Why Do Christians Need To Mature?
Why Do We Need To Grow Up
We are already Children of God, with all the rights and privileges, but we cannot enter into our privileges until we grow. The fullness of what God has in store for us, is yet to come.
1 John 3:2-3 NKJV Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. [3] And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Galatians 4:1-2 NKJV Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, [2] but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.
We often confuse gifts with maturity. We assume that the more gifted a person is, the more spiritually mature he is too.
Gifts have to do with service, but maturity has to do with Christ’s character/fruit of the Spirit.
God gives gifts because there is work that needs to be done. He will use even the immature, because there is so much work to be done that if He has to wait for us to grow up, the work will suffer.
We can have great gifts and yet lack character. We can do great things and yet not be like Christ.
So God gifts and uses people regardless of their level of maturity (eg. Judas was one of the Twelve.)
Paul delineated between gifts and character in 1 Corinthians 13.
In this world, we are ambassadors for Christ. We represent His character. He empowers us the same way the power of the United States is behind every good ambassador who correctly represents the President. Ambassadors cannot declare war, or give grants, or issue tariffs , but they can make recommendations to the President.
In this arrangement, the ambassador brings character to the table, while President brings position and authority to the table. Our King puts us in a high position of influence. We have the authority to speak on His behalf. He does not allow our words to fall to the ground.
Isaiah 44:26 NKJV Who confirms the word of His servant, And performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, 'You shall be inhabited,' To the cities of Judah, 'You shall be built,' And I will raise up her waste places;
Isaiah 44:26 LSB Confirming the word of His servant—And the counsel of His messengers He will complete—And being the One who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’ And of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built.’ And I will raise up her waste places again.
If we fail to grow, we will not be like Him. If we are not like Him, we will misrepresent Him.
Matthew 24:45-51 ESV "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? [46] Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. [47] Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. [48] But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed,' [49] and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, [50] the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know [51] and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The real authority God is preparing to give us is in the world to come.
Our experience here is practice, mock exam, preparing us for our real authority.
We will judge angels.
1 Corinthians 6:3 ESV Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
Our maturity has consequences for the world to come.
Some Christians are focused on character, but they fail to grow in their understanding and the use of their position and authority.
Others are focused on their authority, but they misuse the authority and misrepresent Christ because they could not care less about growing in His character.
Both are wrong.
Strong but ungodly.
Strong but ungodly Christians will turn the world from Christ. They misuse the power of God and bring shame to the Name of God.
Hebrews 6:4-6 NKJV For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, [5] and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, [6] if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
Hebrews 10:26-29 NKJV For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, [27] but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. [28] Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. [29] Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
Godly But Weak
Godly but weak Christians cannot save the world. Go Ye into the world needs for us to walk in authority.
Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
Mark 16:15-18 NKJV And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. [16] He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. [17] And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; [18] they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
God’s goal has always been to have us be like Him. He made us in His image and after His likeness, so He could give us authority to have dominion.
Genesis 1:26-27 LSB Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, so that they will have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” [27] And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
He wants to restore us to His image so that He can rears his authority to us.
Romans 8:28-29 NKJV And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. [29] 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.
Like Father Like son
John 8:38 NKJV I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father."
You can tell who a person has been receiving mentorship from, by just watching their mannerisms and the verbiage. If we love Him, we will want to be like Him.
If we love the world, we will resist changing to become like Christ, and unwittingly pick up on the mannerisms, and character of the world.
Matthew 10:24-25 NKJV
"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. [25] It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!
If we love ourselves, how we are, more than we love Him, we will resist becoming like Him and insist on being left the way we are.
John 14:9 NKJV Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
John 8:39,44-45 NKJV They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. [44] You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. [45] But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.
God will not entrust His authority to those whose character He cannot trust. And the only character God trusts is His own. That is why He chooses His sons, who have His DNA, and not any other creation to rule and reign.
Our authority is tied to our DNA. 🧬
We must retire all our excuses.
2 Corinthians 5:17
If any man be in Christ, He is a new creation.
We all have excuses for our failure to mature… which is really a refusal to grow.
This is just who. I am
I am just trying to be me.
I am just a shy person.
SIN IS SPIRITUAL CANCER.
Cancer reprograms the DNA
“Cancer begins with DNA mutations that change the instructions for making proteins or specialized RNA.”
Obedience to Christ is the process by which our damaged DNA, which is operating on bad information, is corrected and reprogrammed to the original intention.
It takes time because just like in biology, too radical a treatment can kill the patient. But a patient who responds too slowly to treatment will not help himself because he is dying anyway.
The earlier we respond to Dr. Jesus, the Great Physician, they sooner we will roll back the damage that sin has done to our spiritual DNA. Refusing to grow, is insisting on our old misinformed DNA. To be carbon ally minded is death,
