Mature Christians

I was asked what is a mature Christian? How do I define one?

Well, I don’t. But I can share some thoughts I have about spiritual maturity. Feel free to comment.

Spiritual maturity is work of God in us. We don’t make ourselves grow, He does. What we can do, is slow Him. I’ve heard that it takes at least 20 years to become a man of God, and the only thing one can do is to slow the process. When you walk that path, you will understand why. I have still a long way to go. Yet I assume that there is already some maturity in my life.

The four phases spiritual maturity can be described as follows.

Me
Me and Jesus
Jesus and me
Jesus

I’d say that around phase 3 we can start to talk about some sort of maturity.

Spiritual maturity is marked by fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are really characters of Christ, that are expressed in the life of a Christian, when that Christ get room in the life of that person. The person himself may be more of less ignorant about them. After all, they are fruit of the Spirit, not something he does himself. To that person they are just the normal way to behave. Making this kind of action is most natural thing to do is precisely what the Spirit does.

Maturity is reflected in the words and in deeds. For the mouth speaks out of hte overflow of heart – and if the heart is filled by Jesus, this is reflected in what the person says. And if the tongue spits out bitter words, obscenities, coarse jokes, bad talk about other people or lies, that too tells something about that persons heart. Likewise, sexual immorality, greed, envy and jealousy are not signs of mature Christian life.

Instead the mature Christian is obedient to Lord and does His will. On one hand it is natural for him, but on the other hand it means continual conscious choices to do the will and not be tempted into something else. The immature Christian is governed by the circumstances, for a mature Christian God is the circumstances. So, in a way, mature Christian is governed by the circumstances as well

Mature christian is one who knows his God. He is not tossed back and forth by the latest religious fashion or latest buzzwords in teaching, or impressed by mere great rhetoric. Instead he knows the truth himself and God’s love dwells in him. Mature Christian needs not to be taught about Christ, for he knows Him, and can learn to know Him better by himself.

Maturity means also taking responsibility of your own life, and then possibly of the lives of others. A part of this responsibility is refusing to act on ones own. Mature person wants to be a subject to a community of others. He is aware if his own deep imperfection, but accepts also his maturity. He does not think more or less of himself.

As maturity is relative, there are different stages of it, as described above. Between immaturity and maturity I’d say is also a kind of pre-maturity. People, who want to be mature, and see their deficiencies in that respect, but don’t quite consider themselves as mature yet. Sometimes this self-image is the only thing that sets them apart from people who could be characterized as mature. Sometimes there are more rough edges to be evened out. But as we all have those, the difference is a line drawn in water.

It is the will of God that all Christians would be mature. As I seek to build a community of mature Christians, I am not only seeking those who are already mature. I also want to incorporate people who are somewhat pre-mature, in the hope of creating an environment where they can mature. For we all have way to grow, and we all can help each other on that path. I for one hope to find people, who can help me in my immaturity.

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks