Becoming Spiritually Mature: Part One

Chapter Twenty-five:

In the last teaching series, we looked at why it's so important for a believer to renew their mind.  The scripture that was key for that subject was Romans 12:2, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." 

 By now you should have learned the basic, elementary principles of Christianity. Hebrews 6:1 tells us,  "Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity." The word in Greek for maturity here is teleiotes. It comes from the Greek word ''telos'' which means: to make perfect, to carry through completely, finish, bring to an end, to accomplish. Paul is saying let us progress beyond the basics and start living what we claim to know. The only way to perfect your relationship with God and improve your walk in holiness is to do it by faith and obedience to His word. James 1:22 challenges us: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." True spiritual maturity is growth in one's spirit, not simply increasing what you know, intellectually, in your head.

Unfortunately, many people who are chronological adults (that is, the age of an adult) are still spiritual children.  They may have had many birthdays but their behavior shows that they still act like children. The Apostle Paul talked about his own growth in First Corinthians 13:11 when he said, "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 put the ways of childhood behind me."  He knew the necessity of giving up childish, immature ways.

The New Testament uses the Greek word katargeo.  It means "to put away, to render inoperative, inactive, or powerless; to remove the meaning and significance from; to cause a person to be free from something that has been binding him."  Putting katargeo in practice in one's life takes effort if we want to mature and grow up in the Lord.  It isn't something that will just happen on its own. Ephesians 4:15 tells us we need to, "grow up in every way into Christ."

Have you ever heard of the term  "carnal" Christians?  This refers to Christians who, despite being redeemed and forgiven of their sins by Christ's death on the cross, willingly continue to allow their flesh to dominate their lives.  These people continue to live a worldly life.  Some signs of being a carnal Christian are continuing to overlook specific sin in your life, rationalizing it because deep down you either don't really want to stop doing it or you don't see how it's negatively affecting your life. Carnal Christians are unfamiliar with what the Word says and are therefore uncomfortable with being presented a new truth from God's Word that should actually have a challenging and positive influence on their lives.  Instead they remain content in their ignorance and are unwittingly hindered by Satan through their stubbornness to move out of their fleshly comfort zone.   If you continue to be a carnal Christian, you will always be a baby Christian.

This is what Paul was referring to in First Corinthians 3: 1-3 when he said, "Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.  You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?". The apostle Paul, in  Hebrews 5:12 says, "In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!"  It is obvious that there were many believers who were not progressing and growing in the faith as they should have been.

Unfortunately, some Christians have already made up their minds about what they believe and how they want to live.  It's sad to say, but there's a lot of Christians who don't want to bother studying the Scriptures in order to become mature nor do they really want to be open to God working in their lives.  They are content spending their time pursuing other things that they enjoy, and are quite happy to just listen to their pastor on Sunday morning and then go about their way, doing what they want.

Scripture gives us some signs of what a spiritually immature believer looks like. They are Christians who have not advanced in the teachings of the Word of God.  They are still focused on the simple and easy truths, seeing Him as a God of love but don't see Him as a God of judgment who will one day hold every person accountable.  They resist any type of unsettling preaching or teaching, and don't like to think of God as anything other than loving.  This attitude gives them license to sin as they view God as winking at their behavior and not taking it seriously.

They also have yet to stop associating with those that are bad for their Christian walk.  They have fooled themselves into believing that they are helping their worldly friends and need to stay around them, not realizing, as it says in First Corinthians 15:33, "Do not be misled, bad company corrupts good character." They continue to listen to their worldly friends' suggestions and advice, and don't pay any attention to Psalm 37: 30 - 31 which says, "The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom, and their tongues speak what is just. The law of their God is in their hearts; their feet do not slip.". Immature believers go to the wrong people for help when in difficulty, knowing that godly people will point out the ways that they are not living as they should and will challenge them to change how they're living.

When difficulties arise they react as children would: unsteady, easily offended, easily influenced by others and tossed around, unstable, easily led astray and exhibiting poor judgment.  Ephesians 4:14 refers to it this way, " Then we will... be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves...",  instead of being strong and stable in one's convictions and beliefs.  Ephesians 4:14 goes on to say, "...and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming". Their spiritual ignorance makes them an easy target, not only for Satan but also for those who teach deception and manipulate the Scriptures, as they are shallow in their knowledge of the Scriptures. 

In essence, they are really no different than those that live in the world.  Instead of following God's laws,  they continue to follow the trends and philosophies of this world.  They base their ideas on worldly concepts rather than on the Scriptures.  Due to the way they live, they do not have any experience in spiritual things.  Hebrews 5:13 - 14 says, " Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil".  As a result of their still being immature, they will not have learned to distinguish good from evil and their discernment will be lacking. They will be easy prey for the enemy.

In the next teaching, we will look at how one becomes spiritually mature in their walk with God.