No Limits (Friday Devotional)

“And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?”

- 1 Corinthians 3:1-3

Growing up, I never cared much for amusement parks. Some kids eagerly looked forward to birthday parties at Six Flags, but I dreaded them, always wishing my friend had chosen to celebrate his big day at the pool or the arcade—anywhere else, really. For me, a day at Six Flags was a day wasted in long lines under the hot sun.

It’s easy to pinpoint why I didn’t like amusement parks: I refused to ride the roller coasters. Staring up at those massive metal behemoths, watching the cars race along their tracks, imagining myself sailing out of one and plunging to my death if I didn’t tighten my seatbelt securely enough, I decided early on that I wanted no part of roller coasters, and no amount of peer pressure could convince me otherwise. If I was going to spend the day at Six Flags then I’d stand in line with my friends, I’d play the games on the midway, and I’d eat the overpriced food, but I drew the line at riding the roller coasters. And that that self-imposed limit held me back from enjoying everything amusement parks had to offer.

In the life of faith, sometimes there are similar limits you place upon your relationship with God, old habits and sins you are not willing to turn over to Christ. In the case of the Christians in Corinth, to whom Paul wrote the above verses, they remained trapped in a cycle of “jealousy and quarreling,” unwilling to put aside petty grudges in the name of Christian peace and unity. The result was that Paul could not talk to them as spiritual people—instead of offering them “solid food,” a vivid picture of life in Christ, he could only give them “milk,” something simpler and lesser. Because the Corinthians were unwilling to give themselves fully to Christ, unwilling to let go of their old prejudices and disagreements, they were unable to fully experience life in Christ.

When you place limits upon your sanctification, when you tell God he can’t touch a certain part of your life, you make the same mistake the Corinthians made, the same mistake I made as a child at Six Flags—you rob yourself of the joy available to you. Discipleship is not about improving the areas of your life where you’re ready to accept help, it’s about turning your whole self over to him and watching him transform you from a person of flesh into a child of God. To do any less is to deprive yourself of the fullness of joy in Christ.

So may you not hold anything back from God, may you refuse to place limits on your spiritual maturity. Where the flesh holds grudges, may Christ lead you to forgive. Where the flesh demands strict justice, may Christ lead you to mercy. Where the flesh clings to animosity, may Christ lead you to love. In short, may you remove the limitations that keep out the full, transformative gospel of Jesus Christ—and as you tear those walls down, may you be transformed by the light that shines through.