What does Tribe teach about childish behavior?
Drawn from the message where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on childish behavior starts with a scene most people would not expect: Jesus quoting a playground taunt at the most educated religious leaders of his day. In Luke 7:24-35, Brian walked the congregation through Jesus comparing the Pharisees and teachers of religious law to children who refuse to play along no matter what song their friends sing. The point is sharp and simple. John came with strictness and fasting, and they said he had a demon. Jesus came eating and drinking, and they called him a glutton and a friend of sinners. No change in messenger or method was ever going to reach them, because the real problem was never the approach. As Brian put it, "It's not the tune you reject. It's the truth that you resist."
Brian pressed into the Greek behind the word 'rejected,' noting it also carries the quieter sense of treating something as casual, setting it aside, not taking it seriously. That matters because childish resistance to truth does not always look loud or dramatic. Sometimes it is simply never quite taking it seriously. The teaching landed on the closing verse of the passage, where wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it. Brian pointed out that the religious experts were clipping and trimming moments, cataloguing the guest list from outside the dinner rather than looking at the whole record. Wisdom requires seeing the full picture, not a curated edit.
The teaching also carried a weight of warning. Brian noted that a person can come to God with preconceived notions already in place, filtering everything through what they have already decided, and that posture is the root of the behavior Jesus is describing. The remedy he pointed toward was a different kind of coming: reverence, openness, the fear of the Lord. And the stakes of resisting that posture are serious. As Brian said, "A judgment far worse than God saying no is for God to say, okay, man. Okay. Go ahead."
Taught from Luke 7:24-35 · James (chapter not specified)
“It's not the tune you reject. It's the truth that you resist.”
From Childish Games
The passage taught · Luke 7:24-35
24 When John’s messengers had departed, he began to tell the multitudes about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
25 But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are gorgeously dressed, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts.
26 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet.
27 This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- September 29, 2025 Childish Games Jesus calls out religious leaders for moving the goalposts on God's messengers. A Jackson Hole congregation works through Luke 7 together, asking what childishness really costs.