Knowing God Gives a Sense of Purpose In a wonderful passage in 1 John 2:12–14, the apostle Paul describes stages of spiritual growth and maturity that believers go through. There are spiritual “children,” “young men,” and “fathers.” Spiritual children are those whose “sins are forgiven.” They are people who don’t know any more than that they are born again and have eternal life. Some people have been Christians for 10 or 20 years but are still spiritual children. They don’t know anything about