Spiritual Maturity

A little over a month ago, Pam and I were back in Indiana visiting family.

On our last full day there, I was able to spend it with my dad. We drove by the home where I was born that he and my grandfather built. We traveled back in time to look at what was left of the farm my grandparents owned when my dad first moved to Michigan, then drove part of the mail route he had when he first married my mom.

They were wonderful memories, as I am grateful for my spiritual heritage and the foundations in Christ that were established generations before me.

The day got off to a great start, for it began at an Amish donut shop called “Rise-n-Roll.” Dad and I shared a slice of Sausage Roll with hot sausage gravy, then each followed with a chocolate-iced, Bavarian creme-filled donut. It is a visit I look forward to every trip back, for, as far as I am concerned, a better donut does not exist on the planet.

I tell you this, besides just wanting to make you jealous, because that morning on the whiteboard of Rise-n-Roll, someone had written these words:

Spiritual Maturity isn’t measured by how high you jump in praise, but how straight you walk in obedience.

I can’t believe I am saying this, but the impact of those words was even better than the sausage roll and crème-filled donut. The words both encouraged and challenged me. As I have shared with you before (and probably will again), it reminded me of the words my grandfather passed down to me through my dad:

Your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks more than your talk talks.

Spiritual Maturity is measured by our actions, not by our words.

And spiritual maturity is not only a goal, but is actually what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 6:1, the writer of Hebrews writes,

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity…

- Hebrews 6:1

In 1 Corinthians 13:11, the Apostle Paul compares spiritual maturity with physical maturity...

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

- 1 Corinthians 13:11

And in Ephesians 4, verses 12-15 (paraphrased), the Apostle Paul calls us to be equipped for works of service, in order to build up the body of Christ, that we might become mature, growing up in Christ Jesus.

And finally, St. Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:2,

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation…

- 1 Peter 2:2

We are called to Spiritual Maturity, to not just talk about it, but to be about it. It is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

It is not measured by how high we jump in praise, but how straight we walk in obedience.

Pastor Ken

‍