Coming of age

When do you become an adult? At what point have we had enough training? Some cultures measure the attainment of adulthood by a certain age or ability, while others focus on the accumulation of knowledge. For centuries, many cultures around the world have allowed teenagers to engage in painful traditional rituals to attain ‘the right of passage’ into adulthood and independence.

In the Amazon, twelve-year-old boys are required to wear ceremonial gloves filled with stinging bullet ants for ten minutes! Each ant packs a bite that causes pain which is thirty times more agonising than the sting of a common wasp! Other countries insist on far more gruesome rituals which inflict severe pain on the bodies of adolescents who are seeking to be treated as adults. In Westernised countries, our secular culture attributes worth to milestones such as reaching voting age, being able to legally drive, moving out of home, earning money, and the like.

But I wonder how many people consider Christian maturity and development as a measure of adulthood. Any good youth worker will suggest that adulthood occurs when a young person is capable of making independent decisions and can be held accountable for those decisions. This is certainly a good start, but for the Christian young person this is not enough.

We are fortunate to have God’s word which is the greatest of all teachers, to help us form Christian character and become a disciple of Christ. A disciple means ‘one trained’ and he or she is the opposite of the ‘fool’ who is ‘right in his own eyes’ and won’t hear input or instruction from anyone else. Are we living foolishly? The Bible says that the one who rejects instruction does not reject man but God.
1 Thess 4:8. Here are some other wise words from Scripture which will challenge us in our youth and set a direction for us.

We are told that God calls us to be pure and to live a holy life, and we are warned that we cannot please Him if we are fulfilling our own lusts and desires. Rom 8:8. The word ‘holy’ refers to being separated or set apart to the righteous service of God and we are encouraged to present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.
Rom 12:1. If we are set apart to Christ, we are assured that we are new creations; the old habits and ways of living can and must go because Christ has made us new! 2 Cor 5:17. So we could agree with the youth workers who say that an adult must learn to be accountable for their decisions. But for the Christian adult, their accountability is to live a holy and acceptable life before God.

Is this a new way of thinking about adulthood and Christian maturity?

Perhaps we need to change our thinking patterns. This can be a hard one! Having a renewed mind means we must think on things that are of God. We need only fill our thoughts with whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praise worthy. Phil 4:8. These challenges are definitely not for the faint-hearted and clearly no one suddenly ‘arrives’ or graduates! Rather, we must all continue in the life-long Christian culture of being taught as a disciple of Christ!

Shem Barnes

Return to top

Feature Articles
July 2010

Making recovery

Where is He?

Resurrection on trial

Buy now, pray later

Set alight

Seven things that God hates

Women's work

Finding pillars

Coming of age