Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Love’s Way to Grow Up

Episode Date: June 10, 2026

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 12, 1996. Series: Love: The Way to Grow Up. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel and Life. 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most well-known chapters in the entire Bible because it is read at so many weddings. The passage is familiar to many people for how it describes love as patient and kind, and that it keeps no record of wrongs. But these verses are not meant to be used as a checklist for good behavior. Today, Tim Keller looks at the deeper meaning of this passage and shows how it points us not to moral perfection, but to Christ and the transforming power of his love. First Corinthians 13, verses 1 to 13.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud.

It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease.

Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection is in a mirror,

then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully even as I am fully known. And now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. We've been looking at this for a number of weeks, and one thing should be clear by now. And if you are a guest today, I'll summarize it. when the Corinthians, when the Corinthian church got this letter, they did not hear this passage, this chapter read. It would have been read publicly, you know. So it was a letter to a church. It would have been read. And when they got to this chapter, guarantee the Corinthians did not say, how inspiring. Let's put it on our wall at home, George. Let's put it in the children's literature books. Let's read it on special occasions. No.

No. The Corinthians, when they got to this chapter, they said, how dare he? Because Paul, in verses one to three, is making a list of the way the Corinthian church was. The Corinthian church was a brilliant church, a talented church. Miracles were happening. Revelations were happening. The church was growing. There was tremendous insight. The people were brilliant. They were wise. They were good speakers. They were great teachers and they were and God was working through them they saw spiritual miracles happening and in verses one to three Paul lays the first bomb and says you know what it's possible to have all that to even do miracles and not be a Christian at all because he says you can be nothing and do miracles and that's the first bomb and then in verses four to seven he gives a second bomb he gives us a picture of all the things

that love is but if we go and we've been looking at this that actually these these words are taken from other places in the book of 1st Corinthians, Paul is giving the Corinthians a picture of all the things they are not. And he gives them a picture of love that's so incredibly lofty that it just humbles us and drives us to God for his grace. But in this last paragraph, we have, I guess, I would say, the third bomb, the third very, very strong rebuke. Because when Paul says in 1st Corinthians, verse 1311, He says, when I was a child, I thought like a child, I spoke as a child, I thought like a child, and I reasoned as a child.

But when I became a man, I put away childish things, and he's calling them babies. See, this is a theme. If you read the whole book of First Corinthians, you realize this is a very important theme. Because the Corinthians, though they were a gifted church and the church was filled with great gifts and talents and miracles, it was a church in which there was fighting and jealousy. and spats and division. And you see, and Paul says in chapter three of 1st Corinthians, he says this, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly, mere infants in Christ.

I gave you milk, not solid food, because you were not ready. Indeed, you are still not ready, since there is jealousy and quarreling among you. Jealousy and quarreling proves, he says, that no matter how brilliant you seem to be, You are spiritual infants. You are utter drooling babies. And then in chapter 14, which is after this chapter, later on he says, So stop thinking like children in regard to evil be babes, but in understanding, be adults. So what Paul is actually doing in 1st Corinthians 13 is he is saying,

babies are rude, babies are impatient, babies keep a record of wrong, babies are self-seeking, babies are proud, babies are always fighting. You're a bunch of babies. Now, that's the reason, you know, why this whole chapter is a terrible rebuke. But when Paul calls them babes, when Paul says, get rid of the childish, he's not just rebuking, he's also instructing. It's tremendously instructive for us to understand what Paul is saying here. If you understand this, if we think of this, if we understand the metaphor, the model of Christianity, which is,

that we start as little children spiritually, and we have to grow up into love, then we will not have a mechanical view of the Christian life. We won't have a view that says, oh, sure, to be loving means I just work harder at it. Oh, no. Paul says two or three times, he says, what makes you a child has to do, as we're going to see in a minute, with your thinking, your consciousness. See? He says in chapter 1420, he says, when it comes to evil, I want you to be.

