Watchtower Study, “Moving Toward Maturity,” Week 10-16 June 2024, Comments and Responses.

Watchtower Study, “Advance Toward Maturity,” June 10-16, 2024, Comments and Responses.

“Let us advance toward maturity” (HEB. 6:1).

1. What does Jehovah expect from us?

He hopes that we will all become mature Christians. Jehovah is happy when we progress and take our first steps in a spiritual sense.

2. What questions will we answer in this article?

In this article in this article we are going to answer the following questions: What does it mean to be a Christian adult? What do we have to do to achieve Christian maturity? Why is Solid spiritual food so important and why should we not trust it? What does it mean to be an adult Christian? 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN ADULT CHRISTIAN?

3. What does it mean to be a Christian adult?

The Greek word translated adult can also mean mature, perfect and complete. So, being an adult Christian is when in a spiritual sense we grow and stop being like children.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

It has nothing to do with age, it is the Greek word that translates adult can also mean perfect and complete mature, so we become adult and mature Christians when in a spiritual sense we grow and stop being like children.

In First Timothy 4:15 Paul was telling him that he should reflect or meditate on his ministry conduct and teaching that way he would become a mature Christian.

It is mentioned as an inexperienced person or one who is knowledgeable and has understanding.

4. What are mature Christians like?

They are those who obey Jehovah's rules, although they are imperfect and make mistakes, show by their way of life that they strive to think and act as Jehovah expects of his servants. They have also put on the new personality and have learned to make good decisions, they know how to distinguish the bad from the good.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

They are the people who obey Jehovah's rules and not only those rules that interest them and how do we know this because through their way of living they strive to think and act as Jehovah expects of his servants, amassing their new evident personality and it seems that every day Well, if they try to strive to be more like Jehovah's qualities.

They do not need to have a long list of rules but rather know how to operate by biblical principles.

They wear the new personality and do everything possible to match their way of being and thinking with what Jehovah thinks.

Ephesians 4:22 and 24 What they do is that this new personality continues to renew itself, that is, they continue working, it is not that they acquire it and keep it, but rather they have to continue working to resemble Jehovah.

5. What can happen to Christians who are immature? (Ephesians 4:14, 15).

Christians who are immature can be easily deceived, because they allow themselves to be deceived in subtle ways. These siblings can be confrontational, envious and tend to take offense easily.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Others cunningly and possibly created conspiracy theories and what apostates do and as we have just read, they let themselves be carried by the wind from one side to the other.

They also tend to be envious and conflictive, to be quickly offended and to fall easily into temptations, as mentioned first in Corinthians 4:33. They say that they are carnal people of jealousy and fights among themselves, meaning that they have that type of problematic behavior.

6. What example helps us understand the process of becoming a mature Christian? (See also images).

We have the example of a child, at first a child does not know how to decide on his own, which is why he needs the protection and supervision of an adult. For example, when crossing the street, she may hold his hand. But as she grows, her mother may leave him alone, but she continues to remind her that she should look both ways before crossing.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

This is how we see it in the image, a mother takes her little daughter by the hand and reminds her that before crossing the street she must look both ways. Then we see the little daughter, she is already a teenager and appears crossing the same street alone in spiritual sense the same thing happens sometimes we need advice from mature Christians who can help us make good decisions.

A mature Christian has to learn to apply biblical principles in order to make good decisions and the example is like a child who, until he becomes an adult, learns and learns until finally you can go alone because that happens with a Christian.

In order to receive help and understand the process of becoming a mature Christian, we must first know Jehovah's opinion on a certain topic. And since it is Jehovah who we speak with, we will have his principles to guide us on Our spiritual path.

ILLUSTRATION

In the image we can see a young sister listening to her parents, she has a tablet with an article on the screen and they have their Bibles open, then we see the same young woman doing her personal study with a Bible tablet and a notebook .

Series of images: 1. A young sister listening to her parents. She has a tablet with an article on the screen, and they have their Bibles open. 2. The same young woman does her personal study with a tablet, the Bible and a notebook. Images inside circles: 1. A woman holds her little daughter by the hand and reminds her that before crossing the street she should look both ways. 2. The little daughter is already a teenager and appears crossing the same street alone. Christians who are not yet mature have to learn to apply biblical principles to make good decisions. (See paragraph 6).

