As believers mature in their faith, they are called to put away childish ways and embrace spiritual adulthood. The apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians that with maturity comes a deeper understanding and a shift away from immature thinking. In Ephesians, he urges believers to speak the truth in love and grow into maturity, attaining the fullness of Christ. Hebrews and 1 Timothy also emphasize the importance of leaving elementary teachings behind and setting an example for others in speech, conduct, and faith, as seen in 1 Timothy 4:12, to become the mature followers of Christ that God intends.
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When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head.
Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God,
until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head.
Let no one despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
He who assaults his father or evicts his mother is a son who brings shame and disgrace.
And the Child grew and became strong. He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.
And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with man.