growing towards maturity
He’s just so mature for his age. She is full of wisdom. Go ask your grandma. She’ll have some wise words to say.
Have you ever heard any of those phrases?
Perhaps you’ve even sought out someone older than you for guidance on a situation.
Why do we seek counsel from others who are mature?
Most often because we need help with a situation in life! It’s important to have someone who’s walked through something before to advise or warn us.
I’ve heard many times how people want to grow in their walk with the Lord. They want to understand more and “be better” at the Christian life. Most often what they mean is they want to grow in maturity.
By understanding Scripture and spending time with the Lord, we can grow in maturity, become stronger in our faith, and comprehend what is wise in the Lord’s eyes.
WHAT IS MATURITY?
Think about this scenario for a minute:
You see a grown adult pull out a baby bottle, thinking they are going to give it to a child, only to watch in disbelief as they start drinking it themselves. This idea is truly silly, because we know it won’t provide necessary nutrients, and it’s not normal for this to happen.
Rather, the expectation as someone grows up is that they will start to eat solid food.
It’s just like this in our spiritual life.
It would be questionable for someone who’s been a believer for years to not have matured. But it begs us to consider, how do we grow in maturity and know what that looks like?
Paul give us a glimpse at what is said about spiritual maturity in the New Testament (Take note that Paul is address two different audiences here).
Hebrews 5:12 – 14 tells us, “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”
1 Corinthians 3: 1 – 3 goes on to explain, “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?”
WHAT SHOULD WE CONSIDER?
Paul straight up calls out the Christians here!
He sees where they are failing and then tells them how to be mature.
Over time, as a maturing Christian, we should look less like the world and more like Christ. We should stand out and look different!
Based on the length of time these people were Christians, Paul says they should have been teachers. They should be teaching others about the Gospel. Unfortunately, these people still needed to be taught the basics.
How awkward must that have been to hear?
That’s like telling a tennis player, hey, you’ve been playing for a while now, but you still don’t get the concept of backhand and front hand, and you’re not serving within the white lines for a singles game. You really should be teaching tennis camp this summer, but yeah, we need to cover the basics again.
Yikes! Super embarrassing!
We learn that growing in maturity means differentiating between good and evil (Heb. 5:14) and not displaying jealousy or quarreling (1 Cor. 3:3).
How can we differentiate between good and evil?
By reading the Word! Immersing ourselves in understanding God so we can reflect Him in our lives.
How can we stop jealousy and quarrelling? By allowing the Holy Spirit to convict us and change our attitudes and habits to honor the Lord.
~ Laura