babies, but when it comes to thinking, I want you to be adult. Love actually is a very organic thing that grows out of an altered state of consciousness that Christianity brings. And therefore, it's not just a rebuke, though, frankly, as we go through here, I think we're going to be rebuked, we're going to feel rebuked. We're going to say, yes, there's a tremendous amount of childishness and all of us, spiritual childishness. But it's also very instructive. See what this metaphor teaches. See what Paul is teaching us. He's teaching us that we must grow up and what ways in which we must grow up and then how to actually grow up. He's teaching us that we have to and then he tells us ways in which we have to how we are childish. And then lastly, he gives us some very important clues for how we actually

become spiritually mature. Let's look at the first point. The first point which we are taught by this verse is so obvious in a way that if we don't stop and reflect on it, we'll miss it. When Paul says, when I was a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child, I spoke as a child, but when I grew up, I put away childish things. What Paul, and by telling them that they're spiritual babes, he's teaching us something very important, and that is that all people in the spiritual realm start out as drooling infants. Paul doesn't say, I used to be a child. How awful!

Why did I ever let that happen? He doesn't say that. everybody has to start out as a child in the biological psychological realm you know our biological world we all have to start out as children if we're going to be adults there's nothing wrong with being a child the pathology comes if you stay a child of course you're going to start off as immature but the pathology comes if you stay immature and so what paul is actually saying here is in the spiritual realm the problem with these corinthians is so they start out as children and you have to start out as children they stayed children but you mustn't overlook

the most important point, and the first most basic point, I guess, is that all of us, when you become Christians, you start out as drooling babes. We all are babes to start with. And this shows us, Christianity is not like joining a club. You join a club, and now you have new rules, and you have a bunch of meetings. To become a Christian is to be born into a new realm. That's the reason why Jesus and every writer of the New Testament says, when you become a Christian, it is such a radical change. The only way we can even come to grips with discussing this change is to call it a new birth. John calls it a new birth. Peter calls it a new birth. James calls it. Everybody, Jesus, says becoming a Christian is being born again. And of course it's a metaphor, but what it's talking about

is to become a Christian is not just to pick up a new code of ethics, to join a club, become a Christian is you're born into a whole new realm. You get a new nature, and you're born into a whole new dimension of life. But here's the point. When you start off in regular life, you start off as an infant. And that means that whether you have a PhD or three PhDs, whether you have an IQ of 200, whether you're a world leader, whether you're at the top of your profession, whether you're extremely advanced in your regular life, when you become a Christian, you start off as an absolute infant. If you become a Christian when you're 80 years old, you're a baby. If you become a Christian and you're a world leader, you're a baby. If you don't see this,

the Corinthians didn't see this. There's tremendous trouble in store. See, the trouble with the Corinthians, we mentioned this a few weeks ago. Corinth was a major cosmopolitan city. The people in Corinth were much like the people in New York. Let me draw the parallel here. The people who lived in the center of Corinth tended to be talented people, people who had made it, people who were very successful. People who, in a sense, were very advanced and mature in their chosen field. They worked hard to get the degree they got. They worked hard to get to the place in life or business or, you know, in society that they got. They worked very hard. And when they became Christians, they said, well, of course, I'm an advanced person. I should be teaching. I should be doing this.

I should be doing that. They just felt like, well, I'm an advanced person in this life. And they just moves right on over and Paul says you've got to see that no matter who you are, no matter how advanced you are in one life, when you become a Christian, you're starting at the bottom. That's how you had to start in the last life. You had to start at the bottom. You were a drooling little idiot. And when you start out as a spiritual babe, you're the same way. And you have to see that. He says, I was a child and now I've become an adult. And it's the same thing as true spiritually. You start as children. Now, before I move on to the other points, this is very important to see. This teaches us that we all start out of as babies, and let me apply this in just two ways quickly,

in a place like New York, here's what we're going to have a problem with. In your old life, in the regular world, you may have gotten to a certain place in life. And you know, you've worked very hard to get to that certain level. Suddenly you become a Christian, you come into the church, and you look around, and the first thing you're going to see are people who seem to be. be beneath you. They're not as slick as you. They're not as sophisticated as you. They're not as well off as you, maybe. They're not as smart as you. And you say, well, they have nothing to teach me. You're a baby. And you have to stop looking at people in terms of their dress size or their

