“4 Stages of Spiritual growth”

John, the apostle writes to four groups of believers who are in four different spiritual stages of development. In I John 2:12-14, he gives what each stage needs in relation to the word of God. First, in verse 12, he writes to infants/babies. They are “tek-nions,” or little infants. Their greatest need is to know that they are forgiven, that Jesus has taken the penalty and guilt for their sins; and that they are loved, accepted, and secure in the Lord. Babies at this stage are fed the word. They are receiving the milk of God’s word.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr5Y4RuqPWI

The second group of believers is little children. John changes his word to “pai-dion,” which means “one who is being trained.” Babies cannot be trained, but little children can begin learning and forming habits. As children, we are developing spiritual disciplines that will be with us the rest of our lives. A child is learning to feed himself/herself on God’s word.

Just like our physical development, John writes to the third group which is the young men. We may see this as the adolescent years of spiritual growth. It is so important that John mentions it twice in the middle of verse 13 and at the end of verse 14. The greatest need for young men is to know how to fight! In this stage of spiritual growth, they have learned how to use the word of God defensively in resisting the devil and offensively in defending and sharing their faith. We are fed the word of God, and then we are trained how to feed ourselves from the word of God; then, we are equipped to know how to use the word of God. Now, here is the final stage and most influential, Fathers. Again, John mentions it twice because of its importance! You cannot be called a father unless you have a child! Spiritually, we can adopt other believers as children in the faith. Either we have led them to know Christ or someone else has, and we can come alongside them in the first three stages of their spiritual growth. We are multiplying by reproducing in the next generation. When we go on to maturity, we are conforming to the image of Christ!