Indeed they are not necessarily the same, my dear friend, and praise God. Some young in age believers are very mature and strong in the Lord’s things. In 1 John 2:14 we read, “…I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.” You might recall Timothy who was a relatively young Christian, but he was given great responsibility to oversee and teach at Ephesus, and this is because he was very mature in the Word of God despite his relatively young age. We read in 1 Timothy 1:3: “As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine…” Timothy might have been relatively young in years, but he knew the teachings of the Apostle Paul, and was mature enough in the faith to teach others.

In 1 Timothy 1:18 we read, “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare…” In 1 Timothy 4:12 we read: “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” But, when considering young believers, we must also consider those who, despite their age in years, are new in the faith. These too would be considered “young believers,” or perhaps “babes in Christ” (see 1 Peter 2:2; 1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Ephesians 4:14). These need the pure milk of the Word of God to grow. William MacDonald in his Bible Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:1 says: “When Paul first visited Corinth, he had fed the believers with the elementary milk of the word because they were weak and young in the faith. The teaching which had been given to them was suitable to their condition. They could not receive deeply spiritual instruction because they were new believers. They were mere babes in Christ.”

Now, in a similar manner, a “weak believer” might be older or younger in years or even in the faith, but perhaps characterized by a low degree of faith and/or knowledge of the Scriptures which might open him to easily assuming more restrictions in lifestyle than Scripture would require, such as feeling he must follow some or all the Old Testament ceremonial laws. We read a nice discussion about this situation in Romans 14:1-23.  In the first 3 verses of this chapter we read: “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.” Thus, there might be weak believers who feel compelled to follow OT laws and restrictions, but we are not to despise those who are weak in the faith, those who are as yet unwilling to risk eating certain foods or failing to observe certain days, even though Scripture might clearly allow such behavior. A born-again Christian is saved, even though they might not yet embrace the liberty that born-again Christians have in Christ Jesus. The main thing here is not to stumble a weak believer by despising them for their lack of the full understanding of the Scriptures as we see in verse 13.  (SF)  (609.3)