Stages of spiritual growth
- Michael E.B. Maher
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. (2) I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; (3) for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”
We have stated thus far that all believers come into the kingdom of God as babes in Christ and they are meant to grow into spiritual maturity from there. In the passage of scripture quoted above the apostle Paul highlights the contrast between these two types of believers, i.e. baby believers and mature believers. In this passage we see that the Holy Spirit refers to baby believers as being carnal, and that He refers to mature believers as being spiritual. The apostle Paul goes on to explain to us what He means by the term carnal, when he tells us that those who are carnal behave like mere men. In other words carnal believers display behaviour that is very similar to those in the world. In this passage Paul goes on to list some examples of the behaviour of carnal believers, i.e. envy, strife and divisions, to show us just how worldly their behaviour is. Spiritual believers on the other hand display the fruit of the spirit in their behaviour, i.e. love, peace and unity, which is completely opposite to the carnal behaviour of the world. And so we can see that one of the most telling ways to determine whether a believer is either mature or still a babe in Christ, is to observe their behaviour. Another contrast that the apostle Paul highlights between the two types of believers is the spiritual food that their minds are able to absorb, and he uses the analogy of babies being able to only digest milk and not solid food, to illustrate this point to us. In other words Paul is telling us that baby believers are limited in their understanding of God’s word, and if exposed to certain spiritual truths in God’s word they would not be able to comprehend them. Spiritual believers on the other hand have no problem in this area, and are able to comprehend all spiritual truths revealed to them by the Lord’s ministers. And so we can see that another way of determining whether a believer is either mature or still a babe in Christ, is their ability or inability to understand certain spiritual truths in God’s word. In this passage Paul reveals another aspect regarding spiritual growth, which is the length of time it should take for believers to transition from being babes in Christ to reaching some degree of spiritual maturity. In this passage Paul makes the following comment to the church at Corinth “even now you are still not able”, implying that by that time they should have been able to receive the solid food of God’s word. The apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church at Corinth approximately six years after he planted that church, and so we can see that the Lord deems six years to be sufficient time for His servants to transition from being babes in Christ to becoming spiritually mature. Nevertheless it is plainly evident that the saints in Corinth had not matured after six years, and were still babes in Christ. Sadly the lack of progress in spiritual growth among the saints in Corinth is indicative of most of the church today, for many saints never progress beyond being babes in Christ even after many years in the kingdom, and that is evidenced both in their carnal behaviour and their lack of spiritual understanding of God’s word.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul lists the fruit of the spirit. The fruit that he speaks about in this passage is the fruit of the born-again spirit and not the fruit of the Holy Spirit; for our Lord Jesus has taught us that we are the branches and that He is the vine, and that it is the branch that will bear fruit as it abides in the vine (John 15:5). And so we see that this list of fruit reveals the nature of the born-again spirit, and it is this fruit that is clearly evident in the lives of mature believers. The reason for that is because their spirits have become strong and so this fruit is displayed through their lives in abundance. Sadly this fruit is not clearly evident in the lives of baby believers however, and the reason for that is because they are still weak in spirit and so they are unable to display the fruit of the spirit in abundance as they should. But rather baby believers will still display behaviour that is similar to those in the world i.e. anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language, etc (Colossians 3:8).
2 Peter 3:15-16 “and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation--as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, (16) as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Peter highlights the contrast between carnal and spiritual believers in the understanding of God’s word. Notice that even the apostle Peter declared that some of the spiritual truths taught by the apostle Paul were hard to understand; clearly Peter himself took some time to understand some of that which Paul taught. Paul himself, in writing to the saints in Jerusalem, said that he found it hard to explain certain truths to them because of their lack of spiritual maturity (Hebrews 5:11). In the above passage Peter goes on to say that because some carnal believers don’t have spiritual understanding and yet think they do, they end up twisting and distorting the truths in God’s word, which ultimately has the effect of creating destruction not only in their own lives, but also in the lives of those who listen to them. Sadly there are too many carnal believers in the church today who are deceived into thinking that they are spiritual, and through their “teaching” have caused much harm in the church. Nevertheless there are those who are spiritually mature and are thus able to rightly divide the word of truth, and it is these ministers who are indeed a blessing to the body of Christ.
Romans 8:5-6 “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (6) For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
Another contrast between mature believers and babes in Christ is observed in their ability to walk in the spirit. For as the apostle Paul teaches us in the above quoted passage of scripture, mature believers walk in the spirit because they have become spiritually minded, while babes in Christ still walk in the flesh because they are still carnally minded. As we have already established, to live according to the spirit is one and the same thing as being led by the spirit. And so we see that believers that find it relatively easy to follow the leading of their spirits can be classified as mature believers, whereas believers that struggle in this area are clearly still babes in Christ.
Michael E.B. Maher
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