7. Do mature Christians need others to help them?

Of course, mature Christians sometimes need to ask for help, but unlike an immature Christian they do not wait for others to decide for them, because they recognize that everyone has their own burden of responsibility.

Most likely, they will need help at some point, but since he is a mature Christian, he should make the final decision and never expect others to decide for him. They can even accept advice from experienced brothers but they must be responsible for their own decisions as indicated in Galatians 6:5 which says that each one will bear his own burden of responsibility. 

8. Why do we say that not all mature Christians are the same?

Each Christian is different from another, because we have different personalities and different qualities, but each of us carries that gift to praise Jehovah and strengthen the faith that we have to do to become mature Christians.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Well, because in reality not all people are physically the same, so a spiritual person may stand out more for their wisdom and empathy, another for their generosity, and that does not mean that they are more mature than others, they are mature people with different qualities and different gifts. .

And it is also curious what the paragraph says, it says that they can reach different conclusions in matters of conscience, eh and both conclusions are valid, of course if it is a matter that there is a law of Jehovah, both have to have the same opinion, but That means that sometimes we say that it has to be that way because a brother may see it differently and if there is nothing written and it is a matter of conscience, then one has to adapt to what is correct.

And we say that not all mature Christians are the same, because most of them strive not to judge others, but rather, they try to maintain peace and unity within the Congregation.

9. Why do we say that no one automatically becomes a mature Christian?

Being a mature Christian requires time and being mature in a spiritual sense, which is not achieved overnight, requires continuous learning. And we have the example of the brothers of Corinthians, when they learned the truth they were baptized but after a long time they remained immature Christians.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Yes, because for the same reason that a child does not become an adult overnight, we do it over time and well, we will become good Christians if Jehovah allows it, and also the example of the brothers from Corinth who accepted the good news they were baptized and received the holy spirit and learned a lot from the apostle Paul and we learn from the brothers who give us the study and we baptize them.

Yes, it is true they learned, they believed, but, nevertheless, the Bible says that a year and a half passed and they were still immature in a spiritual sense. 

10. What do we have to do to become mature Christians? (Jude 20).

Well, the first thing we have to do is have the desire to mature because as the paragraph says, we have to be responsible for our spiritual growth and if we see that we still lack, then what it tells us here is that we must pray to Jehovah to give us both the desire and the strength as Paul said very well in Philippians 2:13.

To become mature Christians, it is important to ask Jehovah for the Holy Spirit and once we ask for it, we must act with a sense of belonging and try to progress spiritually and fulfill our responsibilities.

11. What helps does Jehovah give us so that we can become mature Christians? (Ephesians 4:11-13).

Jehovah gives us pastors and teachers who help us in the congregation, we can use those brothers to help us so that we have the maturity of an adult man and reach the full stature of Christ. He also gives us the Holy Spirit to have the mind of Christ, we also have the gospels that allow us to know in depth what Jesus did when he was on earth, if we thoroughly copy the way of speaking and acting of Jesus we will become mature Christians.

Also the four gospels that allow us to know Jesus Christ in depth and imitate him.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SOLID SPIRITUAL FOOD

12. What are “the basic teachings about the Christ”?

The basic teachings about Christ are repentance, faith, baptism and resurrection.

For example, it could be repentance, baptism and others like resurrection. Hebrews 6:1 says that since we have left the basic teachings behind, let us move on to maturity. Before, for example, we had the book The Truth was basic teachings, but then we moved on to another book that was God's love was already deeper, he taught us to use biblical principles, for example, which helped maturity.

13. What should we do to take advantage of the solid spiritual food spoken of in Hebrews 5:14? (See also images).

To take advantage of spiritual food, we must study the Bible, meditate on it, and strive to put into practice what we learn.

What we will understand are not only the laws as rules and nothing more, but what is behind those laws, which are the principles that will help us make good decisions.

ILLUSTRATION

In the image we can see a brother doing a personal study, and in the same image we see this brother putting into practice what he read, since he chose to watch a report about the sea on his television.

Well, the brother has meditated in advance on the biblical principles and then puts them into practice when choosing the type of entertainment, that is, we not only read, investigate, study and think, but that information influences what we do and our decisions will demonstrate whether We are really pleasing Jehovah.

