“He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” (Ephesians 4:16 NLT)

 

Good things happen when the church functions in the way God intends. Not only do God’s people become unified, like the parts of a body working together, but we also become spiritually mature. The apostle Paul offers a glimpse of what that maturity looks like: “We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church” (Ephesians 4:14–15 NLT).

When I was a brand-new believer, I would talk with Pastor Chuck Smith, who was quite a bit older than I was. One day, I asked, “Chuck, how long have you been a Christian?”

I think he said it was somewhere around fifty years. That number stunned me.

“Fifty years?” I asked. “Does that make you an apostle now? Can you walk on water after fifty years?”

There is maturity that comes with time. But I’ve been a Christian now for longer than fifty years, and while I’ve certainly grown and learned a lot, I have a long way to go.

Some of you may be saying, “Yeah, you do, Greg.” And that’s true. I do. But you do, too. We all do. There’s no shame in admitting it. In fact, when we stop believing we have a long way to go, we set ourselves up for a fall.

Paul himself said, “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Philippians 3:13–14 NLT). Even as he taught others how to become spiritually mature, Paul constantly was striving to become more mature in Christ himself.

Spiritual maturity grounds us in the truth of Scripture. It keeps us from being “tossed and blown about” by false teachings. It gives us the wisdom and discernment to recognize deceivers, people who try to make the Bible say things it doesn’t say.

Spiritual maturity and spiritual unity complement one another. When you develop a sense of unity with other believers, you also develop a sense of accountability. And believers who are accountable to one another will speak the truth in love when one of them starts to go down a questionable path.

 

Reflection Question: What does spiritual maturity look like in your life?

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