killing pride and growing spiritually mature🌱🕊️♥️
Pride is one of the common sins of the flesh, and it’s definitely one that takes over a heart faster than a heartbeat. Pride, Anger and Maturity are most important when it comes to our everyday relationships. we as followers of Christ choose everyday to walk either like Jesus or walk like the flesh. This topic came to me when I first started my walk in Christ, He showed me what pride looked like and what humility looked like and how it looks when God is disciplining us for it. I was scrolling through instagram and found a message that caught my attention;
It went something like this, unity comes with maturity, when you are willing to let go of things to keep the unity, you forgive and move on, that’s maturity. you’re wheat, you won’t be a tear— you’ll say that you’re not going to allow the enemy to move because what the enemy is trying to do is stop something from God.
This impacted me so much because in order to grow united, we need to remove pride, because of our pride we carry out acts in anger, this is why praying for the different protections that God has for us is important. a lot of people don’t see how everything we do is spiritual, it’s not out of randomness, this is why Paul said to not walk like an unwise man, because he knew the power of sin, it’s in our flesh. our flesh gets put into its place when God disciplines us. I know that when I started walking in Christ, the very few days of paradise (I say this with all honesty, I had no trials to begin with), I had a pride that I had gotten from the world that God had to remove from me for MONTHS, I was so confused by the first trial but now that I’m here, I know why He did it and I’m forever grateful to Him for it. Just as He says, “you don’t understand what I’m doing, but someday you will.” John 13:7, and glory to God because He will humble you in His own way that He knows how to.
this topic aims at family, relationships, friendships, even a relationship with God, this all takes a maturity that is spiritual. you can look mature all you want but spiritual maturity is not achievable on your own. i’ve gone through this growth and still am, and I know a lot of more people who are going through this growth and are preserving in order to grow. we’re all still learning to grow spiritually mature so forgive those who haven’t learnt this yet.
Pride is one of the seven deadly sins that we face and will be facing for the rest of our lives, you can’t take it away but only by God can He remove it any time it tries to grow more. the first mention of pride forming before we all came to exist is in Isaiah 14:12-15, the mention of satan who wanted what God had. he grew pride, and in consequence of that, what happened after, satan was thrown out and separated from God and then we see that in Earth afterwards, in Genesis 3:5, Adam and Eve wanted to be like God, they wanted to know of the good and evil, they were lied to that they’d be like God. This is another example of the pride that started from the beginning, if we want to be literal, its in this way; pride is what separated us from God from the start. this is why God talks about being humble and being aware of this because pride will always be the reason we get separated from God, it’s the foundation for sin. we sin and we do it with pride, of course you don’t go out happily saying “I CONDEMNED” or “I STOLE ____”, but in the fact that you think you won’t get caught, especially when it’s God who sees it. And the reason I say this is because a pastor said, that you can go the rest of your life not wanting anything to do with God, but because He gave us free will, He’ll call out to you, but He can’t save you if you don’t open your heart to Him. When we don’t open our hearts to Him, we have pride at the throne of our hearts, this causes a separation from God, allowing people to not have a relationship with God.
We have God, who came to earth in the flesh, Jesus Christ, He being humble and obedient to death to save us, reconciled us with the Father, through His blood. He brought us together with the Father, and this is what I love about this topic; the truth is we can learn to walk in Christ Jesus and still have pride, many ask, how is that even possible? it’s possible depending where your heart is centered. i love to say that God has the power to change hearts, because in the book of Romans we see that God does that with the pharaoh, but it’s also important to hold yourself accountable and not blame God for your bad choices or thoughts, etc., if we ask His Holy Spirit for help. He’s ready to help us when we come to God with a heart and spirit that is humble and contrite. Those of us who call Him in truth, He responds (Psalms 145:18).
i still remember very clearly when i started my walk in Christ, i prayed to the Holy Spirit to remove pride and arrogance, anything that wouldn’t allow me to grow spiritually, anything that was hindering me from loving Jesus. I was constantly in a battle with my mind more at the beginning than now but that’s because i kept submitting my flesh to the point where i started seeing that change on the outside but it wasn’t the outside i was worried about, this was a constant nightly prayer that i didn’t stop, God doesn’t care about the outside; He cares about the inside and He made me see that, so every verse, I was overanalyzing but in my own flesh, wondering if I was doing what He wanted me to be doing. If there were a lot of verses that mentioned pride, I was constantly praying to Him about it, because I refused to grow into a person who has that pride that separated her from having a relationship with the Lord.
