Have you ever talked to a four-year-old who has an unusually developed vocabulary and whose parents dress them like they are 40? Or maybe you have met a middle-aged man who acts like a 12-year-old boy? Either interaction can be confusing. We would expect that maturity would track closely with physical age, but it doesn’t always work out that way.

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The same is true in our spiritual walk with Christ. Too often, we expect new believers to understand all the big theological terms and concepts automatically. Some people can grow impatient when a young follower of Jesus does not show the same spiritual fruit as a well-established disciple. At the same time, some profess faith for decades but are still rarely willing to evangelize or disciple newer believers because they don’t feel qualified or equipped. Some people grow rapidly after putting their faith in Jesus Christ. Still, tragically, some are actually spiritually dead who walk and talk as if they have spiritual life. 

 

We must rightly assess our own growth in Christ to understand where we can grow next, and how we can help others grow, too. We must not assume we are more or less mature than we truly are, simply based on how long we have been a believer or how old we are. The Lord’s vision for his church is that together, like parts in a body, we would grow up in every way into full maturity, into him who is the Head, that is Christ. He gave us one another to help the whole church grow in love as we speak and apply the truth of the gospel in each other’s lives. Each of us plays a part in this ministry based on our own knowledge of God and the gifts he has given us.