When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
The apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians as a letter to the early Christian church in Corinth, a prosperous Greek city known for its cultural pride and internal conflicts. This verse sits in the middle of what is often called the "love chapter" — a passage where Paul argues that love surpasses every spiritual gift or achievement. Here, Paul uses the image of childhood versus adulthood to describe how we currently experience reality compared to the fullness still to come. "Childish ways" in this context is not about innocence or playfulness — it refers to the limited, self-focused thinking that comes with immaturity. Paul's point is that spiritual growth means shedding those patterns, just as a child grows into an adult and leaves behind certain ways of seeing and reasoning. It is a call to maturity and deeper love, not nostalgia.
God, thank you for not leaving me where I started. Show me where I am still clinging to childish patterns of thinking — about you, about myself, about others. Give me the courage to grow up into love, even when it is harder and less certain than the simpler faith I used to have. Amen.
Nobody can tell you the exact moment they stopped believing in Santa Claus — it just quietly fades. One Christmas you're certain, the next you're playing along. Something similar happens in faith. There's a version of Christianity that lives entirely in the territory of simple answers, tidy outcomes, and God-as-vending-machine. Paul looked at his own past — his own childlike reasoning — and named it honestly: I thought like a child. The transition he describes isn't a loss of innocence; it's the gaining of something deeper. Grown-up faith doesn't mean fewer questions. It means better ones. Where are you still reasoning like a child — about faith, or about life itself? It might show up as all-or-nothing thinking, as needing God to prove himself before you'll trust him, or as spiritual frustration when the world refuses to cooperate with your expectations. Maturity in Paul's sense isn't cynicism — it's love. The rest of 1 Corinthians 13 shows you what grown-up actually looks like: patient, kind, not easily angered, hopeful, enduring. Growing up means trading small certainties for a bigger love. That trade is always worth it.
What are the specific "childish ways" Paul is talking about in the context of 1 Corinthians 13 — and how are they connected to his larger argument about love?
What is one belief or expectation you held earlier in your faith — or in life — that you have had to revise or let go of as you have grown?
Is there a risk that putting childish ways behind you could also mean losing something genuinely good — like wonder, trust, or simple joy? How do you hold those two things in tension?
How does spiritual immaturity show up in the way you relate to people who disappoint you, disagree with you, or fail to meet your expectations?
What is one area where you know you have been reasoning immaturely — and what would a more mature, love-shaped response actually look like in practice this week?
For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Hebrews 5:13
Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.
Ecclesiastes 11:10
Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Galatians 4:1
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
AMP
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
ESV
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
NASB
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
NIV
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
NKJV
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
NLT
When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
MSG