If we go back to satan and his pride, he grew anger/wrath against God because he couldn’t have what God had, apart from envy, anger/wrath is one of the deadly sins, because as mentioned in the Bible, we need to guard our hearts, what flows from it is the source of our lives, it changes your life. If we act out of anger in easy to solve situations where there could’ve been better communication; it ruins relationships, friendships, family relationships, work-related relationships; every single thing. and this is something everyone goes through. And this is the most difficult thing for a follower in Christ, because we’re meant to walk with God’s Spirit, He helps us grow the fruits we need (Gal 5:22-23) so that we don’t walk in the flesh. When we don’t pray to Him, this starts to be more evident in the way we walk. And what’s clear of the devil’s schemes is when we’re impulsive, I started to learn patience and pace in Jesus, I’m hypersensitive to things around me, I over analyze because God always shows me something in the small details; example: the reason we’re rushing, the real reason we’re impatient is because we’re not communicating with God, we’re not being faithful to God’s faithful love towards us, that’s where we fail Him and when we don’t have that communication with God, the devil starts to find it’s access points to harm us in our way of thinking, hence why we need to guard ourselves because if those thoughts go to our hearts, we can seriously hurt our futures.
I’m going to say this putting myself under the bus that i too, have been guilty of a lack of communication with God when I first started my walk I was constantly praying, but then I ceased to just morning and nightly prayers. And this is important because personally, when things were falling out of place for me, i had to take a moment back and said to God, “oo ok God, You got me, show me Your ways because Your ways are higher than mines, Your thoughts are not mines.” and if anyone paid attention to this, this is a form of pride we grow without realizing that when we want to do things our way, on our impulsive ways, we’re saying we don’t need God’s hand in the situation. when we go without constant praying, we’re showing God we think we can do things on our own. this is the pride we can grow in our relationship with God, don’t be another Adam or eve with God.
heart-checking yourself means to bring yourself accountability, removing pride isn’t possible on your own but with God, you can do it. pride is our extreme serious problem, it’s the first sin that grew in our hearts.
To walk like Jesus, He showed humility, He came to save not to condemn the world and i love this because what takes us to condemning? anger towards the person takes us to condemn, and saying it boldly is pride that is within the person who is basically saying, “i’m better than that person for falling into a sin”, that’s foolish, we are all weak in flesh. Paul says this and it’s true. God gives us authority over sin so we aren’t overcame by sin anymore but what’s before Christ is a different story compared to when you’re in Christ.
this is why we have to learn to forgive and continue to love, hence why in Luke it says, paraphrasing, it says “don’t condemn and you won’t be condemned, don’t judge and you won’t be judged, forgive and you will be forgiven.” this is much easier said than done, which is why we constantly pray to the Holy Spirit for this growth that we need. When you start to walk in the Spirit, you start to cancel the devil’s agenda, the devil’s agenda is to cause divisions, angers, walk by sight, walk by appearance of what we think is happening when really it’s not, when we go through trials we can go different ways either, grow pride or we grow to be humble, maturity means removing pride and removing pride is done by God’s discipline, this is why God disciplines us (Proverbs 3:11-12), because He sees our hearts, and He’s preparing us for what He has for us to not grow pride, He’s trying to kill our pride, being attentive to our pruning.
Proverbs 29:23 ERV, “Your pride can bring you down. Humility will bring you honor.”
People who grow pride in all sorts of relationships have a big downside, because of the pride we can ruin things that God has for us and how do we know that it’s from God? when we ask for confirmations, and He gives them to us. can we ruin this? yes, by acting on pride and anger. this is why it’s important to pray to God to remove the pride because you’re allowing the devil to enter negative thoughts and ideas to act out on, which is why we guard our hearts (Eph 6:10-18), remember anything that enters into your mind and goes to your heart and if acted out on is what defiles you (Mark 7:20-23), in other words, it makes you unclean, dirty. not useful as honorable vessels.
Every time we try to grow spiritually, every trial will have two options for you, you can either grow a heart full of pride, or a heart full of humility— and what I learnt is this, if you’re growing with humility, you’re learning, but if you’re growing pride then you’re not learning, you’re just growing even more distant from God.
We can only grow humility if we constantly stay praying to God, people say that it’s impossible but there was a testimony of someone who said that when they started to convert, they used to be a temperamental person and when they started praying to God every single day, at different times of the day, they started to lose their anger because God had taught them that anger was one of the attributes of pride.
