We accept only what is proper to preserve and promote harmony and unity and to keep all in obedience to God.

Life Stages⤒🔗

The life of each person follows a common pattern where one moves from childhood to being grown up. When you are grown up, you have, in a sense, reached your goal. Legally one reaches the stage of being grown up at age eighteen. Emotionally and spiritually, however, someone may show a grown up attitude earlier. Some show it later. Sad to say, some never show it at all.

One of the main differences between these two stages of life is that the childhood years are filled with many rules. For example, parents set rules about bedtimes and mealtimes, how much time can be spent on the computer, and what clothes to wear. With increase in age, parents will slowly begin to pull back some of the rules of child­hood to prepare their sons and daughters to stand on their own two feet. It can be an anxious time for parents as they loosen the parental reigns and see their children test the waters of freedom. There will be thankfulness when their children show that they have truly grown up and are liv­ing as sincere mature young Christians.

Church Life Stages←⤒🔗

We can also see this type of process in the life of the church. It is in keeping with the Scriptures to speak of the church as a body, as a community, even though it is made up of many members. We only need to think of how God established his covenant with Israel. The Psalms have frequent reference to the church in its collective sense as they refer to Jerusalem, Jacob, or Zion. In New Testament terms, we can think of the church described as the bride. The Lord Jesus came to save his people from their sins. The individual is contained within the community.

When we look at the relationship between the LORD and his people throughout history, we can say that there was a time of childhood and a time when the church reached the stage of being the grown up church. We can actually pinpoint the day that the church came of age and could be considered all grown up. That moment for the church was the day of Pentecost. From Pentecost onward, we can speak of the "Grown Up Church."

Evidence from Scripture←⤒🔗

That we can speak this way is evident in a number of passages. First of all, we can think of Peter's explanation of the dramatic event on the day of Pentecost. He said that this was the fulfillment of what was spoken by the prophet Joel.

In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.Acts 2:17, 18

This was a dramatic development. In the age of childhood, prophecy and visions had been limited to special servants of God. The way Peter explained it, we get the impression that the speaking in tongues was something done by all the believers gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pente­cost. The Spirit obviously now had come in a fuller meas­ure. By giving a fuller presence of the Spirit, it was clear that the church had come of age, it had grown up.

For a second example, we can think of Paul's words in Galatians 4. He wrote that in the time of childhood, children are under careful supervision. God's people Israel had lived as children for many centuries under the super­vision of the law as revealed through Moses. We read in Galatians 4:3, "So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world." He then explained that through Christ believers have received the full rights of sons. We read in verse 6, "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out 'Abba, Father. '"

The whole Old Testament period was the period of childhood for God's people. In keeping with the nature of childhood, the LORD had given many rules and regulations through Moses about sacrifices and ceremonies. What Israel had considered as a sign of maturity, that is, all the laws given through Moses, was actually a sign of im­maturity. All these were fulfilled in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of all the external rules needed in the phase of child­hood, the Lord Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to guide the church in all the truth. The Spirit would write the law upon their hearts.

Longing for Childhood←⤒🔗

When we look at the early New Testament church, we come across some examples where people went too far with the freedom that comes with being grown up. This is evi­dent in reading the first letter to the Corinthians. The bigger problem, however, was hesitation in living the grown up life. There was the thought that the Gentile Christians had to keep all the rules and regulations of childhood. This was the issue discussed in the meeting in Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 15. It is a major topic in many of Paul's letters (e.g. Romans, Galatians, and Colossians). At the end of Colos­sians 2 he wrote,

Such regulations indeed have an appear­ance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

All this should not be taken to mean that the grown up church did not have to bother with the moral law any­more. One only has to read Romans 6,8,12, Galatians 5-6, Ephesians 4-6, and Colossians 3-4 to realize the moral standards of the grown up church are just as high, if not higher. The point is that grown up behaviour is not a mat­ter external rules but of the work of the Spirit working in the heart. The grown up church is motivated by love.

Principles Rather than Many Rules←⤒🔗

When it comes to the way the church as a body con­ducts itself in terms of its worship and government, both strictly regulated in the age of childhood, the grown up church works more with principles rather than strict rules and regulations. We see this, for example, in the way Paul listed qualifications for elders and deacons but never strictly prescribed the task of elders, or how exactly the church should be governed. He warned about excesses and inappropriate behaviour in worship but he never precisely prescribed an order of worship.

All this is tied in with the way the Lord Jesus commis­sioned his disciples to make disciples of all nations. This task was not to be bogged down with childhood practices. All the laws of Moses had been a great burden for Israel. Missionaries could travel light and be very flexible. The gospel proved adjustable to many different cultural set­tings. Worship did not require extensive paraphernalia but could take place anywhere, in homes or at river sides. The two sacraments could use readily water, bread, and wine. Worship in the grown up church is simple as it is focused on the gospel of the risen Christ.

Reformation: Going back to being Grown Up←⤒🔗

If we look through history, we see that living the grown up life has proven quite challenging. By the age of the Reformation, the church had become burdened again with many rules and regulations pertaining to worship and life. It looked like the church had again put on all the clothes of childhood. We can see a rejection of this in Article 32 of the Belgic Confession where it states:

Although it is useful and good for those who govern the church to establish a certain order to maintain the body of the church, they must at all times watch that they do not deviate from what Christ, our only Mas­ter, has commanded. Therefore we reject all human inventions and laws, introduced into the worship of God which bind and compel the consciences in any way. We accept only what is proper to preserve and promote harmony and unity and to keep all in obedi­ence to God.

The renewed emphasis on being grown up and led by the Spirit also is evident in the Reformed Church Order. One of its remarkable features is its brevity. It does not seek to spell out every last detail but lays down the scriptur­al principles to guide the church in the many situations that will come up. This impresses on us that the grown up church is not a church without rules. God is a God of peace. The church should conduct its life in a fitting and orderly way (1 Corinthians 14:33; 40). The grown up church, how­ever, should not be overly regulated.

Staying Grown Up←⤒🔗

The pull towards childhood with its many rules and regulations remains strong. The grown up church still needs some rules but we do well to live by the words of Article 32,

We accept only what is proper to preserve and promote harmony and unity and to keep all in obedience to God.

That is in keeping with the presence of the Spirit. The challenge of being grown up is to apply unchanging principles to ever changing situations. It is interesting that the Church Order acknowledges this principle in its final article as it states that "these articles ... have been adopted with common accord." In other words, they are not absolutes, written in stone. It adds that "if the interest of the churches demand such, they may and ought to be changed, augmented, or dismissed." The same can be said for many rules adopted for local church life. An overly regulated church is prone to dead orthodoxy rather than being a living body.

The gift of the Spirit at Pentecost indicates that the New Testament church is the grown up church. It should act as a grown up. This means it does not need everything strictly written down as in the age of childhood because the Spirit has written the law upon the hearts to guide the church in the truth.