This is my conviction from the Word of God. Paul was true to the wisdom of God, and his conscience did not accuse him, regardless of the accusations against him. He could have walked free if he would simply promise to stop preaching. Biblical truth establishes cognition in the mind and develops restraint in the conscience. The third feature is affection. As we expose ourselves to the Word, we begin to understand what it says.
It begins to form our convictions, and then it becomes our sincere affection. How strong should that affection be? Spiritual growth comes when we know the Word, when it shapes our convictions, and when we learn to long for the sustenance it alone can provide. This is studying Scripture eagerly and earnestly, hungry to extract all of the nourishment we so desperately need out of the Word.
The Word of God is our spiritual sustenance. May we have the same solitary longing for it that a baby has for milk—because by it, we are conformed to the image of Christ, who sanctified Himself for us. The Word reveals Christ to us, and the Word transforms us into His likeness. We are reminded of what our Savior repeated three times in the upper room—that He would send us the Holy Spirit.
We know that sanctification is a divine work through the Word by the Spirit of truth. So, we must plead with the Spirit that He would mold and shape us into the image of Christ, through the truth, from one level of glory to the next. And they believe because they are mature in the faith they are mature spiritually.
We need to take it back to how it was with our lord and saviour Jesus Christ. The son of God. He was the most spiritually mature human that ever lived. We need to take our standards from him and only him. We must continue to pray brethren for each other. May you all have a fruitful and blessed day. I want to read your book!! Look at how they treat each other! Jesus got angry at times when he took a stand, like overturning the tables in the temple. Only Christ is the master whom we strive to be like, but never attain.
You can use religion as a mean to become more spiritual but it is certainly not the same thing or directly related. Open your eyes, mind and heart and then you will truly see. Wow, thanks, lots of response possibly because of our view of the church.
I like to think of the church as a field hospital. One during the Civil War not mash — managed by experts. The most injured are in great pain tend to lash out and be angry etc. The ultimate goal of course is to have these soldiers return to the battle outside the hospital tent the church. Maturity might be considered in terms of wellness.
The more mature are those who are effective in helping the most critically injured wounded — agreed some are wounded by friendly fire! Great words — let us each examine ourselves. Thanks for encouraging us to do just that. Blockage from the arteries accounts foor many serious conditions for example heartt attsck or stroke and is important in all sorts of minor ones like fatigue, breathlessness, edema, and poor memory.
We have the classic tape, you have the self-adhesive baced photo corner, dry picture mounting technique, wet mounting method and spray mounting technique. It is just a complete waste of time God has given us. It is a rare follower of Christ who has the 9 characters of the fruit chiseled into their memory; it is difficult to reach goals without having set established goals emblazoned in our minds. But, just like following a complicated cooking recipe, we need to have a checklist in our minds to CHOOSE the best action to take.
We are just ignorant. Carey, maybe I misunderstood, but I thought this article was challenging us to assess our own spiritual maturity, not to bludgeon others for their apparent lack. I often find myself revisiting Romans to be reminded of my need to surrender myself daily, not conforming to a worldly mindset, rather, being changed daily to become more like Christ measuring myself against His standard, not others and further cautioned to not think more highly of myself than I ought.
It is difficult to see myself as better than I am if I measure against Christ. I am not yet who I want to be, yet I recognize the progress God is making in me by the power of His Spirit working in me and I press on, knowing if I walk with God and pursue His will above my own, my will becomes more aligned with His will, my mind renewed, my life transformed, Christ glorified.
This is my prayer. I appreciate your work and pray God continue to bless your ministry as you glorify His Name. Outstanding Carey. Letter to Ephesus seems to indict them for extreme truth but no grace.
I use Facebook a lot and wow some of the comments blast me for bringing up the lady caught in adultery and Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. I was invited to a Spiritual Leadership meeting where we were all given a list of questions.
The first question was: Are you producing all the fruits of the Holy Spirit on a regular basis? I had a feeling that answer would cause raised eyebrows so when it came to group sharing, I let others speak.
Sure enough my group was agreed that they all did not produce fruit, hardly ever and they fell pretty pitiful with their fruit output. They all said basically that they were all fruit impaired. They quizzed me for my response. I said I that I thought that I was aware of feeling like spiritual things were happening in my life and I believed that often spiritual things happened and I might not even notice.
They all said yes. My hope was to demonstrate that the spirit of God that is alive in us, is going to bear fruit if we are seeking to serve an follow him. What is going on? Are these people all being modest? Is it possible that dedicated life long believers think that Christ in them is bearing no fruit? Thank you, you expressed a lot of my thoughts, only with much more grace than the clatter in my head. My biggest sin issue as a new Christian — born again nearly two years ago — has been judging other Christians.
It has been a real struggle — I am not pleased with myself. The church is the world. None of us are wholely sanctified. Only Jesus could say that. I do not consider myself to be extremely spiritual, I am a Christian, raised Catholic- but have since found a lot of issues with the teachings of the Catholic Church. I have not been able to find a church that feels like home to me since moving from Michigan to SC in February of I have grown in my relationship with God since moving here as I have had to put all of my faith in him, moving so far away from all those that I loved, all that I knew and was comfortable with and start over with nothing.
