Mature Thinking

1 Corinthians 14:20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

20 Ἀδελφοί, μὴ παιδία γίνεσθε ταῖς φρεσὶν ἀλλὰ τῇ κακίᾳ νηπιάζετε, ταῖς δὲ φρεσὶν τέλειοι γίνεσθε.

This will wrap up my writing on the sign gifts for now.  I find it fascinating that this is how Paul finishes up his discourse on them.  He goes on to talk about how it is more valuable to prophecy than to speak in tongues.  It has to do with the minds.  My sense is that tongues are an expression of the Spirit.  It is not something that we do consciously.  I have never experienced it firsthand, but that's the sense I get from Scripture and from the stories I've heard.

Paul tells us that it is all well and good to speak in tongues.  After all, he did it more than anyone else.  Yet he thought it was more valuable to speak rationally.  What I see here is that we are to be mature in our thinking.  It's easy to seek after ecstatic experiences.  The worship team at my church can work you into a frenzy if you are open to it since the music is quite good.  That's fine, but ultimately we need to φρεσὶν τέλειοι γίνεσθε.  There is that word τέλειοι again.  We need to become "complete, perfect" in our thinking. 

How do we do that?  The best way is by spending time in God's Word and learning about it.  That will help us to grow in the manner Paul commands.  Certainly the practice of the Christian faith is more than learning.  But that is still a big part of it.  Let's be sure to grow in godliness by applying what we learn in Psalm 119, amen?