address size. And you have to start to say, not looking at verse one to three and saying, well, where are they in terms of gift and talents? But you have to start looking at verses four to seven. and say, I'm looking, because I'm a little baby, I am looking for people who are more mature than me. I need to be changed. I need to be fed. I need to be nurtured. And I need to see people who are more advanced in love, in patience,

people who are better at rejecting evil and rejoicing in the truth. And you're going to find very unsolic people, very unsophisticated people, people that don't seem at your level, who are deeply spiritual. virtually mature. And you need them to change your diapers. You need them to help you, that you need them to feed you.

That is very difficult. The Corinthians couldn't do it. The Corinthians figured that since they were advanced in one level, they were going to be advanced as soon as they came into Christianity. They weren't. Nobody is. Nobody is. You've got to change your whole way of thinking.

One more little application. You've got to be patient. A lot of you have worked very... Look how hard it has. has been, look how many years it's been to get to where you are. Do you think when you turn around into Christianity and you're going to get it fast? A lot of you are very upset because the changes don't come quickly. You don't get over all your problems quickly. You don't understand everything quickly. But my friends, in the regular life, it takes time. Growth is a

process. It's not a Mother's Day sermon. Let me give you a Mother's Day illustration, all right? mothers. If you're a good mother, it's taking you a long time to get to where you are. If you try to become a mother too soon, you've got what the newspaper is called babies having babies. And it's a disaster. Do you think you're going to become a mother in Israel? In a year?

You know? Year olds don't have children. They can't. 13-year-olds shouldn't have children. You see? So be patient. Okay. So the first thing we learn here is we have to be.

to grow up. We have to change our whole model of thinking. Secondly, Paul also tells us here ways in which we have to grow up, and he characterizes childishness, and probably the best way I could help you here is to try to not tell you everything the Bible says about what it means to be spiritually immature. Because, you know, in Peter, in John, in James, there's a number of places where the Bible says, stop being spiritual babies and grow up. Grow up. Get off the milk, get onto the meat. And there's a lot of ways. If this was a topical sermon on what it meant to be a spiritual baby, there'd be a long list.

But I think what Paul's getting at is this. Here's the essence of it. Babies have short attention spans. Babies, therefore, love the spectacular. Babies love the miracles. They love the big stuff. They love the noisy and the quick. But love is really a matter of the quiet and the lengthy.

give me a moment here when Kathy and I first took our kids our oldest child when he was about three or something we wanted to go see a movie and we were really afraid with friends if I remember correctly and they had a three year old as well and we were a little nervous about going to the movie theater with three year olds because of course if your three year old doesn't

focus on the movie everybody around you of course will be very mad at you if the shoe fits where is it wear it you know if your children are just crawling all around this, and you're just not paying attention. It's very difficult with other people. So we were a little nervous, but no fear, because if I remember correctly, the first place we took our kids was Star Wars, right? We took a kid to Star Wars. Well, no problem.

These two, three-year-olds just stood there like this. Why? Because what was on the screen? Power. Power! Action, action, action, you know? No character development. Power, special effects, explosions, verses one to three. Okay. What if we'd taken our three-year-olds to see sense and sensibility? What if we'd shown them love? What if we'd shown them redemption? You know, I said a few weeks ago or a couple months ago,

if you go to sense and sensibility and you get to the end and you don't cry, you might be emotionally disturbed. You might be emotionally ill if you don't cry at the end of sense sensibility. But you know what? You know, bring your eight-year-old, bring your six-year-old. bring your six-year-old, bring your 10-year-old. In fact, we try to bring your 12-year-old. They don't cry.

They want to see, where's the car crashes? Where's the explosions? Action, action, action. Now, any developmental psychologist will tell you, the kids will focus on action, they will focus on the superficial, they will focus on the power. Don't show them a relationship developing,

like in real life. Don't give them a movie like that. They'll lose all... They'll either fall asleep on you, which is the best possible situation, or else they'll just be crawling all over seats. Now, this is exactly what Paul is saying, and there is an absolutely perfect analogy in the spiritual realm. Marriage is one of the most significant human relationships there is, but is also one of

the most difficult and misunderstood. In the meaning of marriage, Tim and Kathy Keller offer biblical wisdom and insight that will help you understand God's vision for marriage. Whether you're single, considering marriage, or have been married for a long time, the meaning of marriage will help you face the complexities of commitment with the wisdom of God. The meaning of marriage is our thank you for your gift this month to help Gospel in Life share the love of Christ with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give.

We also want to highlight another great marriage-related resource from Gospel and Life, a podcast called Cultivating a Healthy Marriage. It features one of Dr. Keller's most popular sermon series during his time at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. No matter your relationship status, this series will give you new ways to apply God's wisdom about marriage to your life. You can listen to this series wherever you listen to podcasts. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. Look, you know who spiritual babies are? First of all, let me apply to two levels. There's many of you who thought that if I got power, if I got success, if I got romance, if I got romance,

actually. If I got to a certain level of beauty or a certain level of control or a certain level of success, if I got power, action, if I got all that, I'd be happy. But you know what? If you get all that and you don't have love, you find out that life is not really about power. It's not really about influence. It's not really about those things. Because you can have all those things and if you don't have love, your life falls apart. But if you have love and you don't have all those things, you can make it just fine. And it's only a spiritual infant, an absolute infant in the spiritual realm that doesn't see that. And yet every human being that I know virtually, including myself, has started out in life that way. You don't think it's love. You don't think it's relationships.

you think it's action, it's power, you see? It's the noisy and the quick that gets the infant's attention, not the quiet and the lengthy, not the nuanced. It's power, not love. Well, you know, the Corinthian, well, first of all, let me apply at this first level. If you are somebody who is here and you're seeking, you're starting to realize maybe that maybe I need something spiritual, maybe there's something wrong in my life because I've been trying all these other things

and I've gotten a lot of the other things, and there's still something missing. Well, what's happening? You're starting to grow up. And if you haven't seen that yet, if you say, I'm not religious, I don't need that, I'm in control, I know what I could do. If you're in college or in school and you say, well, you know, some people need religion, but I believe I can get on top of life. I can get what I want. I can get what I need. I can get to the place in life where I want to go.

You're still an absolute baby. You need to grow up. But frankly, you can become a Christian, and you can get into the Christian church, and you can still have this same attitude. There are plenty of Christians around who, when they get into Christianity, like the Corinthian Christians, everything has to be dramatic.

Everything has to be fast. For example, when you hear them talk, the only testimonies they get excited about are testimonies in which there's quick answers to very difficult problems. I accepted the Lord, and all of my addictions went away the next day. Or when you hear them talk about guidance,

you say, I was praying, oh Lord, I was just looking for an answer. and suddenly a thought came to me, and I tried it, and it was the right thing. And instead of, you see, saying, Lord God, I need to become a wise person, and it's going to take time. See, a baby wants everything to be dramatic, and is always talking about your Christianity in terms of dramatic incidents and power, and you're always excited about miracles. But, you know, everybody finds out, eventually who matures, that love, though it may start out noisy and quick, always is a matter of being quiet and lengthy.

I mean, a good marriage, you'll find 10 years later, you might have had this incredible, passionate beginning to your marriage. It might have been noisy and quick, but if you're going to have a good marriage, you're going to find that a good marriage is built on the lengthy, the mundane, quietly, keeping to your vows. And if you do that, 10 years later, you will find that your love is 100 times better than it was at that noisy, spectacular beginning. And if you're not willing to pay that price, you're a spiritual baby, and you'll think it's all been downhill since the honeymoon. That's the way love is.

