The Bible & Being Mature in Christ & How To Be Mature Christians
“The single minded person does away with spiritual & secular and makes all things spiritual”
Spiritual maturity begins with basics, but moves on to deeper understanding. Hebrews 6:1, TLB. “Let us stop going over the same old ground again and again, always teaching those first lessons about Christ. Let us go on instead to other things and become mature in our understanding, as strong Christians ought to be. Surely we don’t need to speak further about the foolishness of trying to be saved by being good, or about the necessity of faith in God.”
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Spiritual maturity is a process that takes time and leaves our own desires behind. I Corinthians 3:1-4, TLB. “Dear brothers, I have been talking to you as though you were still just babies in the Christian life, who are not following the Lord, but your own desires; I cannot talk to you as I would to healthy Christians, who are filled with the Spirit. I have had to feed you with milk and not with solid food, because you couldn’t digest anything stronger. And even now you still have to be fed on milk. For you are still only baby Christians, controlled by your own desires, not God’s. When you are jealous of one another and divide up into quarreling groups, doesn’t that prove you are still babies, wanting your own way? In fact, you are acting like people who don’t belong to the Lord at all. There you are, quarrelling about whether I am greater than Apollos, and dividing the church. Doesn’t this show how little you have grown in the Lord?”
The Bible’s Advice on Maturity
Spiritual maturity puts away childish things. I Corinthians 13:11, NIV. “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 childish ways behind me.”
Don’t allow yourself to be pressured one way or another-be honest and think for yourself. Exodus 23:2-3, TLB. “Don’t join mobs intent on evil. When on the witness stand, don’t be swayed in your testimony by the mood of the majority present, and do not slant your testimony in favor of a man just because he is poor.”
Peer pressure often leads to bad decision making. Matthew 14:9, TLB. “The king was grieved, but because of his oath, and because he didn’t want to back down in front of his guests, he issued the necessary orders.”
Peer pressure can lead to tragic consequences. Luke 23:23-24, TLB.
“But they shouted louder and louder for Jesus’ death, and their voices prevailed. So Pilate sentenced Jesus to die as they demanded.”
Be firm as you stand true to God and refuse to compromise. II Corinthians 6:8, TLB. “We stand true to the Lord whether others honor us or despise us, whether they criticize us or commend us. We are honest, but they call us liars.”
Men’s philosophies and ideas can ruin your faith.Colossians 2:8, TLB. “Don’t let others spoil your faith and joy with their philosophies, their wrong and shallow answers built on men’s thoughts and ideas, instead of on what Christ has said.”
Integrity is being who we say we are. Psalm 25:21, NIV.
“May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in You.”
One of the most difficult tests of integrity is wealth. Luke 16:10-11, NIV. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?”
Don’t copy the popular fads of this world. Romans 12:2, TLB.
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how His ways will really satisfy you.”
Knowing Jesus causes us to lose interest in the world. Galatians 6:14, TLB. “As for me, God forbid that I should boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in all the attractive things of the world was killed long ago, and the world’s interest in me is also long dead.”
Avoid worldly philosophies.Colossians 2:8, TLB.
“Don’t let others spoil your faith and joy with their philosophies, their wrong and shallow answers built on men’s thoughts and ideas, instead of on what Christ has said.”hardness.”
We become like the people we associate with. Proverbs 13:20, NIV.
“He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.”
Dictionary definition of maturity
1. The state or quality of being fully grown or developed. b.The state or quality of being mature; ripeness; full development; as, the maturity of corn or of grass; maturity of judgment; the maturity of a plan.
Key Source: The American Heritage¨ Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition Copyright © 1996, 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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