A conceited look and an arrogant attitude, which are the lamps of wicked people, are sins. - Proverbs 21:4 GW
this is why they say you have two options, 1. you can either pray first and walk in God’s Will or 2. do what you want and live with the consequences — let’s not forget that our consequences lead to actions that come from the heart that come from our own understanding/sight. When someone has evil thoughts and carries them out, they have a heavy pride that’s going to be hard for them unless they have favor from people due to the time they’ve known them, but other than that, God doesn’t care about that, He wants you pruned and perfected for Him (Philippians 1:6).
let’s also not forget that we as followers of Christ will have to deal with anger which leads to pride, because pride can be grown by being arrogant, thinking you’re better than others, or being hurt and refusing to forgive those who repent.
those who truly have their feet firmly on Jesus will fear the Lord as it says in Provers 8:13, “To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behaviour and perverse speech.” — all these things come from the heart, and what thoughts come into your mind, you act on. A person truly doing what Psalms 119:11 says will do their best to cut off any of their own way of thinking and work on living the Word of God in their life (John 15:7) whoever fears the Lord will work on this. God tells us what comes with pride is disgrace, which ultimately; whenever i hear someone condemn or say something they don’t mean who know they’re walking in the flesh, i see them differently. when Jesus taught the Father’s teachings and spoke about sin, He didn’t pride Himself of anything instead, He showed humility because of His Heavenly wisdom, even the pharisees and scribes were shocked at His knowledge when He was at the synagogue when His mum and dad couldn’t locate Him.
what i love about Proverbs 16:5, is that God tells us, that a proud heart, will be punished, why? because there’s no mercy in that heart, there’s no fruit for the Lord that’s growing (*Proverbs 16:18), He knows that a heart that has pride, acts out in pride Proverbs 16:5, “The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.”, and this is what i love about God, that in order for you to be exalted, you have to humble yourself, this world will make you believe you need to exalt yourself and then be humble when you reach to the human potential but not with Jesus. the liaison is in Luke 14:11, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” and in Proverbs 18:12 it says, “Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honour.”
This is why it’s important to ask God for humility, in Isaiah 57:15, “For this is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” — our source is our hearts, we need to change that, we’re weak whether we know it or not, abiding in Christ is how we can live a Christ-like life. And even so, God sees our motives, Proverbs 16:2, “All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.”
I love how Eph 4:13 mentions about maturity;
Eph 4:13 ESV, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” the reason I love this is because Paul continues to write about how we won’t be like children who are easily thrown into the waves of different doctrines done by humans, we grow to be aware, mature, this isn’t by all means talking about physically, it’s speaking about a spiritual mentality that can only be achieved with faith, knowledge and a fullness of Christ Jesus. and get this, from what i heard a pastor say, not every preacher/teacher reaches this revelation, this is why you pray for wisdom and revelation to get to know Jesus (Eph 1:17).
maturity is hidden in this beautiful verse but revealed to those who look deeper, in Hebrews 12:2 ESV, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” — part of growing maturely, spiritually, is this verse. That no matter what is happening in your life, you’re going to trust God’s control and keep worshipping Him, keep your eyes on Him when everything around you seems against you, that 1% is often enough for God if it’s in His Will for your life, part of that growth is worshipping God even when things are tough not because of what He can do but who He is and knowing He keeps promises and sometimes those blessings come in surprises!
In the book of Colossians there’s two verses that I loved 2:2 ESV, “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ,” and 2:5 ESV, “For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.” — the reason these two verses stand out to me is because loving each other (as we know love covers a multitude of sins), is one of the mature attributes of Jesus, there were many times we don’t need to go far, when He said “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing.” (Luke 23:34) but as well as keeping an order through discipline, in NIV 2:5, “For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.”. Paul mentioning this maturity is reached with God’s discipline, God disciplines us because we’re loved by the Lord (Prov 3:11-12).
There’s something that I read from my apostle’s son, who is a pastor, he mentioned that we hear instruction through the ear and that our ability to hear must be healthy to listen to the instruction of the Lord and it’s so true, when we abide in Jesus, we’re constantly being created new — 2 Cor 5:17 NLT and KJV are better explained, in the NLT it says, “The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” And in the KJV, “behold, all things are become new.”, meaning they’re constantly being made new, that new life you’re given is in Jesus, he mentions that we are in a new life because you don’t just instantly become spiritually matured in your new life in Jesus. the reason I put this in is because in the new life with Christ, we’re being renewed with His Word and trials teach us to abide and trust God’s plan, and with trusting God and keeping your eyes on Him means disciplining you. just like any parent who disciplines their child so they grow mature, is the same way the Lord disciplines us so we can grow mature.
