Growing Up
by Harold Vaughan
Scripture Reading --Luke 2:52
"And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man."
Jesus was both 100 percent God and 100 percent man. As a human, He grew in four ways: First, He matured in wisdom, which is intellectual growth. Second, He grew physically. Third, He grew in favor with God, which is spiritual development. Fourth, He grew in favor with man, which is social maturity. Living things grow, and the Lord Jesus provides an example or pattern for us. I understand this verse describes Jesus when He was only 12 years old. He was maturing intellectually, physically, spiritually, and socially.
We are young only once, but we can stay immature indefinitely! As we grow older, we must grow up. Maturity means we become responsible for our actions, attitudes, and behavior. Simply put, we do things without being told what to do. As we mature, we look for ways to assist and to help others. We gain favor with people by behaving maturely. Our lives become a blessing to those around us. Like Jesus, we grow in favor with men.
On the other hand, rebellion is a refusal to grow up. It is a revolt against maturity. We have little control over how tall we will become, but we have tremendous input in the areas of intellectual, social, and spiritual growth. We can model ourselves after Jesus, and He can empower us to mature early in life.
Our forefathers never heard the word teenager. When children turned 13, parents considered them young adults and expected them to behave like adults. The concept of adolescence came into existence around 1950. During that period, standards became relaxed, and expectations for young people were lowered. When young people misbehaved, parents commonly said, "Why don't you grow up?" That was another way of saying, "Stop acting like a baby and act your age."
Jesus was subject to His parents and was "about my [His] Father's business" (Luke 2:49b) early in life. We can be about our Father's business, too!
Consider: Read Luke 2:52 again and talk about the four areas of growth.
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