteristics, that God loves!

READ:  Matthew 18:1-4

Entering the Kingdom requires become like a CHILD! Mark 10:15 says, “unless you become like a child you will never enter the kingdom of God.”  A Kingdom full of children sounds terrible; crying, temper tantrums, complaining, permanent marker on the streets of gold, etc . . . I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind.  The characteristics that make children worthy of the Kingdom is their TRUST and DEPENDENCY.  Children believe, accept, and go along with just about anything others say.  Children rely 100% on others for all of their most basic needs for living.  Children are delightfully vulnerable, helpless, weak, and powerless which requires them to be trustworthy and dependent.  How do we regain such childlikeness?  What does it mean to become like a child? 

Becoming like a child means abandoning our desire to become GREAT (Mt. 18:1) – Jesus introduces a child into an awkward conversation where His disciples are selfishly wanting to know who was “greatest” in the Kingdom.  Although children are selfish and want what they want when they want it, they are not “sophisticated” enough to strive for personal honor, recognition, or greatness.  Children do things and relate with others simply for the personal satisfaction and fulfilment that they experience, not what they can get out of it.  John Piper has a popular quote that says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”.  Simply put, Kingdom people are satisfied.  Our need to feel important or significant has been filled.  No more striving.  No more ambition.  No more competition.  When our attitudes are like children before God, our satisfaction comes completely from Christ and we will be able to relate with Him in complete trust and dependence.

Becoming like a child means HUMBLING ourselves (Mt. 18:4) – Childlike trust and dependency on another are not attributes that most people are striving for.  We have “moved on” and “matured” to self-sufficiency and independence.  Childlikeness would be a step backward or back down the ladder in life.  That’s why being childlike requires humility in order to obtain it.  Jesus is not upholding humility itself as a characteristic of being a child.  Instead, He is saying that Kingdom people are humbly willing to revert back to the trust and dependence on God that a child exhibits by nature.  Rather than elevate ourselves, we must be willing to lower ourselves to a place of trust and dependence.   Childlikeness is a humble choice to no longer live a life of self-sufficiency and independence.

CONCLUSION

The book of 1 John refers to believers in Christ as “children” or “little children” 14 different times in 5 chapters.  By using this word John is reminding believers that Kingdom people are those who trust and depend on God.  Whether avoiding sin (1 John 2:1), abiding in Him (1 John 2:28), avoiding being deceived (1 John 3:7), loving others in deed and truth (1 John 3:17), or keeping ourselves from idols (1 John 5:21), we need to maintain a constant attitude of trust and dependence on our Father.  Children of the Kingdom do the darndest things and our first steps back to childhood are satisfaction in God and humility.