“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
“By this time you ought to be teachers, (but) you need someone to teach you the first principles of God, and have come to need milk and not solid food” (Hebrews 5:12).
A church leader was venting. “We have so many immature members. And the problem is, they want to stay that way!”
The leader said, “How do we deal with our discouragement? How can we keep from becoming Pharisees who constantly see their faults and not their potential? And how do we love those who cause so much trouble in the church by their immature actions?”
The letter concluded, “I feel like I’m in danger of becoming like the Ephesus church, the one which had lost its first love.” A reference to Revelation 2:1-7.
My first thought upon reading the question was: “You’re not alone, my friend. Every spiritual leader fights that same battle, although not to the same extent.”
Let’s do a quick Bible study on the subject, then allow me to make some observations….
Paul saw the Corinthian church split asunder as a result of immaturity. He said, “I could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to infants in Christ.” (I Corinthians 3:1).
Well. That was pretty plain. Wonder how they took that. (Paul was safely at Ephesus, and thus insulated from the barbs of the worst of the bunch.)
Paul continued, “I fed you with milk and not solid food…. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?” (3:2-3)
‘Their immaturity showed up in a number of problems which are dealt with throughout this epistle: lawsuits among members, immorality, splintering into cliques, favoritism, pride over spiritual gifts, etc.