5 Habits of Maturing Christians Bible Study

Before doing this study, please read the one-minute introduction: 5 Habits of Serious Christians. Below, each of those habits is explained in Scripture:

1. Maturing Christians seek to do everything as if they are doing it for the Lord.

Colossians 3:23-24: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” 

Even the insignificant tasks of life become significant when we're doing them for the Lord. Even if our boss, our children and our spouse don't appreciate us, our lives are meaningful if we are seeking to please the Lord. 

2. Maturing Christians are willing to deny themselves in order to do what God desires. 

Luke 9:23-25: Then [Jesus] said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” 

Read Self-Denial: Losing to Win  for insights on this point.

3. Maturing Christians want to repent of their sins. 

1 John 1:8-10: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”

This verse contains some serious explanations that should make us seek repentance. We definitely can't grow in Christ if we are denying or excusing our sins. 

Read "Use 'Em, Don't Excuse 'Em" for insights on this question. 

4. Maturing Christians acknowledge their past sins but they move forward, refusing to let past sins hold them down.

Paul committed serious sins before coming to Christ. He persecuted Christians and was a part to Steven's stoning. In Philippians 3, When he explained that he was pressing on to take hold of everything God had for him, he added: 

“One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” verses 13-14

Read "Anti-Christian Extremist" for insights on this question.

5. Maturing Christians make it their goal to know Christ.

Notice Paul's wholehearted statements in this passage:

Philippians 3:7-14: “Whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Read "Goal Setters" for insights on this question. 

copyright, 2014, Gail Burton Purath, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, edited and updated in 2023.