A church can have teaching that is sound, careful and faithful to Scripture, and a congregation that has learned a great deal from it. People know their Bibles. Many could explain a doctrine or follow the argument of a passage, and some have grown in remarkable ways. Yet the maturity the teaching was meant to produce, such as patience under pressure, generosity, steadiness in hardship and love that holds when people are difficult, often grows more slowly than the knowledge does.
For a pastor who has taught faithfully, that raises a real question. If the teaching is good, why doesn’t it produce mature believers on its own? Part of the answer lies in what Scripture means by maturity, and in how that kind of maturity is formed.
What Teaching Is For
When Paul left Timothy in Ephesus, part of Timothy’s task was to correct teachers who were drawing people into speculation and empty argument. Sound teaching mattered enough for Paul to defend it. And he was clear about its aim:
“The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.”
1 Timothy 1:5, NLT
Paul measured instruction by what it was forming in people. Good teaching is meant to produce believers whose love comes from a pure heart, whose conscience is clear and whose faith is genuine. In Scripture, that kind of character is what maturity looks like.
What Maturity Includes
Peter describes that growth in more detail. He begins by reminding believers that God “has given us everything we need for living a godly life” (2 Peter 1:3, NLT). Then he writes:
“In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.”
2 Peter 1:5–7, NLT
Knowledge is in the list, and it matters. Peter goes on to say that as believers grow this way, they become more “productive and useful” in their “knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:8, NLT). But the list keeps going past knowledge, to self-control, patient endurance, godliness and love. Peter calls believers to “make every effort” to add these qualities, and the effort he calls for is a response to what God has already given.
Why Teaching Alone Doesn’t Get There
A sermon can teach the truth about self-control, and God can use that teaching to bring genuine change. But understanding self-control and exercising it are not the same thing. Self-control is lived out when circumstances test it. Endurance is demonstrated through hardship, and love is expressed in how we treat others, particularly when doing so is difficult.
Spiritual maturity does not necessarily develop at the same pace as biblical knowledge. Much of it is worked out in everyday life, beyond the setting where teaching takes place. Sound teaching remains foundational, and the Holy Spirit works through it. As believers obey what they have been taught, God continues His transforming work in them.
What This Means for a Church
For a church with strong teaching, the foundation is already in place. The opportunity is to give the same care to what happens after the teaching: helping people put what they learn into practice in the situations they actually face, so that it becomes part of how they live.
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It also suggests a fuller way of noticing growth. Alongside what people know, a church can look for the love, self-control and endurance Scripture describes. That growth is God’s work, it is often slow, and much of it is hard to see from the outside. But it is what good teaching has always been for.
The Next Question
Underneath all of this is a question many pastors eventually face: why doesn’t knowing the truth, even knowing it well, turn into a changed life on its own? Why Information Alone Doesn’t Produce Spiritual Growth answers that from Scripture, including what God intends knowledge of His Word to lead to.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
