When a baby comes home from the hospital, he or she is not given chores to do. They are not expected to clean their nursery or empty the trash, but as that baby grows and develops, we believe they should accept some limited responsibilities as we give them chores to do. Chores teach a child responsibility.
There are moments in our life when reality really hits us. We may be getting older even though we haven’t accepted our responsibility to grow up. We may have heard the Truth about God’s love through His Word—but are still like babes on formula—never growing up. However, as you know, age doesn’t always have anything to do with how young or how old someone acts.
In 1 Peter 2:1-3 we read: “ 1 So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. 2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, 3 now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.” Peter is saying we are to grow in respect to our salvation. You are going to be told periodically in your life, to grow up, and some of us need to grow up! We need to stop acting as spiritual babes and seek to develop into spiritual mature adults. We need to grow spiritually in the things of God and stop playing church. However, some people choose not to change.
In verse one, Peter entreats us to put aside all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. In other words, grow up and let the mind which was also in Christ Jesus be in you.
Philippians 2:14-15 reminds us: “ 14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.”
Believers in Jesus the Christ need to grow up into spiritual maturity and seek to live a holy and pure life. A life of holiness. If a 40-yearold adult behaves as a child— still living by their old carnal nature—we want them to grow up. In other words, we want them to act their spiritual age. To seek to live a life that would be pleasing to God. If you have a potty mouth, clean it up.
If you have sin in your life, repent. If you are still living with old destructive habits and attitudes, get rid of them.
Spiritual Maturity involves another spiritual exercise: the exercise of getting up and going to church. Jesus was serious about His church when He told Peter in Matthew 16:18 b : “ 18 . . . upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” Jesus wasn’t referring to a humanly built facility or structure, but He was talking about us as a collective body of believers! You cannot attain Spiritual Maturity or identify with the people of God and live in obedience to the commands of Christ without being a part of a church body. Church is where we get spiritual food to help us grow into spiritual maturity. Church is the place where we can go to be encouraged, uplifted, equipped, and edified, but most significant . . . church is where we go to worship God. We go to praise the name of Jesus. We go to fellowship with others, to exhort one another and to show our genuine love for our savior.
It is where we go to have balanced growth in our spiritual lives and know the importance of the spiritual exercises of prayer and going to church. To have balanced growth in our spiritual lives we must be witnesses for Jesus the Christ. The bottom line is that we grow and mature!
We must move beyond spiritual infancy and grow towards spiritual maturity. For that to happen, you must step up and take the initiative to become spiritually mature in God. You must learn to put away childish things.
Always in His Service, Pastor Ron Fellowship Church of the Nazarene