Love is the quiet and the lengthy, not the noisy and the spectacular. And until you see that, you're a spiritual babe. And you can be that way outside of Christianity, but you can be that way inside Christianity. That's what childishness is. Short attention span. With God and with other people. Before I get to the last point, let me just point this out. One of my favorite hymns, and every so often I quote it, and I'll do it again, is this old John Newton hymn, where it goes like this. John Newton says, I ask the Lord that I might grow in faith and love and every grace might more of his salvation know and seek more earnestly his face. Instead of this, he made me feel the hidden evils of my heart. And it says he assaulted my soul in every part. And then he says, I'm trying to.

to paraphrase here and be quick. He says, why is this? I trembling cried, wilt thou pursue me to the death? It is in this way the Lord replied, I answer prayers for grace and faith. Do you hear that? The way the hymn goes is this way. You pray, Lord, make me something great. And instead, God gives you a long, quiet, lengthy, mundane journey to take, to be faithful in little things, to be faithful in the long run. And, and you know, and And only if you take that course, only if you're mature enough to see that that's the way to go, do you become a person of love and greatness. But if you're a child, you immediately say, why isn't things, why aren't things happening the right way?

Why isn't God immediately answering my prayer? Why isn't God immediately changing me? Noisy and quick. And Paul says, grow up. Grow up. And when you meet a person and you find that they're not very interesting right off the bat, They don't interest you. Do you lose attention?

Do you have a short attention to spend with people? When you first meet them, they don't have anything for you. They don't attract you. Spiritually, you're absolute children. You need to spend time with people. You need to get to know them. You need to be patient with people. Children are impatient.

Love is patient. Children do not put up with love endures. You see? Love, in verse 4 to 7, is maturity. Okay, last of all. Now we see how we're supposed to grow up. Get over this noisy, get over the spectacular, a long obedience in the same direction.

Quiet, patient. See, an adult keeps, you keep your attention because you're not so self-absorbed. The reason a child has a short attention span is this. The child is sure that if I'm not interested in it, if it doesn't immediately gratify me, if it's not something immediately scratches where I itch, it can't be important.

This person isn't. doesn't interest me, that can't be important. If God is not telling me what I want to hear, I guess that God has done something wrong. A child is so self-absorbed, a child doesn't stick with things. We have to grow up. Well, now, how can we grow up? And the last thing is, I think Paul gives us a pretty amazing clue on how to grow up. When he says, when I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child. Now here's the main thing, but I'll put it two ways. There's a certain kind of immaturity that comes when an eight-year-old tries to act like an 18-year-old.

And there's also a certain kind of immaturity that happens when an 18-year-old acts like an 8-year-old. First of all, when an 8-year-old acts like an 18-year-old, what's really happening is your childishness is aggravated if you don't acknowledge your childness. Do you hear that? The more childish a child is, the less the child is willing to admit he or she's a child. If a child tries to do things that they're just not capable of and says, sure, I can drive the car. I mean, why do you have to be six? I'm eight years old. I can drive the car.

It's easy. That's a more childish child than a child that says, I'm eight years old. I don't know. How do I know? Now, let me be real blunt. if you are eaten up with worry and anxiety as opposed to the peace and serenity of maturity, if you're eating up with anxiety, or if you're always angry because your life's not going right, you know what's going on? You're being childish because you won't admit you're a child.

There's nothing more relaxing than saying, I don't know. Things aren't going the way I want them to go, but I'm a child. I guess the Lord knows I certainly don't know. It is so relaxing to admit you're a child, the minute you begin to admit you're a child and not act like you're not a child, you begin to grow up. An eight-year-old who admits he's an eight-year-old is far more grown up than an eight-year-old who thinks he's an 18-year-old. And one of the first things you've got to do is you've got to recognize that I do think like a child. And if you do think like a child, way do you see how much more serene your life will become, how much more mature you will become. it's so extremely important. Not Mother Teresa, St. Teresa of Avila some years ago put it this way.

