Do Some People Take Longer To Start Walking In Obedience After They Are Saved?
Yes, this is true. We are often quick to judge the obedience or disobedience of other people. I’m not here to say there’s no place for that at all; Jesus told us that we would be known by our fruits, and to be a “fruit inspector,” so to speak. In the life of those who claim to be believers, there’s some place for that, but it’s always going to be difficult for us to make a fully accurate judgment about somebody else.
Let’s say somebody has a trouble with their temper, and they get angry a lot, and it’s been a bad habit for them for years. Let’s say they come to Christ Jesus, and He genuinely changes their life, but for whatever reason, that bad habit of losing their temper hasn’t been taken away immediately and they still deal with it. So, if that person has only one moderate outburst of anger a week, it might be a sign of real, genuine growth in obedience for that person, compared to the person who never really had much of a problem with losing their temper. For a different person, their vulnerable sins are happening in other places, and they have other things to deal with, but losing their temper just hasn’t been their thing.
If you compare the two, thinking, “Look at this fellow, he has a moderate loss of temper once a week. Maybe he’s barely saved.” But if you could look at his life with full knowledge, you’d say, “Look how much he’s grown. This is remarkable.” Meanwhile, the person who is very proud of the fact that they hardly ever lose their temper might not really realize the growth that’s happening in their brother and think themselves superior.
When a person is born again by God’s Spirit, 2 Corinthians tells us that we are made into new creatures. In Christ Jesus, old things have passed away, and all things become new. That is the glorious promise of God for us. In Jesus Christ, we are born from above. We are born again. There is a new man resident within that person. The old man is dead, and a new nature, patterned after Jesus Christ, is imparted to that person, and they receive the Holy Spirit in their life. There is a definite change. If there is no change in a person’s life, then I think it’s fair to question their claim to have believed and be born again.
But it’s important to understand two things about the changes that happen in somebody’s Christian life. First, they don’t all happen at once. Secondly, those changes are never complete until we are perfected in resurrection. That’s when the change is complete.
There should be real change in the life of somebody who claims to be a believer. However, the changes don’t come all at once, and they’re never complete on this side of eternity. I think it’s possible for Christians to be in some aspect of disobedience for a season, and God needs to deal with them.