As believers mature in their walk with God, they are called to leave childish ways behind and embrace spiritual adulthood. The apostle Paul reminds us that when we were children, we thought and reasoned like children, but as adults, we must put away such immature thinking (1 Corinthians 13:11). According to 2 Timothy, this growth is rooted in continuing in the Scriptures, which are able to make us wise for salvation. Jesus Himself is an example of growing in wisdom and stature, as recorded in Luke 2:52, and Proverbs encourages parents to train their children in the way they should go, so that when they are old, they will not turn from it.
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When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways.
But as for you, continue in the things you have learned and firmly believed, since you know from whom you have learned them. From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head. From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with man.
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head. From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.
And the Child grew and became strong. He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready, for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man? For when one of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?