Very interesting because the case of Esau and Jacob is analyzed. It is very interesting because one despised the spiritual things that Esau was and another that Jacob appreciated. This teaches us that we have to first dedicate time to feeding ourselves and doing a study project because that It will give us the solid food we need to be able to progress spiritually and what we intend to be is spiritual men.

The idea is that in order to deepen our study we can follow these guidelines that appear in this study project as we could talk about any other character and then follow the guidelines mentioned here, search for information about the context independently of whatever we want to search for. Investigate the details think about the lesson we draw for ourselves this will help us to go deeper into our study.

A brother doing his personal study. Image inside a circle: The same brother chooses to watch a report about the sea on his television. Solid spiritual food teaches us to make decisions that please Jehovah. (See paragraph 13). 

14. How did Paul help the Corinthians mature?

Paul helped the Corinthians when he explained that each person had the right to choose according to their own conscience and that they could make their own decisions based on biblical principles, thus he was teaching them to mature so that they could use their discernment abilities instead of depending on others or looking for norms.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Well, it seems that the Corinthian Christians asked Paul to set a rule regarding whether they could eat food that had been offered to idols and instead of telling them what they had to do, Paul explained that each person has the right to choose according to their conscience.

So in the case of a brother who perhaps has not yet reached maturity, then a very important decision remains to be made but it is not written, there is nothing written in the Bible but we must always take into account how Paul taught them, he did not tell them directly what he said. They had to do, he made them reason, if you think it is right, do it, if you think it is not right, do it, but he gave them a guideline so that they can make a good decision.

15. How did Paul help the Hebrew Christians continue to grow spiritually?

Paul wanted them to understand the new way of worshiping Jehovah, to be brave and to continue preaching despite the problems.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Many Christians of Jewish origin continued to insist that the law of Moses had to be obeyed even though 30 years had passed since the sacrifice of Christ had annulled it. That is why Paul wanted to help them accept the deep truths that he was teaching them in that letter by inspiration because we should not trust ourselves.

And we see that these Christians had already had more than 30 years to understand the sacrifice of Jesus but they still continued to insist on obeying the law of Moses, clinging to circumcision and other things, so Paul had to have a lot of patience to help them again. to understand that these deep truths through letters needed this new approach.

WHY WE SHOULD NOT TRUST

16. In addition to reaching maturity, what should we do?

We must strive not only to achieve maturity but also to maintain it. So we should not trust ourselves, for this reason, it is very important that we constantly examine ourselves to ensure that we continue to progress in a spiritual sense.

In addition to reaching maturity we have to maintain it because according to first Corinthian 10:12 if we fall it is very important for us to constantly examine our attitude so that we continue to progress spiritually.

17. What does the Letter to the Colossians teach us about Christian maturity?

This letter teaches us that once we reach maturity, we must try to maintain it and not be deceived by the ideas of the world. Both Paul and Epaphras prayed for their brothers so that they would continue to be mature Christians.

Well, both Paul and Epaphras knew very well that to maintain maturity you have to make an effort and have Jehovah's help, and he wanted the Colossians to also continue to be mature Christians who, despite the difficulties they had, could continue to serve. Jehovah in a mature way.

18. What could happen to a mature Christian? (See also the image).

A mature Christian could end up losing God's approval forever, and Paul was advising the Hebrews not to stray from the worship of Jehovah, but Jehovah offers help to those who need to rebuild their friendship with him.

ILLUSTRATION

An elderly brother is in another brother's house encouraging him with the Bible. Jehovah offers help to those who need to rebuild his friendship with him. (See paragraph 18).

19. What should be our goal?

Our goal should be to continue nourishing ourselves with the solid, spiritual food that Jehovah provides us, and to do everything possible to not lose our friendship with God.

WHAT WOULD YOU ANSWER?

What does it mean to be an adult or mature Christian?

It means that you know how to act wisely in any situation and not act immaturely.

What do we have to do to achieve Christian maturity?

We must ask Jehovah the Holy Spirit to fulfill our responsibilities, we do not want to give excuses so that they always tell us what we should do, but rather act wisely.

Why shouldn't we trust ourselves?

We should not trust that once we are mature Christians we will not need anything else. It is important to maintain that spirituality and take care of ourselves because we are imperfect and it is important to always be on guard against sins that would separate us from Jehovah.