God's Desire For Spiritual Growth

God’s Desire For Spiritual Growth

STAGES OF SPIRITUAL MATURITY FOR CHRISTIANS

(This is not a gender issue but spiritual)

I Jn 2:12-14 12 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. 13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one (NKJ)

CHILDREN

"Babies"

YOUNG MEN

"Overcomers"

FATHERS

1 John 2:12-13 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. 13... I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father.

1 John 2:13-14 ...I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one... I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one...

1 Jn 2:13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

I Jn 2:1 My little children, I am telling you this so that you will stay away from sin. But if you sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. His name is Jesus Christ, the one who is all that is good and who pleases God completely. (TLB)

I Jn 4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (NKJ)

Heb 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (NIV)

1 Cor 3:1-3 1 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. 2 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. 3 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. (TLB)

Ps 119:9-11 9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. 10 With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! 11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You !(NKJ)

1 Cor 2:6 Yet when I am among mature Christians I do speak with words of great wisdom, but not the kind that comes from here on earth, and not the kind that appeals to the great men of this world, who are doomed to fall. (TLB)

Eph 4:14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,(NKJ)

Titus 2:6-7 6 Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness (NIV)

1 Cor 14:20 Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. (NIV)

1 Cor 13:11 It’s like this: when I was a child I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I became a man my thoughts grew far beyond those of my childhood, and now I have put away the childish things. (TLB)

1 Tim 4:12 Don’t let anyone think little of you because you are young. Be their ideal; let them follow the way you teach and live; be a pattern for them in your love, your faith, and your clean thoughts. (TLB)

Phil 3:15 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. (NKJ)

Concerning children:

1- They have forgiveness of sins - 1 John 2:12-13

2- They are admonished to sin not - 1 John 2:1

3- They are admonished to grow up - 1 Corinthians 3:1-2; Ephesians 4:4

1 Corinthians 3:11

Concerning young men: