Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 14:20
Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Corinthian assembly mid-argument, having just preferred five intelligible words over ten thousand in a tongue (v. 19).
The words — παιδία (paidia, "children") and φρεσί (phresin, "minds") form the verse's hinge: the prohibition targets a mode of thinking, not a moral quality.
The thread — 1 Corinthians 13:11 pairs childlike thinking with its abandonment at maturity; Romans 16:19 repeats the same two-track formula ("wise in good, innocent in evil").
Why it lands — It commands a change in reasoning style, not a change in character, and the "innocent in evil" clause guards against maturity sliding into cunning.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
Cross-references
- 1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
- 1 Corinthians 13:11 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 set aside childish ways.
- Romans 16:19 Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil.
- Matthew 18:3 “Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
- 1 Corinthians 2:6 Among the mature, however, we speak a message of wisdom—but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
- Ephesians 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.
- 2 Peter 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
- Philippians 1:9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
- Mark 10:15 Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
- Psalms 119:99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.