Romans 14:1-3 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.

Faith needs to be exercised or it will remain weak. Exercise will also increase the appetite. You will find that an increase in appetite drives the desire for strong meat.

A common mistake in sharing these verses is the assumption that those who are weak in faith need nothing but God. These words are about attitudes towards those that are weak in faith. If we were to encourage them to stay weak why do we have pastors, teachers, sermons, lessons, and Sunday school?

Few churches today have discipleship classes. The assumption that making disciples only involves witnessing and making baby Christians misses the whole point of discipleship. If I were to put this in the framework of exercising faith, then I would ask you to step into the gym. Here we have many different pieces of equipment which are designed to build up certain muscle groups. In order to understand how each piece of equipment works and how to properly use them in order to obtain the most out of your time in the gym, you need a trainer.

In this gym the trainer is not the Holy Spirit, it is another disciple using the equipment and profiting from his own exercise. That disciple will give you a better understanding of how all the equipment works together to promote faith growth. In this case the equipment is the Word of God.

James 1:22-24 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

They place mirrors in a gym to allow you to check your form, not your vanity.