Growing up in Christ

An important part of life is growing up. It begins when a child starts putting childish things away—packing up toys, taking on new responsibilities, and wanting to sit with the adults. Parents rejoice as their children reach new milestones. Eventually, maturity is expected. What was once endearing in childhood becomes inappropriate with age. That’s how life goes: We grow out of the immaturities of childhood into the maturity of adulthood.

The Bible draws a similar comparison between natural and spiritual growth. The Apostle Paul wrote: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Cor. 13:11). God’s grace in Jesus Christ doesn’t leave us as spiritual infants; it causes us to grow and mature into adulthood. The biblical idea of maturity is completion—fulfilling the purpose for which God has called us. Spiritual maturity is measured not by age, experience, or gray hair but by the perfecting work of God in our lives.

A mature Christian is assured. Epaphras prayed that the Colossians would “stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God” (Col. 4:12). The will of God includes everything that He has revealed concerning Himself, His purposes, and His commands. As we grow in grace, we gain a deeper understanding and firmer confidence in that will. Maturity brings a settled conviction and assurance that what God has said is true and trustworthy.

A mature Christian is discerning. The author of Hebrews was astonished that his readers had not grown up but were still living on spiritual milk. “Solid food,” he wrote, “is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb. 5:14). Spiritual adults don’t merely know what is right—they choose what is right and refuse what is wrong. Their minds are constantly fed by the solid food of God’s Word.

A mature Christian is stable. Just as toddlers wobble and fall as they learn to walk, spiritual children are easily shaken. Paul warns that immature believers can be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). To grow His people and make them steady and stable, Christ has given them ministers of the Word so that “we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (v. 13). Maturity steadies the believer in Christ.

Finally, a mature Christian is persevering. In this life, we are never complete—never made perfect. Paul knew this, yet he pressed on, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:13). He called this the mature way of thinking (v. 15). Those who are growing up in Christ know that much remains unfinished—but they do not slow down. They keep pressing onward and upward toward Christ.