On the flip side, adults I often meet, without knowing me, assume I am a weak Christian and only know a little bit about God and the church. Part of me can’t blame them, since so many people our age fit that description perfectly. Yet, I do believe that their perceiving me as such, also, stems from a wrong view of age and Christianity. I believe there ought to be a correlation between a person’s maturity and how long one has been a Christian. The author of Hebrews demonstrates this expectation in Heb. 5:12, “For at the time when ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and have become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” This verse and personal experience affirms that there is not always a correlation between how long one has been a Christian and their spiritual maturity. Therefore, instead of making presumptions about someone’s spiritual state/maturity based on one’s age or even how long one has been a Christian, we ought to look to the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
I believe that changing our thinking about age and spiritual maturity could lead to more unity in the Church and a stronger Church overall. If those who are young held themselves to the same standard as those who are older, how much more effective could we be at establishing His kingdom here on earth? And if those who are older withheld presumptions about those who are young, how much more could they learn about God from us? Instead of thinking as the world does about age and maturity, we ought to look to the examples in scripture that demonstrate that age is not as important as we think.