Encouraging the Young in Christ - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2025

They brought little children to Him, that He might touch them.
Mark 10:13

Encouraging the Young in Christ
What a mercy and privilege it is for the newly converted soul to find himself in the house of God, sheltered and cared for. The Thessalonian converts were babes in Christ. Paul wrote to them, "We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children" (1 Th. 2:7). And Peter says, "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby" (1 Pet. 2:2).

It has been stated by some that we have no right to care specially for the young Christian—that we should care for all alike. But did not the Lord say to Peter, "Feed My lambs"? And did not Paul recognize the state of the Corinthian assembly and say, "I fed you with milk and not with solid food" (1 Cor. 3:2)?—that is, he ministered to them "the first principles of the oracles of God" (Heb. 5:12). The babes of the Corinthian epistle were still babes because they were carnal; the babes of the Hebrew epistle were of stunted growth; the babes of Peter's epistle were normal, healthy babes, ready to take the milk of the Word.

But whether the young Christian is normal and healthy, or the older Christian is of stunted growth and has not grown for lack of earnestness and devotedness—or perhaps because of carnality, living for self and the world—there is great need for the babe in Christ to be patiently cared for, nurtured in the things of the Lord.

Often in the nursery an older child will assume care of a younger child. So in the things of the Lord it is happy when a Christian cares for one a little younger in grace and advancement than himself, and when the whole atmosphere of the assembly is one of kindly care for the young. Oh, that we had the spirit of Paul, who acted as a nursing mother in his day! May this appeal stimulate saints of God to this godly care. The young need encouragement and help as never before.

A. J. Pollock