Signs Of Maturity
The Journey to Spiritual Maturity: Leaving Elementary Teachings Behind
There comes a moment in every believer's life when the comfortable foundations of faith must give way to something deeper, more challenging, and ultimately more transforming. The Christian journey isn't meant to be a perpetual loop of elementary lessons—it's designed to be a progressive march toward maturity in Christ.
Beyond the Basics
Hebrews 6:1 presents us with a compelling challenge: "Therefore, leaving the elementary teachings about the Christ, let us press on to maturity." These words should resonate deeply with anyone who has found themselves spiritually stagnant, recycling the same struggles year after year.
Think about it. How long have you been wrestling with the same besetting sins? How many times have you confessed the same failures, made the same promises, and found yourself in the same spiritual rut? The call to maturity isn't about perfection—it's about progression. It's about refusing to camp at the foot of the mountain when God is calling you higher.
The pressing imagery used in Scripture is intentional. Pressing requires effort, strain, and determination. It's the language of the weight room, where growth happens through resistance. Spiritual maturity doesn't come through passive observation or casual Christianity. It comes through the deliberate, sometimes painful process of pushing beyond what's comfortable.
The Foundation of Our Identity
Before we can truly mature, we must understand what we've been given. Colossians 1:28 reveals the heart of spiritual leadership: "We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ."
Complete in Christ. Not complete in our achievements, our knowledge, our good works, or our religious performance. Complete in Him alone.
This truth liberates us from the exhausting treadmill of performance-based Christianity. We don't mature to earn God's love—we already have it fully in Christ. We mature because we've been transformed by that love and want to reflect it more accurately in our daily lives.
Ephesians 2:8-10 makes this crystal clear: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."
Notice the sequence: saved by grace, created for good works. The works don't produce the salvation; the salvation produces the works. This isn't about earning anything—it's about becoming who we already are in Christ.
Walking in the New Life
Romans 8:29 tells us that those God foreknew, "He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son." This is the journey of maturity—being progressively shaped into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
What does this look like practically? It means studying the life of Christ and allowing His patterns to become our patterns. It means when faced with difficult people, we ask, "How would Jesus respond?" When confronted with temptation, we remember how He wielded Scripture as His defense. When serving others feels inconvenient, we recall how He consistently put others' needs before His own comfort.
The beauty of this calling is that we're not left to accomplish it in our own strength. Colossians 2:6-7 reminds us: "Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him, established in your faith just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude."
Walking in Him. Rooted in Him. Built up in Him. Established in Him. The Christian life isn't about self-improvement—it's about Christ-immersion.
Letting Go to Move Forward
One of the most challenging aspects of spiritual maturity is learning what to release. Philippians 3:13-14 gives us Paul's perspective: "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Forgetting what lies behind. This includes both our failures and our successes. Some believers are paralyzed by past sins, unable to accept the fullness of God's forgiveness. Others are trapped by past achievements, constantly rehearsing their glory days instead of pressing into new territory.
Maturity means releasing both. The past—whether painful or pleasant—cannot be allowed to define our present or dictate our future. We serve a God who makes all things new, and that includes our identity, our purpose, and our trajectory.
The Fruit of Maturity
Perhaps nowhere is spiritual maturity more clearly defined than in Galatians 5:22-23, which describes the fruit of the Spirit: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."
Notice these aren't fruits we produce through gritted teeth and religious effort. They're the fruit of the Spirit—the natural outgrowth of His presence and work in our lives. This is crucial to understand. We don't manufacture love, joy, and peace through sheer willpower. We cultivate them by remaining connected to the Vine, by walking in step with the Spirit, by daily surrendering to His transforming work.
These characteristics become the measuring stick of our maturity. Are we more loving than we were a year ago? More patient with difficult people? More self-controlled in our reactions? These aren't rhetorical questions—they're diagnostic tools for assessing our spiritual growth.
The Practical Path Forward
So how do we actually mature? The answer is simultaneously simple and demanding:
Daily surrender. Each morning presents an opportunity to confess sin, receive forgiveness, and commit ourselves afresh to following Christ.
Consistent intake of God's Word. We cannot be transformed by truth we don't know. Scripture reading, study, meditation, and memorization aren't optional extras—they're essential nutrients for spiritual growth.
Active obedience. James reminds us to be doers of the Word, not merely hearers. Knowledge without application produces pride, not maturity.
Community engagement. We weren't designed to mature in isolation. The body of Christ exists to encourage, challenge, correct, and sharpen us.
Persistent endurance. Maturity isn't achieved in a weekend seminar or a forty-day challenge. It's the cumulative result of faithful, daily choices over the course of a lifetime.
The Ultimate Goal
The goal of spiritual maturity isn't to become impressive Christians who can quote Scripture and maintain perfect behavior. The goal is to become so saturated with Christ that He naturally flows out of us in every circumstance.
It's to reach the place where our first response to difficulty is prayer rather than panic, where our default mode is gratitude rather than grumbling, where we instinctively prefer others because Christ has so thoroughly transformed our hearts.
This is the life we've been called to—not a life of religious drudgery, but one of joyful transformation. Not a journey we walk alone, but one where the Spirit Himself empowers every step.
The question isn't whether maturity is possible. The Spirit has already provided everything we need. The question is whether we'll accept the invitation to press on, to leave the elementary things behind, and to pursue the fullness of life in Christ with everything we have.
The journey awaits. Will you take the next step?
There comes a moment in every believer's life when the comfortable foundations of faith must give way to something deeper, more challenging, and ultimately more transforming. The Christian journey isn't meant to be a perpetual loop of elementary lessons—it's designed to be a progressive march toward maturity in Christ.
Beyond the Basics
Hebrews 6:1 presents us with a compelling challenge: "Therefore, leaving the elementary teachings about the Christ, let us press on to maturity." These words should resonate deeply with anyone who has found themselves spiritually stagnant, recycling the same struggles year after year.
Think about it. How long have you been wrestling with the same besetting sins? How many times have you confessed the same failures, made the same promises, and found yourself in the same spiritual rut? The call to maturity isn't about perfection—it's about progression. It's about refusing to camp at the foot of the mountain when God is calling you higher.
The pressing imagery used in Scripture is intentional. Pressing requires effort, strain, and determination. It's the language of the weight room, where growth happens through resistance. Spiritual maturity doesn't come through passive observation or casual Christianity. It comes through the deliberate, sometimes painful process of pushing beyond what's comfortable.
The Foundation of Our Identity
Before we can truly mature, we must understand what we've been given. Colossians 1:28 reveals the heart of spiritual leadership: "We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ."
Complete in Christ. Not complete in our achievements, our knowledge, our good works, or our religious performance. Complete in Him alone.
This truth liberates us from the exhausting treadmill of performance-based Christianity. We don't mature to earn God's love—we already have it fully in Christ. We mature because we've been transformed by that love and want to reflect it more accurately in our daily lives.
Ephesians 2:8-10 makes this crystal clear: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."
Notice the sequence: saved by grace, created for good works. The works don't produce the salvation; the salvation produces the works. This isn't about earning anything—it's about becoming who we already are in Christ.
Walking in the New Life
Romans 8:29 tells us that those God foreknew, "He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son." This is the journey of maturity—being progressively shaped into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
What does this look like practically? It means studying the life of Christ and allowing His patterns to become our patterns. It means when faced with difficult people, we ask, "How would Jesus respond?" When confronted with temptation, we remember how He wielded Scripture as His defense. When serving others feels inconvenient, we recall how He consistently put others' needs before His own comfort.
The beauty of this calling is that we're not left to accomplish it in our own strength. Colossians 2:6-7 reminds us: "Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him, established in your faith just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude."
Walking in Him. Rooted in Him. Built up in Him. Established in Him. The Christian life isn't about self-improvement—it's about Christ-immersion.
Letting Go to Move Forward
One of the most challenging aspects of spiritual maturity is learning what to release. Philippians 3:13-14 gives us Paul's perspective: "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Forgetting what lies behind. This includes both our failures and our successes. Some believers are paralyzed by past sins, unable to accept the fullness of God's forgiveness. Others are trapped by past achievements, constantly rehearsing their glory days instead of pressing into new territory.
Maturity means releasing both. The past—whether painful or pleasant—cannot be allowed to define our present or dictate our future. We serve a God who makes all things new, and that includes our identity, our purpose, and our trajectory.
The Fruit of Maturity
Perhaps nowhere is spiritual maturity more clearly defined than in Galatians 5:22-23, which describes the fruit of the Spirit: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."
Notice these aren't fruits we produce through gritted teeth and religious effort. They're the fruit of the Spirit—the natural outgrowth of His presence and work in our lives. This is crucial to understand. We don't manufacture love, joy, and peace through sheer willpower. We cultivate them by remaining connected to the Vine, by walking in step with the Spirit, by daily surrendering to His transforming work.
These characteristics become the measuring stick of our maturity. Are we more loving than we were a year ago? More patient with difficult people? More self-controlled in our reactions? These aren't rhetorical questions—they're diagnostic tools for assessing our spiritual growth.
The Practical Path Forward
So how do we actually mature? The answer is simultaneously simple and demanding:
Daily surrender. Each morning presents an opportunity to confess sin, receive forgiveness, and commit ourselves afresh to following Christ.
Consistent intake of God's Word. We cannot be transformed by truth we don't know. Scripture reading, study, meditation, and memorization aren't optional extras—they're essential nutrients for spiritual growth.
Active obedience. James reminds us to be doers of the Word, not merely hearers. Knowledge without application produces pride, not maturity.
Community engagement. We weren't designed to mature in isolation. The body of Christ exists to encourage, challenge, correct, and sharpen us.
Persistent endurance. Maturity isn't achieved in a weekend seminar or a forty-day challenge. It's the cumulative result of faithful, daily choices over the course of a lifetime.
The Ultimate Goal
The goal of spiritual maturity isn't to become impressive Christians who can quote Scripture and maintain perfect behavior. The goal is to become so saturated with Christ that He naturally flows out of us in every circumstance.
It's to reach the place where our first response to difficulty is prayer rather than panic, where our default mode is gratitude rather than grumbling, where we instinctively prefer others because Christ has so thoroughly transformed our hearts.
This is the life we've been called to—not a life of religious drudgery, but one of joyful transformation. Not a journey we walk alone, but one where the Spirit Himself empowers every step.
The question isn't whether maturity is possible. The Spirit has already provided everything we need. The question is whether we'll accept the invitation to press on, to leave the elementary things behind, and to pursue the fullness of life in Christ with everything we have.
The journey awaits. Will you take the next step?
Posted in Spiritual Growth
Posted in #SpiritualMaturity, #ChristianGrowth, #LeavingElementaryTeachings
Posted in #SpiritualMaturity, #ChristianGrowth, #LeavingElementaryTeachings
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