Friday Thought – June 19, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

“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. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:14-16)

Maturity is the goal of our relationship with God and here Paul provides several characteristics of the maturity we are to seek.

Stability. Those who are spiritually immature are easily swayed. They are easy prey for false teachers because they are not firmly established in what they believe. But spiritual maturity is so firmly rooted in your spirit that nothing will be able to disturb it. The only way that kind of firm confidence can be built into our lives is by the consistent and long-term study of God’s Word on our own and listening to good teaching.

Truthfulness. Children often lie. It’s not that they are deliberately trying to hurt someone by misleading them, rather it is a mechanism of self-preservation. Even as adults there is a temptation to shade the truth to make ourselves look better or to keep from hurting someone else. But spiritual maturity is characterized by truth-telling. The mature person has learned that shading the truth doesn’t help the situation in the long-term.

Self-sustaining growth. An infant is dependent upon others for everything that he needs for life. He can’t feed himself, change himself, clothe himself, warm himself, cool himself, or do anything else to provide for his own needs. As a child grows, she takes on greater and greater responsibility for providing for her own needs. She’s reached maturity when she is able to move out and provide completely for herself, and even be able to provide for others. The spiritual infant must be spoon-fed and carefully taken care of. Spiritual maturity is marked by being able to provide completely for herself and even to be able to provide for others.

God doesn’t want His children to remain as spiritual infants all of our lives. His goal for us is that we grow. It’s fine to be an infant in the early days of our spiritual life, but to stay there is a sad condition.

His, by Grace,

Steve