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The apostolic counsel here given bears immediate relation to the exaggerated estimate of the value of the "gift of tongues" which prevailed in the Church at Corinth. "Their conduct in exalting these 'tongues,' against which he has been warning them, is a proof that they are yet children in knowledge. They ought to be full grown; the only thing in which they ought to be children is evil, and in that they cannot be too young, too inexperienced; they should be merely 'infants.'" There is a sense in which all Christians must be children. There is a sense in which all Christians must be "men," "perfect," "full grown." To express the thought of the apostle in a sharply defined sentence - "Be childlike, but not childish." Refer to Bible sentiments about children. It seems always impressed with the little idea of evil which young children have. Take a thousandfold forms of human sin and transgression, and you will find that the little child can form no conception of the meanings of the terms in which you express them. The young child is the type of simplicity and innocence. But, in this passage, the apostle is rather thinking of the friendliness of children, of their readiness to forgive; they seldom or ever are found "bearing malice." Illustrating the point that the Christian should be both a child and a man, we notice -

I. WHAT CHILD CHARACTERISTICS SHOULD WE FIND IN A CHRISTIAN? George Macdonald, in a Christmas sermon, given in 'Adela Cathcart,' very suggestively says, "It is as if God spoke to each of us according to our need: My son, my daughter, you are growing old and cunning; you must grow a child again, with my Son, this blessed birth time. You are growing old and selfish; you must become a child. You are growing old and careful; you must become a child. You are growing old and distrustful; you must become a child. You are growing old, and petty, and weak, and foolish; you must become a child - my child; like the baby there, that strong sunrise of faith and hope and love, lying in his mother's arms in the stable." The characteristics of child nature which ought to be found, nourished into the fulness of beauty, in Christian hearts and lives are such as these - each will prove suggestive of illustration

(1) receptivity;

(2) submissiveness;

(3) obedience;

(4) trustfulness;

(5) absence of self consciousness;

(6) hopefulness;

(7) simplicity;

(8) forgiveness. If these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:8).

II. WHAT MANLY CHARACTERISTICS SHOULD WE FIND IN A CHRISTIAN? A man differs from a child in this, that what he is he is by force of will, and not as a mere accident of his being. What in a child we properly call innocence, in a man we call virtue. The proper manly characteristics are such as

(1) self control;

(2) cultured intelligence;

(3) energy;

(4) prudence;

(5) charity;

(6) generous estimate of motives;

(7) self sacrifice.

It is true that the Christian estimate of the manly is not precisely that which the world favours. The world has ever chiefly extolled the active virtues, and associated the passive virtues almost exclusively with womanhood. But in the Lord Jesus Christ has been presented to us the perfect type of manhood: we can concieve or wish nothing higher or more sublime; and we find the passive and active virtues fully represented and harmoniously blended in him. The world's best thought of manhood and womanhood meet in him; and so woman and man can make him their ideal. Nothing can be sublimer for a life aim than to seek to be a child as Jesus was, and, at the same time, to be a man as noble as Jesus was. - R.T.

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KJV: Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

WEB: Brothers, don't be children in thoughts, yet in malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature.