How Do You Know That You Are a Mature Believer?
(September 22, 2025)
Some people in church are what I call “Peter Pan” believers. They go to church
faithfully, but they have never grown up in the faith. They are still spiritual infants.
Paul, the Apostle, says of these folks in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, “Brothers and sisters, I
could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still
worldly – mere infants in Christ.”
Spiritual infants do not live by the Holy Spirit, but according to the principles of
the world. They are self-focused rather than others focused. You will hear them
say, “My pastor doesn’t feed me” or “why does everything bad only happen to
me?” or “the pastor didn’t even shake my hand on Sunday.”
These are indications of a spiritual infant. But what are the signs that one is
growing up in the faith? Paul gives us a clear picture of how a mature believer
handles the ups and downs of life in Philippians 3:13-14, “Brothers, I do not
consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is
behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the
prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Then he says in
verse 15, “All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things.”
And what are those things we are to forget and leave behind? Well, a short list
might be past sins, failures, successes, and victories.
We cannot afford to let past sins and failures to weigh us down because that only
leads to discouragement and despair. Christ’s blood paid for all our sins, and God
is bigger than all our failures. We must not wallow in them.
We even must forget, not dwell on, past successes and victories too much
because that can lead to pride. God is the I AM. He lives in the present and so
should we.
So, my brothers and sisters, which are you? A spiritual infant or a mature
believer?