I was saved in after the birth of my daughter and began my journey to healing. I was convinced that I was mentally ill after many attempts between the ages of to take my own life. I felt trapped by my abuser with no way out and that was the problem- I was isolated from the rest of the world or anyone that could actually help me. I gave it to God. I live where my abusers live… crazy as that sounds, but I forgave them. They are still abusers, mentally, but I do not react to their abuse- that is how I know that I have grown.
They had convinced me to move down here telling me that things were going to get really bad and that the end times were near. They created such an urgency while telling me how much they loved me and my family my 4 kids and husband and that we would all stick together, take care of each other through the hard times. Things have changed with them since we have moved here though. My sister has become dependent on her daily dose of wine because she says she cannot sleep. My mom is here and remarried, she only talks to me when she has to or needs something.
My sister and her do everything together and though it bothers me that I am never included- I am not like them, I do not agree with them their values, their judgements and lack of compassion or lack of emotion. Much love to you, Dee! This is hard. Christ and Paul were fairly clear that when we love we fullfil the law and more. Love is about relationships, not about following a set of rules.
So mature people teach what it means to love, which is truely a life long endeavor. The imature need boundaries to help them move into maturity. When these people get into leadership positions, they start of force their boundaries on others. If you break their rules and you are still a Christian, it invalidates their belief system. So they will struggle against you. This is why Paul says that he will fit into each belief system, so that he can teach.
However, everyone has have an ear to hear or be teachable. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Definitely some good stuff in here.
This can be a tricky topic. No one is going to be perfectly mature on this side of heaven. If anything is true, we all are absolutely in need of growth in this area. Whether one has been walking with Jesus for 1 year or 60 years.
Humility is definitely needed alongside growing in maturity. I think you are on to something with our lack of understanding about sanctification. We most often think of it in terms of things.
I am being set apart from culture to piety. This never seems to lead us to look deep enough into ourselves where the real work of redemption needs to happen.
I am learning that sanctification means I am being set apart first and foremost from myself flesh to a truer union with Him. What an amazing lifelong process that is!
My view is that, some other false markers of maturity in church are the processes to ascendance and subsequent positions that earn people without demonstrable grace and truth in them, the power to wield against those who are seen to be lower in rank…. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. Hebrews 11About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
What do I think? The truth and grace dichotomy worked in either inversion is well described here and we all need reminding. Ugh… LATE. But woah… This article speaks to all the flailing, squirming, and unsure insecurities within myself. It sure confused people. I was termed as troublesome and scarey. It served for many laughs in those days.
But anyhow, Christians would all come up to me to instruct me upon the wrongness of my actions and that I needed fixing. It lacked Grace. But moreso, I see all of what was intentional in how God works.
It hurt. A lot. It was pathetic, and thank God that he smack-turned me around after all these years. Thus now today! I realize God does yearn for us. Not in us ourselves, cuz if that was that in any case, this conversation—NAY, Jesus. Christ The Savior would just be another man in the streets yelling propoganda. Thank God for that. Though there are many a follower in Christ, Jesus did make clear mention of wolves.
I like this article. Controversy and struggle, trial and perseverance are great for wheedling away falsity from Truth and Grace. This article was the bomb! Thanks man! And God bless your way onward!
But I think number 5 is just plain wrong. Just a thought. I came to the cross less than a year ago. There are people in my church who say they did it 50 years ago.
But frankly, they struggle to feed themselves. I see more humility amongst my atheist family and friends than in them. But I pray for them, the peacocks. Or using another metaphor, crawl — walk — run — good runner — Olympic runner. I connect with your descriptions of what maturity is not, and are helpful principles as I think thru my life. Looking forward to exploring your other blog postings…. If I can be loved in my brokenness and sin then the least I can do is love someone in theirs. Carey, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your ability and willingness to shine the harsh light of truth on some of the darkest corners of Christendom.
I have only been following you for a little over a week, but you have helped me to realize that I am not alone in feeling that there is something amiss — something that must be addressed if we are to be at all effective in reaching the lost.
Awesome words. I love your straight-to-the-point, and often sarcastic style of writing. The Red Sea thing — hilarious! Great stuff. Points truly echoes lack of balance, like a little kid learning how to walk. Passionate religious and spiritual beliefs tend to be forged in a way that is hard for other people to relate to. Not so much other practitioners who can find common ground, but the personal relationship one has to the universe and creation.
People may come to religion because they are trying to understand their place in the universe or have a moment of recognition and awakening that draws them closer. Kindness, consideration, forgiveness, and love are all qualities preached by nearly every religion and many spiritual paths. Tolerance and respect for the beliefs of others builds bridges and understanding. Defining the range of love is well outside of the scope or capability of this article.
But, one small piece of love is action. Not everyone appreciates kindness, understanding, or charity. But kindness is not a weakness.
Love is not something that we only give to others. The spiritually mature person will also practice healthy self-love. It means understanding that it is okay to have boundaries and limits; it is okay to not allow yourself to be treated poorly or walked on; it is okay to put your needs ahead of the wants and desires of others. People that genuinely care about you and your wellbeing are not going to want you to turn yourself inside out for them.
And a spiritually mature person is going to view self-love as a necessity. Self-love is not just about self-esteem or feeling good about yourself. Trust, but verify. The spiritually mature person knows that no one can have all of the answers to this puzzle we call existence. A doctor may go to school for years, spend time interning, and have a long and illustrious career on their chosen path.
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