Not Everybody Has the Same Pacing in Christian Growth So Let's Help Each Other!
While I do believe that Christians will get a regeneration, change of life because of salvation as said in Ephesians 2:8-10, Titus 2:11-14, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Hebrews 9:14 of God's grace changes lives, changed from sinning to serving but we ought to be careful with something. 1 John 1:8 warns however that if Christians can say, "Hey I'm without sin." they are deceiving themselves. Fact is- although Christians will not be living like the rest of the world, however it doesn't mean Christians will not sin.
Romans 7:18-19, Paul admitted his struggle for sin in his life though he wasn't living like the rest of world. However we read of Lot, Samson and Solomon did they give their all? No, not at all but they weren't wicked like the rest of the world nor did they revel in their sins! However some Christians can be pretty slow as evidenced by 1 Corinthians 3:1 saying, "And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ." While Christians cannot be carnal Christians (that is in lifestyle) but they can suffer carnality. John Macarthur defines it over as, "Christians can be carnal. That is, they can behave in carnal ways. But'carnal Christian' is not a plane of spiritual existence where one can remain indefinitely. Carnality is never spoken of by Scripture as a perpetual state for believers. In other words, while Christians can be carnal in their behavior, they are never carnal by nature. That is the distinction I have tried to make."
As a new believer, I have experienced some struggles I had especially with the sin of the flesh. Some habits like temper tantrums or my throwing frustrations at the wrong people did not die so easily, or me getting stubborn to certain people. I had my struggles with lust though I turned to God, I wanted to stop lusting and I wish I could stop lusting but I had to struggle with it. Then God raised up real friends who were there to help me in my walk in Christ while showing me true and false converts. God purposely allowed me to suffer at the hands of arrogant people so I could be kept away from the world. Yet God also invented fellowship for this reason- because Christians can have different paces. Slower people need to learn to be faster that's why God made fellowship.
In Proverbs 27:17 iron must sharpen iron, iron cannot be sharpened by wood or anything else! Hebrews 10:25 commands this, "Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more and ye see the day approaching." Fellowship brings people together. For example, in school we have teachers of different subjects, in the community we had doctors and engineers. Teachers are important to create every profession yet when they are sick, they will go to the doctor because they ar not doctors who needed to go to school from pre-school to medical school to become a doctor or engineers are needed to build schools otherwise teachers have no jobs and places to teach. Likewise in the Christian community we have choir singers, ushers and the pastor. Plus everybody has their own levels of strengths and weaknesses so we can get the work DONE ON TIME!