She says, from heaven, the worst life on earth will look like one night in a bad hotel. Did you hear that? She says, from heaven, the worst life on earth will look like one night in a bad hotel. And what's she saying? She's reminding herself that she's a child. She says, well, you know, right now things look for. pretty bad, but what the heck? I'm a child. From where I look, my life looks terrible, but I know this, that when I'm grown up, when I'm in heaven, when I'm seeing things the way God sees them,

this won't look bad at all. From the point of view of heaven, nothing here on earth, heaven will make amends for all one second, one kiss from the hymn, will completely overwhelm all the pain I've ever gone through. What's she doing? She's remembering that she's a child. She's saying, when I become an adult, there's no better way. to become an adult spiritually than to admit you're a child. Are you? Do you admit that you speak as a child to some degree, that you think as a child, that you reason as a child? To some degree, you have to admit that. But Paul says, secondly, you have to put away childish reasoning. And the other kind of immaturity is where an 18-year-old acts like an 8-year-old.

And what Paul is doing here, I think, is very, very important. Paul is saying you're still thinking like children, and both in chapter 14, verse, 20 in other places, he is saying that what makes a child a child is a lack of thinking. Now, he uses the word reasoning, and it's the word elogizdemi, which is a word that actually means to logic out, to reason out, to think out, to reckon. Paul uses this word at a place in 2 Corinthians where he says, I reckon, I think out, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed. Now, what's he doing? He says, if I just react to my suffering, I will be overthrown. But if I reason, if I think out, I reckon, I say, just like

St. Teresa. It says, I'm thinking out. And what is an immature person? A person that reacts instead of thinks. A Christian is somebody who takes what you already know, the gospel, and you reason it out. Somebody comes and criticizes you. What do you say? You can just react, or what you can do is you can say, the gospel tells me I'm a sinner. Therefore, I shouldn't be proud. The gospel also tells me that I am utterly loved through Jesus,

and therefore, I've got nothing to prove. Now, what are you doing when you do that? You're thinking it out. Children just react. They really don't reason well. They do not elogisdomai very well at all. Paul says, I put away the old way, I put away the childish way of reasoning,

and now I'm thinking like an adult. I think it out. And therefore, that's how you get out of it too. You've got to think it out. You've got to say, for example, when you're being abused, when you're being hurt, when it's difficult for you to forgive, you have to take the gospel and you have to think it out. Children just react. The Corinthians weren't using what they knew. They knew the gospel. They weren't using it. That's what you have to do, too. So maybe in the end, maybe in the end, this is what, this is the way to escape the short attention span. This is the way to escape the self-absorption. This is the way to escape the complaining, griping life. This is what, oops, I didn't get the right quote. This is what C.S. Lewis says in his famous sermon, Weight of Glory.

He says, our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. we're half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us we're like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he can't imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday by the sea we are far too easily pleased it's childish to look at your mud pies sex drink and ambition when you know what's offered to you a child thinks out A child remembers that he's a child, remembers that she's a child. Most of all, you look at Jesus. You look at him on the cross, and you see him staying, staying put.

You talk about a long obedience, you talk about love that's lengthy and quiet. He was the lamb that before the slaughter, he was quiet. He never said anything. And when he was on the cross, he stayed how long? when the father poured out his wrath on the sun, time stopped for Jesus, which means as far as I can see. You know how the more pain you're in, the longer it takes,

the clock seems to get so slow when you're in pain. If you're sitting and you're in pain, if you're holding your breath, which of course is painful, you watch the clock a minute, it's a very, very long time. When Jesus experienced the wrath of God, time stopped. As far as he was concerned, he loved you forever so that you could be patient, so that you could have a long attention span,

so that you could grow up. Think it out. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, a reason as a child, but I abolished now the childish ways. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that you would grant to us only that we would understand that we are children and we have to grow up and we have to eschew the noisy and the quick, and we have to realize what love really is. It's the quiet and the lengthy. We pray that by looking at our Savior, loving us forever, and thinking that out and remembering that we are children, and yet at the same time moving away from our childishness, that we can grow up into the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ.

We thank you that He is. is the picture of maturity, that he's the picture of love, that he's the one who endured all things. So help us to think and not react so that we can be like him, and we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel and Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the Gospel-Centure teaching and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps connect people all all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love.

To learn more, just visit gospelinlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospelinlife.com slash partner. Today's sermon was recorded in 1996. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.