Sugar Candy

                                    Do you enjoy eating candy? How about as a child?

It is no amazing thing to take a child to a grocery store and have them stop and stare longingly toward the candy isle, hoping that there will be some great appropriation of the presented treats and that, in the end, they will have their hands and face coated in the surgery sweetness of some chocolate delight. Every parent who has ever taken their child shopping has probably heard the desperate plea of their offspring, hoping that somehow they can convince their mom or dad that their survival hinges with absolute certainty upon whether or not they get a piece of candy. Perhaps they go so far as to cry against their parents, claiming that mom or dad just does not love them because they would not get them a morsel of sugar.

Sugar candy is a child's delight. But good parenting knows that there must be a necessary limit on the sweet treat, and a greater emphasis on better nutrition that will grow and sustain their lives. And so it is in the Christian life.

Peter wrote in his letter, "Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation--if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good" (1 Peter 2:2-3). Anything other than that which will cause you to grow and mature in Christ is merely sugar candy.

But what is spiritual sugar candy?

Basically, anything that is drawn from your immature passions or desires, those things that feed your whims and not your soul, and those things, like candy, that do not provide any real spiritual nutrition but only a quick "sugar high" that ultimately leaves you longing for another "fix." It is possible to get addicted to sugar--and to use the illustration, it is possible to get a spiritual addiction to those hyped-up moments that give you the spiritual "buzz" but leave you without anything of real substance.

Jesus deals with this issue of the immature seeking the spiritual sugar candy in John chapter 6. If you have a Bible, take a moment and go and read the whole chapter as our Lord feeds the 5000 then challenges them against their selfish desires. 

Okay... hopefully you've returned. I want to highlight one particular verse--verse 26. "Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves."

Ultimately, what the people wanted was breakfast the next morning. They had ate their fill, and now, being hungry again, they wanted Jesus to do it all over. So Jesus told them that their only reason for coming was to have their superficial hunger satisfied. They were looking for "sugar candy." They had no desire for Christ Himself, despite the fact that He had just demonstrated His divine authority and power. 

But what are the modern versions of spiritual sugar candy? 

Again, as I stated above, anything that we crave that only satisfies our selfish delights, those things that fill up our whims and fancies. Let me put it another way...

Do you go to worship because it tantalizes your feelings or because it increases your knowledge and awareness of Christ? Do you read the Scriptures, seeking to find those morsels that presumably speak of your own personal aggrandizement and avoid those texts that teach of sacrificial submission to Christ? Do you look for Christian fellowship that will continually stroke your ego, boost your sense of worth and avoid those fellowships that will remind you of the holiness of Christ and  your call to live a selfless life?

If the answer is, "yes," then you are one who is seeking spiritual sugar candy.

It is time to repent of such childishness. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways" (1 Corinthians 13:11). There must come that time when we all put away our childish ways and grow up. 

What does maturity in Christ look like? It looks like one who continues striving toward the goal of Christlikeness: humility, faithfulness, holiness and love. Consider the words of Paul to the Philippians:

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. ~ Philippians 3:12-16

We all start off as immature. But do not let that be the place where you remain. Let us do as we are instructed by the Scriptures, "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1).

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