“For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.” (Hebrews 5:13 NKJV)
Every normal parent takes special delight in their child’s healthy growth and development. Parents derive great pleasure, joy, or fulfillment in watching their children grow up in every aspect of life into responsible adults who can be trusted with responsibility and authority.
Parents take special pride or delight in speaking about their children’s healthy growth and development, successes, and achievements.
Likewise, God delights in His children’s healthy spiritual growth and development. God loves to see every believer grow up in all things into Christ.
God has made abundant provision in the Church for every born-again believer to grow up in all things into Christ.
Paul testifies to this truth.
Ephesians 4:11-16 – NKJV
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
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,
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head–Christ-
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Every faithful pastor takes delight in the spiritual growth of the believers under their tutelage.
Apostle John said, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (3 John 1:4 NKJV).
Any pastor or spiritual leader who takes no delight in the spiritual growth of the believers under his care is selfish, sensual, and wicked.
Unfortunately, many servants of God today take no delight in seeing the believers under their authority grow up in spiritual understanding, knowledge, or discernment.
Why?
So that they may continue to deceive, control, manipulate, abuse, or exploit them!
How sad!
When a child is not growing or developing healthily and steadily in every aspect – physically, mentally, emotionally, or otherwise – all those who genuinely love and care about the child become very concerned, troubled, and unhappy.
Moreover, the child also becomes a burden to his parents and those around him.
Similarly, when you are not growing up healthily and steadily in every aspect of your life into Christ, you will become a burden and a concern to your pastor and all those around you.
All those who genuinely love you in God’s family should be concerned when you are not growing, developing, or maturing in the faith as you should.
If, after several years of claiming to be born again, you still have to depend constantly and totally on your pastor or prophet to hear, know, discern, or recognize God’s voice and leading, or to receive divine guidance and direction for your life, then you have not grown up spiritually.
If, after many years of being in the faith, your conduct or character still does not resemble that of Christ in any way, or you are still not bearing or manifesting the fruit of the Spirit, something is wrong. You should be concerned!
It is sad but true that many people in our churches today are not growing up steadily into Christ. After several years of attending church services regularly and dutifully, they remain spiritually immature, shallow in spiritual understanding of God’s Word, unable to recognize or discern God’s voice and leading, and thus totally and continuously dependent on their pastors and prophets.
But what are the possible hindrances to healthy spiritual growth?
Why are many people in our churches today not maturing in the faith or growing up into Christ steadily?
Let us consider some possible causes and solutions.
First, many people in our churches today are not growing up into Christ simply because they are not yet born again and thus do not have the divine life, nature, or seed of God in them.
As a lizard can’t grow up into a crocodile or a rat to grow up into a cat, a sinner can’t grow up into Christ, notwithstanding the years he spends in a church, the position he occupies in a church, or his activities in a church.
Until you are born again, you don’t have and cannot have the divine potentials to grow up into Christ or become like Christ.
Only those who have become a partaker of God’s nature through faith in the person and finished work of Jesus Christ possess spiritual potentials or capacities to grow up in all things into Christ (2 Pet. 1:3-4, 1 John 3:9).
The truth is that there are many people in our churches today who suppose that they are born again because of their regular attendance, faithfulness in tithing and offering, fervency in prayer, full participation in all church activities, compliance with all the church’s doctrines or traditions, or because of the miracles they have received from God.
Nothing could be far from the truth!
Unfortunately, many of our church leaders strengthen and confirm these baseless assumptions of these unregenerate church converts by publicly commending their good but dead works in the church, praising them for their generous donations, and even giving them special responsibilities in the church, and by honoring and rewarding them with leadership positions or titles in the church.
It is so sad but true that there are many religious sinners or unregenerate church converts in our churches today ushering the saints into “the house of God,” leading us in spiritual worship and ministering to us in spiritual songs, teaching God’s Word to our children, and worst still, serving as deacons, evangelists, pastors, and elders in the church.
What an aberration!
Whether a sinner is a sinner in the church or the street makes no difference.
No matter how religious or prayerful a sinner may become, he can never become like Christ or grow up into Christ until he first experiences new birth or spiritual regeneration through faith in the person and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ alone.
Second, many believers today are not growing spiritually because of the erroneous belief or mindset that spiritual growth is automatic or comes naturally with time.
Even naturally, a child does not automatically grow up or develop healthily and steadily without input from his parents or effort.
A new babe in Christ has to be started on the pure milk of the Word of God so that he may grow up.
1 Peter 2:1-3 – NKJV
1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
However, the young believer must not stay on the milk of the word forever. He must desire and go for solid food of the Word of God.
Many believers are not growing steadily in the faith today because their pastors continually serve them the milk and not the solid food – they are only taught the elementary principles of God’s revelation (Heb. 5:12-14).
Beloved, if you claim to be a believer in Christ and you are not being changed progressively into the likeness of Christ in your mindsets, values, emotions, or conduct, you certainly need to scrutinize your spiritual diet.
Perhaps you are not yet genuinely born again, thereby not having the divine potential to become like Jesus Christ. Or maybe you have stayed too long on the milk of the Word, not feeding on solid spiritual food.
It is indeed high time you changed your spiritual diet!
Hebrews 5:13-14 – NKJV
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Please find out more hindrances to spiritual growth and how to overcome them in the second part of this piece.
Prayer: My Dear Heavenly Father, I strongly desire to grow up in all things into Christ. My Dear Holy Spirit, open my eyes today to why I am not spiritually growing healthily and steadily in all things into Christ, in Jesus’ name. Amen.