PLAYING IN THE DIRT
If you see a baby playing in the dirt, the baby may be dirty but you pretty much don’t make a big deal about it because it’s understood that babies play in dirt. Babies try to eat dirt. Babies scrub themselves in dirt. Dirt is a toy to a baby. But if you see a twenty-one-year-old man playing in the dirt, rubbing himself with the dirt, or trying to eat the dirt, you know (there’s trouble). The only difference between the two is time. By twenty-one, that man ought to know that dirt is not a toy.
Someone has said that: we have too many Christians who have been saved too long that are still playing in the dirt. They play in the dirt and they have fun in the dirt. You can’t come and listen to the Word of God every week and not realize that the dirt is not where you are supposed to be.
[Spiritual Maturity, Lack of, 1 Cor. 3:3; 13:11 Evans, T. (2009). Tony Evans’ book of illustrations: Stories, quotes, and anecdotes from more than 30 years of preaching and public speaking (304). Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers. From a sermon by Matthew Kratz, Hope that Stands in the Storm, 9/16/2011]