"There are Christians who are international-class projectile vomiters, spiritually speaking, after years and years of life. They simply cannot digest what Paul calls “solid food.” You must give them milk, for they are not ready for anything more. And if you try to give them anything other than milk, they upchuck and make a mess of everyone and everything around them. At some point, the number of years they have been Christians leads you to expect something like mature behavior from them, but they prove disappointing. They are infants still and display their wretched immaturity even in the way that they complain if you give them more than milk.
Not for them solid knowledge of Scripture; not for them mature theological reflection; not for them growing and perceptive Christian thought. They want nothing more than another round of choruses and a “simple message”—something that won’t challenge them to think, to examine their lives, to make choices, and to grow in their knowledge and adoration of the living God." [See Carson, D. A. (2004). The Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians (p. 72). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.]--------------------------------------------------------------------
Those are convicting thoughts, and this is one of those passages where you learn that pastors can be caught off guard by the level of maturity among the believers. It's like when you realize an old classmate never really made it past age 17. They "peaked" too early and have not moved on in maturity.
Look, we all need to grow and should aspire to do so. So let's think more about this.
What are (some) signs someone is not as mature as they may think they are in the life of the church?
Preface: We could not and should not try to police these attitudes. However, we don't have to allow for an environment in our churches where these patterns can flourish. We can and should try to cultivate a culture of discipleship where these attitudes are made uncomfortable. Our preaching and praying should aim for God to bring about sanctification.
Preface: We could not and should not try to police these attitudes. However, we don't have to allow for an environment in our churches where these patterns can flourish. We can and should try to cultivate a culture of discipleship where these attitudes are made uncomfortable. Our preaching and praying should aim for God to bring about sanctification.
- BASICS They appear to not move past the basic material of the existence of God. They struggle with clarity on the gospel and what is a true Christian. - Let me explain. They appear unable to articulate the basic gospel of grace in Christ. While listening to them, you can wonder if they can tell the difference between a message of works-based salvation and the message of the cross. Their understanding of justification is often limited to understanding that Jesus took away their sins; they don't seem to grasp the positive transaction of His imputed righteousness. They are baffled by the hard sayings of Jesus and show a positive aversion to trying to understand them. They know the gospel is free, but they forget that it will cost us our lives in surrender. Often, they will think folks around them are Christians who actually appear to be nominal at best when you look at plain evidence. Let's pray for depth in the gospel for our churches. Let's strive to be clear on the gospel and the marks of a Christian.
- SUNDAY-They approach the Lord's day (Sunday) as an add on to "their" weekend rather than setting their schedule by it. They will sadly allow for all kinds of secular commitments to take the place of the call to be gathered faithfully on Sunday. They don't see that they would never allow anyone to interfere with their work commitment, yet they allow others to interrupt their call to be at church faithfully. Side note- Many churches that run all kinds of "extra" services often only accommodate this kind of immaturity. These churches think they are "reaching" more this way, but in actuality, they create different congregations without much unity. If they actually called for accountability, their crowds would dissipate to find better "accommodations." Let's strive to set aside the Lord's Day as a non-negotiable in our calendars.
- COMMITMENT- Often, I find that people have no problem signing contracts with a cell phone company or wholesale club like Costco. I find that people have no problem giving commitments to their sports teams, softball leagues, or arts organization. However, I do see folks look inconvenienced/frustrated by a call to be committed to their local church in attendance and love. They want the church to be there for them when they want it, but not much else. They want others to be there for prayer times and members meetings but do not see their own responsibility in those things. When these attitudes are confronted/questioned, folks often bristle. That is our flesh/sinful impulse. We all do it. Here is the thing though. As churches, we should challenge these poor attitudes and patterns with the Word.
- DECISION MAKING- They will often make huge decisions and commitments without even a minimal attempt to seek godly Christians who could encourage them-- or potentially challenge their plans. They ignore the counsel of the local church elders/pastors God has sovereignly raised up to help them. They will, however, seek counselors that actually don't know them well and speak to their sin struggles. There is a common theme among the immature in my opinion.--They can possess too much self-confidence. For example, it is heart-wrenching to see a church member knowingly date a nominal or non-Christian. They do not want any input on this decision because they see themselves as fully sufficient and disregard the wisdom of Scripture. When it comes to big decisions, we do not need to be super self-confident. That is secular and not the wisdom God commends to us. Let's pray and seek godly counsel.
- TEACHING AND PRACTICE-They find it hard to discern where ministries have compromised the truth and are obscuring the gospel in their work. For several reasons, many can't tell the difference between faithful preaching of the Word and someone who is merely a good speaker. (There is a difference.) They also buy books that are by authors who clearly are false teachers. They have not grasped that false teachers say lots of true things and sneak in their false teaching. We all should be careful about the material we look to for growth. It should be material that only honors Jesus.
- ENGAGEMENT-They like the social aspect of the church, but they remain on the fringes outside of meaningful fellowship in Christ. When it comes to actual covenantal participation according to the NT, which includes mutual accountability and encouragement, they seem confused. It somehow applies to others and not them. They are put off by the subject. It is something they either were never discipled in, or they simply reject in their hearts. We see in the NT that the local church spent meaningful time together, not merely a few moments on a Sunday. Think of how others would be blessed if we strived to be more engaged.
- TEACHABLE-They will not inquire about growth. They will not inquire about excellent resources from those who are faithful and skilled teachers of the Word. I find that their first inclination is to start with Google/Youtube rather than time tested faithful ones among them. In this, they miss the opportunity for further actual human fellowship. They know the Bible can be understood by all believers, but they miss the fact that not all are gifted to teach it. It's good to ask questions from sound members of the church who live out the gospel.
Conclusion-These are not all the signs of immaturity, but they are some I've noticed as a pastor. What signs of immaturity might you be exhibiting in your life? I know my tendency to think in prideful ways that show my own immaturity. May the Lord help us to grow into more and more Christlikeness.
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