Life is a process. And what’s true for our physical existence is just as true for our spiritual lives. As men, we don’t just magically step into spiritual maturity. We don’t wake up one day and suddenly find ourselves more like Jesus. Every guy who follows Christ is making his way through five biblical stages of manhood.
Recognizing the Stages of Biblical Manhood
The stages of biblical manhood aren’t complicated, but they are important to understand. In many ways, they mirror the developmental stages that we experience as human beings. Each stage requires a natural transition to the next. And if growth is stunted at any stage, we’re dealing with an incredibly unhealthy situation. That’s why the writer of Hebrews warned his readers about getting stuck in spiritual immaturity (Hebrews 5:11-14).
However, we do need to remember one important difference between our physical development and the five biblical stages of manhood. While our physical growth is generally measured by age, spiritual growth has nothing do to do with how many times we’ve circled the sun. The first stage begins whenever you accept Jesus as Savior, and progress depends more on your faithfulness to following Christ than marking days on a calendar.
But, with God’s help, you can move through these five stages in a way that honors God and ministers to those around you.
5 Stages of Biblical Manhood
1. Newborn
The first of the five biblical stages of manhood reflects the start of our Christian journey. Regardless of our age, when we come to embrace Christ as Savior, we begin as spiritual infants. We are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), and our faith is comparable to the early stages of a child’s life when we’re living on milk and everything is a new learning experience (1 Peter 2:2-3).
2. Learner
Just like babies grow into childhood, believers move from infancy to a stage of learning and growing spiritually (2 Peter 3:18). Like Jesus as a boy, we mature in key areas of our lives: wisdom, stature, favor with God, and favor with others (Luke 2:52). During this stage, relationships are incredibly important as we identify teachers and mentors who will guide us toward a deeper faith in God. This is an important step in the five biblical stages of manhood.
3. Owner
This is the biblical stage of manhood when we begin the transition from riding the spiritual coattails of others to taking personal ownership of our faith. For example, before the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, the disciples were generally clueless and dependent on the physical presence of Jesus. However, once the Spirit arrived in Acts 2, they experienced a spiritual transformation. They began to walk by faith, rather than sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). They were able to take hold of their faith on a personal level and share the message of Jesus with boldness. This was key to fulfilling Jesus’s commands to be His witnesses locally and around the world (Acts 1:8).
4. Mentor
As we grow in our faith and progress through the five biblical stages of manhood, we experience another transition. Instead of simply taking in spiritual truth for ourselves, we become God’s agents for instilling truth into the lives of others. In his letter to Timothy, Paul challenged his young friend to take the things he had learned from others and pass that wisdom to future generations (2 Timothy 2:2). Just as we have been mentored, we have a responsibility to mentor others. This is how the gospel has been shared, and disciples have been developed for more than 20 centuries, and God still allows us the privilege of being a part of His ongoing work in the lives of others.
5. Builder
Honestly, this is simply an extension of the Mentor stage because we never “graduate” from pouring into the lives of others. As long as we have breath in our lungs, we keep serving and supporting others in the body of Christ. But we also begin to think in terms of leaving a legacy. By faithfully following Christ and committing to walking through the five biblical stages of manhood, we are able to build a faith narrative that resonates long after we’ve entered eternity. If we do it right, our faith can outlive us.
The Important thing is Progress
As mentioned, spiritual development isn’t about your age. A man can enter the infancy stage of biblical manhood during any season of life. Likewise, a teenager or young adult who has faithfully walked with Christ since childhood can develop into a mentor role relatively early in life.
The important thing is progress. Wherever you are on the spectrum of the biblical manhood stages, you can move forward with God’s help. He didn’t create you—or redeem you—to stay in neutral or get stuck in a spiritual ditch. God longs for you to live abundantly (John 10:10) and to make a difference that will reach future generations.
He has equipped you with everything you need to move through the five stages of biblical manhood (Hebrews 13:21; 2 Peter 1:3-4). And He will greet you with “well done” once your journey is complete (Matthew 25:21).
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