No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are easy prey for predators. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.

Ephesians 4:14-16 (ESV)

Spiritual immaturity is the reason for the persistent troubles of many churches.

In his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul outlines how a church is to concentrate on maturing believers to become more like Christ. When we foster a culture of robust discipleship, we can help new and immature Christians in growing their faith and defend themselves against spiritual attacks.

We need to give attention to our spiritual health and well-being. Yet we can never do it by ourselves. If we want to remain strong and steady in our faith journey, we need each other and we need community. Remember, one of Satan’s key strategies is to keep the saints stuck in perpetual infancy, where they can be tricked by deceptive and spurious claims disguised as truth. This is why the equipping of the saints is so necessary to counteract the devil and his influence.

Paul tells us Christ has anointed and ordained equipping leaders to function within their spiritual gifts and graces in order to nurture and mature every believer to become all of who God has created them to be in Christ. It is through growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus we learn to put away childish faith and recover a childlike faith in Him. As we mature, we will become more like Christ in character and ministry, leading a life full of love for both Him and others.

A lack of spiritual growth can hurt the church and hamper its mission to a broken world. If we stop growing and stop seeking Christ, we will actually regress to spiritual immaturity and the danger of falling away. As individuals and as a church, we can avoid this spiritual malady by knowing our Lord and Saviour so intimately that we can discern and obey what His Spirit is saying of us.