Teaching Toddlers

Its great fun to watch a toddler walk. They seem to be walking on an invisible deck of a ship as they sway one direction, then the other. They gleefully run as fast as their tottering legs can carry them and end up crashing into some piece of furniture.

In the spiritual world, we also have many toddlers. Often times these are new Christians who also gleefully use their new found faith and enjoy learning and finding out new things. The joy they have as they bounce from one place to another is always fun to watch and join in on.

But sometimes we have spiritual toddlers who are much older. Once they are far enough along that we expect them to be more spiritually discerning, but they are not, we get concerned. So often we assume it is their fault, (and often it may be) but sometimes the fault lies with their teachers. Us.

When you and I see a spiritual toddler who should not be, what do we do? What are we supposed to do? There are those who have been in church for years and don't understand the basic concepts of Christianity any better than the first day the were there. And then there are also those whose lives seem no different now then the day they sought repentance. What is our duty to teach these spiritual toddlers?

Before I get into that, there is an important note we need to make. God, the Holy Spirit, can and does convict people without our help. He convicts of both sin (what to stop doing) and righteousness (what we should do). Only He can change who we are, and who these toddlers are. But in order to understand many concepts we must first learn what they mean. This is where leadership from the Church, (not just the ministerial) becomes important. We are responsible to teach others His ways.

For some toddlers, this means teaching them the meaning of some more complex Theological concepts. Salvation Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification are concepts we should try to have all Christians understand. Take a look at Hebrews 5:12

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Paul laments the fact that some churches in his day were unable to understand these things. We too need to be teachers, ready to teach toddlers so they too can become teachers.

So are we all supposed to have a Theological degree? No, thats not the point. We are to understand what God has done for us so we may stand firm in Him, not in our own knowledge.

But sometimes we come across those who are spiritually weak. We sometimes mistake these for spiritual toddlers, but there are some important differences. Toddlers do not know better for they have not been taught, whereas the weak are those who, though they know many things, seem to stumble easily and often. Sometimes these spiritually weak brothers and sisters need to be reminded of simple concepts over and over. It is easy for those who are strong spiritually to wonder about the weak and even assume it is their own fault, but we cannot know that for sure. Jesus Himself says more is given to some than to others, and more will be required of those than of the weak. Those who are strong need to bear the burdens of those who are weak. This is one of the important duties of the spiritually strong in our midst.

Tragically, instead of carrying part of their burden as we aught, oft times the strong Christians will merely abandon the weak to fend for themselves. This is a great tragedy of our times, and most likely, of Christian-dom in general. We have a habit of assuming weak means unwilling, and we leave them beside the road. We need instead to help them, dress their wounds and carry them along as needed.

So what then? Do we make sure that these weak also have more Theological knowledge? Is that what they need? Should we just send them to Seminary or Bible College? No. In fact, it often seems that these spiritually weak brethren need us to refrain from confusing them. We need to avoid complex Theological concepts when we interact with them. Instead, we need to let them first gather strength in those elementary things BEFORE we bring them up to a higher level. Sadly, we often just feed them complex doctrine and they get so confused their state is only made worse. Paul says we are to abstain from things that bother the weak among us. In First Corinthians 8:11 Paul talks about this very thing:

 For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.

Conclusion

So how do we tell the difference? Well, sometimes we can't right away. But a few key differences are there. The spiritually weak may be long time Christians, truly sincere, but they struggle with concepts and doctrines. These people we need to give patience and mercy, walking with them as far as they are able, not assuming they want that condition, but also not assuming they will always be in that place. Toddlers are those who do not know because they are either to new to the concept or have not bothered. The truly young toddlers (spiritually speaking) are those who do indeed learn and make progress, they seem to often have the most energetic form of joy.

But those toddlers who seem to not care are those who have just not tried to walk yet. They seem indifferent. These are those that Paul is harsh with. Paul addresses them with strong words, yet when he speaks of the weak brothers spiritually he takes a different tone. May God give us the wisdom to lead and teach properly, whether they be toddlers or weak. May we learn to tell the difference and act accordingly.