I loved reading this when I first started reading the epistles of Paul, 1 Cor 2:6 ERV, “We teach wisdom to people who are mature, but the wisdom we teach is not from this world. It is not the wisdom of the rulers of this world, who are losing their power.” In the KJV, it’s translated as “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect:”, and I love NLT because they say, “mature believers”, the wisdom that Paul taught was Godly Wisdom that only comes from God’s Holy Spirit, this is why I love that verse, because of a personal experience that i experienced with a former friend, but this is just a beautiful experience the Holy Spirit helps you see.
In 1 Corinthians 14:20 it’s a bit more evident and noticeable especially in the ERV, “Brothers and sisters, don't think like children. In evil things be like babies, but in your thinking you should be like full-grown adults.” Paul mentions being mentally mature and what i love about this one is that Paul mentions 2 groups; children and babies, he says to not be like children but be like babies, this verse reminds me of when Jesus said to be like sheep among wolves in, Matthew 10:16, ERV ”Listen! I am sending you, and you will be like sheep among wolves. So be smart like snakes. But also be like doves and don't hurt anyone.” The reason I love this is because Jesus uses this comparison, that those who will be standing by Him on Mount Zion will be His sheep those who knew how to pass the trials as His sheep who kept His Words within them and the similar is seen in what Paul writes, we’re to be like babies— when we think of babies they’re innocent but a full grown child has a clarity of what’s good and what’s bad, they’re easily to be thrown into different beliefs and different things that can be good or bad, so when Paul tells us to be like infants but have a mature thinking, what he’s really saying is be a firm believer in Christ and walk through these trials with that innocence that we had in Christ Jesus in regards of what’s happening around us.
i was reading 2 Peter 3:17-18 AMP and part of growing spiritually mature and knowing when you’re stepping out of line is knowing that you’re being warned beforehand by Paul, “Therefore, [let me warn you] beloved, knowing these things beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men [who distort doctrine] and fall from your own steadfastness [of mind, knowledge, truth, and faith], but grow [spiritually mature] in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory (honor, majesty, splendor), both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” i loved that because we can fall if we’re not well abided, and when we not only react to things that tie with our feelings example one of the more used demonic doctrines is zodiac astrologies, that’s a craftiness created by man. so when we’re getting fed lies about who people think we are through stars and such we’re falling; we’re not strong nor mature but rather weak and immature, but if you’re well abided in Him, you’re going to trample all these lies because you won’t be easily lied to.
This next verse I love because I remember hearing from a preacher at my church mention how he had done all these things and how the Word of God hadn’t made rhema to him, but he went through a trial with his first baby that he finally had that revelation, that trial made him mature in Christ Jesus and that’s what I love about this verse, in Ephesians 1:7 ESV, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him,”, the reason I love this verse is because it correlates to 1 John 2:4 NLT, “If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.”, we are to live His Word, if we don’t then we aren’t truly abiding in Him because a person who doesn’t reflect Jesus’ attributes hasn’t been born again.
Paul speaks to the Corinthians that he and his colleague are praying for the Colossians in their spiritual growth, Col 1:9 ESV, “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,”
Maturity comes from being revelation from the wisdom (from God) and the understanding (given by God).
One of the things I try not to battle with is the way the flesh thinks, this is one of the mature spiritual mindset someone can have in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit gives us this through Paul in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” And I love this one because it goes perfect with Titus 2:5 ASV, “to be sober-minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed:”, I’ve always heard that a lot of people can get careless with God’s Word by using it to their advantage, but that’s the thing, those people who use it to their advantage don’t have that revelation and grow to be immature instead of mature in Christ Jesus because His Word is to be used in the right ways, which is to give to those who are growing in Christ or need to be saved by Jesus.
and this is why it’s important to be aware of what the Holy Spirit revealed to me in the last paragraph because even Paul mentions it that to him, it was hard to speak to those who didn’t want to grow, didn’t pray for that growth, in 1 Cor 3:1, “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.”
and i love how he continued to say in 3:2-3 ESV, “I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?” — it’s hard to make someone understand, you can translate to them the revelation that the Holy Spirit gives you but the person themselves won’t understand when they’re still in the flesh, in other words, when they’re still immature. they can’t be fed the deeper mysteries of His Word.
