Maturity

Ilustr.

“Isn’t he beautiful!” every mother’s comment about her newborn baby.

But imagine the same comment when the child 2 years later hasn’t changed; hasn’t grown.

Jesus had something to say about the shallow disciples in His parable of the sower of the seed.

Some seeds fell among the thorns and . . .

The shallow Christian

Matt 13:22 The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

So it is with many Christians. They suffer from stunted growth; they have actually stopped growing.  This is a dangerous mistake!

Christians who grow in grace

Php 3:¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

 ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. ⁵All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you hink differently, that too God will make clear to you.

 ¹⁶Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Text

13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.

And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

Maturity

 (add to your faith….) The 7 components are :

Goodness, Knowledge, Self control, Perseverance

Godliness, brotherly kindness and love

Stop your childishness and start to develop an adult, mature, child-like spirit

Heb 6:1,2  Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity,

Eph 4:13,14 (Growth within the Body – the Church)

. . .until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

What kind of maturity ?

Physical, Psychological, Spiritual

1. Physical = From teens (the age of independence seeking) to adolescence (the formation of personal and social identity and the discovery of moral purpose) to Adult = When bodily growth has completed and/or reproduction can begin. Then growing on into middle age and old age and finality.

2. Psychological = Intellectual development, information gathering and storing, inventiveness, leadership development.

3. SPIRITUAL =  attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. = Christlikeness

 

Perfecting holiness

Because God created man as a holy being, the natural state of humanness must be holiness. That is the whole meaning of salvation; being saved out of the life of sinfulness; being restored to our former glory; made holy in order to persevere in constant growth towards becoming mature IN Christ.

But holiness is not maturity. 

Spiritual maturity has its roots in initial conversion and spiritual maturity only begins after entire sanctification which is definitely a “second work of grace”.

2 Thess 2:¹³ But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

Even though the great Apostle would not admit to perfection, he did say that he was striving; reaching toward that goal of absolute perfection.

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it (perfection).

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things

Can you say that you are “mature” meaning spiritually mature?  What are the marks of maturity? Balance, Contentment, Discernment,

a.  Balance

A sanctified believer is not so heavenly minded that he is of no earthly good. While his head may be in the clouds, his feet are firmly on the ground. He knows that he knows. He has the inner “witness of the Spirit”.

b. Contentment  (sanctified self-sufficiency)

i. Doctrinal stability

ii.Smooth functioning within the Body

c.  Discernment =

the ability to distinguish between the true and the false.

It is extremely sad to see so many Christians who blindly follow the false doctrines. We can only make out what is false if we know what is true.

There is no argument from any Bible believer that holiness is a Biblical word. But the meaning has been distorted to suit certain doctrines.

There are only 5 (perhaps 6) ways of holiness that is being taught.

i.  (doctrine of imputation) We receive all that is needed for admission to heaven the moment we are born again. Many Scriptures can be and are used to confirm this notion. But a careful study will allow the sincere student to notice that throughout the entire Bible, God calls His people back to this requirement. The NT urges Christians (not unbelievers) to “be filled with the Spirit” = sanctified.

ii. You gradually grow into holiness. You get holier and holier. The question is, at what stage in your gradual growth are you holy enough? No, holiness is an instantaneous work of God’s most amazing grace. (Lk 11:13)

iii. You are made holy when you die. Even sinners die!

iv. You graduate in Purgatory

v.  Holiness is instantaneously imparted (upon request by the born-again believer). The process of development in Christlikeness then begins when the spiritual condition of the soul is “heart purity”; the minimum requirement for entrance into God’s holy heaven.      

¹⁷Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.  ¹⁸For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.  ¹⁹Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.

 ²⁰But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,  ²¹who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

4:¹ Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

Conclusion

The mature Christian is a growing Christian. He is a most satisfied and content person. He is not perfect. He knows that God has not called him to perfection of performance. He lives his life (not faultlessly but) blamelessly before God (not necessarily before people). He will be criticised and “persecuted”, but the joy of the Lord is his strength.

To be recognized as being a mature Christian, we need constantly to upgrade our relationship with God. How? By continually adding to our faith. . . .

A sanctified Christian automatically develops a compassion for the unsaved; for those who have no spiritual leader to guide them into God’s Kingdom.