Christian Maturity Is Not Optional
Christian Maturity Is Not Optional
Tuesday September 16, 2025
6 Objectives In This Series
Show that the scriptures insist on the need for spiritual maturity.
Show that those who fail to mature in their Christian walk never stay stagnant, but actually regress.
Show that while increase in knowledge is essential to growth, it is by itself insufficient and is actually misleading.
Show that Christian maturity is synonymous with wisdom, and wisdom itself is inseparable from the fear of God.
Show the mystery of how fear of the Lord leads to nearness to God.
Show that the most mature are those nearest to God in their thinking, their speaking and their acting.
The ultimate goal of Christian Maturity is Full Christlikeness
It's the difference between a seed and a tree. A seed has the potential to become a tree. So on one hand we do not despise a seed, but until that seed grows into a tree, its usefulness is limited. A seed can't feed a small child but when the seed's potential is realized, it can grow into an orchard that can feed an entire town.
Ephesians 4:13 ESV until 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,
Ephesians 4:13 NLT This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
Romans 8:29 NKJV For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Romans 8:29 NLT For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
1. Show that the scriptures insist on the need for spiritual maturity.
1 Peter 2:1-3 ESV So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. [2] Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation- [3] if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Titus 2:4-5 NLT These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, [5] to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.
Philippians 3:12-16 NLT I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. [13] No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. [15] Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. [16] But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.
Philippians 3:12-16 NKJV Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. [13] Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, [14] I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. [15] Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. [16] Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
2 Peter 1:2-5 NLT May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. [3] By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. [4] And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires. [5] In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge,
2. Show that those who fail to mature in their Christian walk never stay stagnant, but actually regress.
There’s no stagnation in the spirit… you are either growing or you are regressing.
2 Peter 3:15-18 ESV And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, [16] as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. [17] You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. [18] But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
2 Peter 1:8-9 NLT The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
2 Peter 1:8-9 ESV For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
Maturity is the result of daily choices, with the next choice building on the previous.
Our secondary choices are either consolidation, or a cancellation of the previous. We either dig ourselves in, deeper, or we make a U-turn.
If we are on the right path, persistence, or digging ourselves in deeper, is the recommended approach. But not so, if we are on the wrong path. On the wrong path, a u-turn is necessary, the earlier, the better. The same u-turn will be ill-advised, if we are on the wrong path.
Pilgrims Progress
We all start out as unbelievers
Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV And you were dead in the trespasses and sins [2] in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- [3] among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. [4] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved- [6] and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, [7] so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. [8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast. [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We are all born as babies
1 Peter 2:2ESV Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.
We need grace to persist
This one thing I do…
We need frequent U-turns
1 Corinthians 13:11 ESV 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.
When did you last give something up? A behavior that is not necessarily sinful, but simply immature?