there’s maturity in acknowledging that you’re messing up if you acknowledge God in all your aspects of life (Prov 3:5-6), then you’re more likely to grow if you allow yourself to be more in a relationship with Him, self-control is one of the hardest fruits (Gal 5:22-23) because sometimes we’ll act out of anger or impulse, etc. and in Phil 1:9-11, self-control about choices make a huge difference in your spiritual life, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, — so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, — filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” — you’ll always hear people say they don’t know what to do they have two options that sound extremely good but one is set up by the devil and the other one is the blessing God has for you, you need to discern because what you do in the flesh is you typically choose what seems easiest and less of a problem but here’s what i’ve seen; if it’s easy, be with caution. God doesn’t do easy, He wants you to learn not to be comfortable.
part of maturity is the unity that you minister to people, and oh my goodness, something happened that i can’t exactly say what it is because it would be extremely obvious and personally i feel second-hand embarrassment for them to attack us through the authority of Jesus for us to be discouraged to leave; so this is how important it is to be in unity because when you’re constantly praying for unity that means you know what you’re praying for and for that, you’d have to be grown with mature level of understanding that if you don’t love someone in Jesus, you’re a murderer (1 J 3:15), and the Word doesn’t abide in you (John 15:7).
i love thé liaison from the murder of the brother in Christ to 2 Cor 7:1 “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”, i’m gonna say this right off the bat, but you can’t grow spiritually if you’re not learning to love those around you, you’re not learning to walk like Jesus, and the throne of your heart is most likely pride or anger but either way both lead to one another the only way to cleanse ourselves is if we walk together as one, as the body of Christ, John mentions this in 1 John 1:7 ESV, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” — and he even says that we still walk in darkness before this verse 1:6 NLT; “So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.” this is why it’s important to be aware of what we’re doing, and if we’re truly living out His Word.
i love how paul gives credit to the Thessalonians for how much their faith has grown, this faith that grows through the receiving of His Word and love for one another that he mentions in 2 Thes 1:3, “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater;” and Paul mentions this in 1:5-7 ESV, “because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.”
being imitators of God and His disciples shows how much spiritual maturity you have grown.
i love how in Philippians it says in 3:15 ESV, “Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.” — meaning anything that someone thinks that is contrary to God will be revealed to them by God and i make this connection of Romans 15:1, “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.” because when paul mentions weakness we can go back to when Paul said we shouldn’t rebuke those who eat vegetables only (Romans 14:1-3) or cause our brothers to sin by eating what they do and don’t if it makes them fall (1 Cor 8:12-13).
i’m going to be honest and very real but my huge fear was hearing the Word of God and scared that my flesh was going to be extremely confirmed to this world and it was partially with this verse apart from the verse that speaks of those who did miracles and wonders in Jesus’ name, but in Luke 8:14, Jesus is speaking about the parable of the seed that’s sown in different soils, “The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.” — this will always be one of my fears because it has to do with the stubbornness of your flesh, imagine holding your blessings back because you want to do your own will— that’s scary.
i’ve only ever witnessed a few select people who have shown this fruit of love and gentleness, and i find it so beautiful, in Gal 6:1-2, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” in the verse 6:2 AMPC it says, ““Bear (endure, carry) one another's burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it].” — if we see someone who near falling, it’s our job to catch that person and restore them with gentleness, but going back to being mature, when you’re spiritually mature you won’t fall so easily, being spiritually mature and having gentleness is such a beautiful combination that God can gift you. but you can’t have that gentleness until you’ve learnt to love in Christ Jesus, when we truly dive deeper in Jesus we see His Word revealed differently and by His grace and mercy, He changes us when we keep His Word written in our hearts, we help those who are lacking and they help us in what we’re lacking because it takes two to file a sword which is what we’re all doing.
to reach this level of maturity, we need to grow spiritually. if you’re not walking spiritually but critiquing those who are; be extremely worried about that because our priority is to walk like Jesus walked. not like your flesh, anything in the flesh will lead to death and i’ve still to understand why people glorify themselves of walking in the flesh and defending peoples’ sins without them repenting and criticizing others for being in a deeper connection with God, and i’m not talking about atheists, i’m talking about people who claim to be followers of Christ (i’ve had my fair share of criticism thrown in my face by brothers and sisters) but we need to be patient and gentle with them and i know i mentioned this verse earlier but expanding it with what was spoken above, in Eph 4:13-17 AMPC, Paul writes of this;
“[That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him. So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead. Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). For because of Him the whole body (the church, in all its various parts), closely joined and firmly knit together by the joints and ligaments with which it is supplied, when each part [with power adapted to its need] is working properly [in all its functions], grows to full maturity, building itself up in love. So this I say and solemnly testify in [the name of] the Lord [as in His presence], that you must no longer live as the heathen (the Gentiles) do in their perverseness [in the folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and the futility] of their minds.”
