What Defines Christian Maturity?

A broad commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Khen Lim




Father and son (Image source: nacentralohio.com)

Introduction

Within the first half of 1 Corinthians 3, Paul appears critical of the Corinthians’ inability to find spiritual nourishment. Differences were raised between milk and solid foods. Much of this biblical narrative applies today with contemporary Christians. Many of us would do very well to study these verses and personally reflect on where we stand when it comes to spiritual maturity.

Many people who visit a church views its complexion on the simple basis of spiritual maturity. They could easily ask the question of what it means to grow in Christ and the answer is often reflected in how spiritually grown up the members are. For most visitors, often all it takes is a visit to find the answer and if they don’t return, we should ask why.

The completeness of a church is not in its corporate branding or its physical appearance. We should never bother if our church is a crystal glass cathedral. For all we may care, we could meet in a fisherman’s shack and it surely wouldn’t make a difference to God. What I’m sure He would care far more about is the spiritual condition of our individual selves.

Therefore the matter of whether we are spiritual babies or not truly deserves far more than one Sunday’s sermon. If each of us cares enough about our individual spiritual being, then, as a church, we will not just flourish like wild flowers; we will project the right image for others to see Christ illuminate in us.

Tragic but True

When I was a young lad, I had a problem with my heart but my parents made sure I got fixed by sending me to Singapore in November 1966 where I was among the earliest in the island republic to be operated upon for patent ductus arteriosus (PDA, more commonly known as ‘hole in the heart’). But opposite our home, there was a boy of my age who, ironically, had a similar heart problem. 

Upon the success of my operation, my parents went across and spoke to our neighbours, encouraging them to follow suit for the sake of their child. Both being teachers, we presumed they were educated enough to know what was best for their children. But over the years, they did nothing and as time progressed, the child slowly but surely stopped growing, meaning that he remained in a trapped little boy’s body. He might be an adult by age but no one would have known because he looked and behaved like a little boy.

He was haggardly and he looked sickly. He had unhealthy hair drenched of black, looking more like washed-out brown. He had drawn down ghostly eyes and by the time he died in his early 30s, either no one taught him to talk or he wasn’t able to acquire the language since he merely mumbled, barked or grimaced and screamed through his whole life. 

This child could have been normal like the rest of us but he wasn’t. As his life unfolded, he became older but mentally, emotionally and physically, he had not developed. Stuck in a groove, he was an undeveloped adult trapped in a toddler’s body.

There is no doubt that the Corinthians would have denied they too were immature babies even if Paul said they were. Would we be like the Corinthians and deny that we may also be spiritual babies? What if Paul had seen and met any of us? Would he have said the same? Well, I think he might and he’ll likely use the following seven checkpoints to assess us.

1. Do we fight with other Christians?

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Babies often fight, sometimes for silly reasons. They don’t need well-grounded reasons to do so but they’ll get into a scuffle at a moment’s notice. Put them together and they can fight over a piece of toy or even a little inconsequential peanut. You scratch your head trying to figure what there really is to fight.

So how about when Christians fight with Christians? How about when we see church members having stupid rivalries with one another, fighting over positions in different ministries or leadership roles as if families have dynastic rights of ownership? 

Spiritual babies will fight among themselves but why? It is worrying when we can become so engrossed in little petty fights so much so we fail to realise that there are much bigger, far more worrisome battles to deal with. When we do that, we lose sight of our real enemies. Our conceitedness will certainly blind us from recognising the works of the deadly prince of lies and darkness. As he happily sees us busy fighting among ourselves, he busies himself dismantling our church and every meaningful construct in our lives.

Paul says the characteristics of babies are envy, strife and division (1 Cor 3:3). ‘Division’ is a worrying word given the circumstances behind in-fighting among Christians. When we become divided, we are weakened and we become vulnerable to outside forces. If we remain spiritually immature, we will never be able to focus on the good fight for Christ and that is a worry.

2. Do we enjoy grabbing all the attention?

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Babies love the spotlight. All the time. They want you to spend time with them, coddle them, hug them or make them laugh. They will gurgle back at us as a reward, dangling the carrot for us to do more. And if we fail to give them their attention, make no mistake, they will turn on their cry mode. If that doesn’t work, they simply cry louder until all hell breaks loose. In other words, we usually pay a hefty price for our ignorance.

It seems we Christians don’t appear to be all that much different. Like infants, we have much to learn about exercising patience (1 Pet 5:6). Instead we too prefer to make our presence felt by speaking loud enough to sometimes unsettle or rattle others, stepping out and making a nuisance or acting up so that others have no choice but to sit up and take notice.

Basically we do whatever it takes to draw attention to ourselves. In 3 Jn 1:9, Paul talks about Diotrephes who basically wants us to know that it’s all about him because he simply “does not accept what we say.” Diotrephes is a good example of a spiritual baby, someone who badly wanted all the attention to himself and as a result, was bent on ignoring Paul.

3. Are we ignorant of what Scripture has to say?

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Babies have no idea what they eat or drink. They may like to drink milk but they have neither the intellect nor the mental capacity to know what milk is. Feed them Heinz Baby Food and it’s the same. When babies begin to develop, they don’t have connection with their own environment because they simply do not have the wherewithal to understand anything about life (yet). And so they become vulnerable to the dangers that are around their surroundings. For example, they crawl everywhere but have no idea of the nearby steps that can send them tumbling thus hurting themselves.

When adults are spiritually immature, that often has to do with a profound lack of biblical knowledge and godly awareness. We are tantamount to rely on hearsay, preferring to learn from the world than to invest in reading God’s Word. 1 Pet 2:2 puts it correctly, saying, “Like newborn babies, long for pure milk of the Word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.” That’s another way of saying that as a baby relies on milk to grow, all Christians alike are dependent on the ‘pure milk of the Word’ to develop our spiritual maturity.

Like babies who have no inkling of their surroundings – and therefore know so little about life – maybe we are the same too. Devoid of chunky scriptural meat, we cannot distinguish ourselves apart from the people of the flesh. And without spiritual maturity, we have little to no basis to obey God.

4. Do we offend or are offended easily?

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Babies brook no nonsense. They have neither the temperament nor the patience to sit and wait for their answers. If there is anything they don’t like, they certainly make themselves heard. And very loudly too. When they don’t get what they want, they act as they feel offended and when that happens, the whining, neighing, crying, pouting, sulking and petulance will all rain havoc on us. Babies can become so unmanageable when they feel ‘offended’ but they think nothing of how they may ‘offend’ others.

This lack of tolerance is also evident in many of us. Quite often, we too display mind-boggling sensitivity rather needlessly. If you are one of those who find offence in the pastor’s sermon because you believe he is talking about you, then you need to sit up and look back at yourself, rather than to be offended enough to stop you from spiritually developing. Ps 119:165 says, “Those who love Your law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble.”

And so what if that sermon did talk about you? Maybe it also speaks to others as well but that doesn’t matter. If it does talk about you, see it as an opportunity from God to learn and then bring about positive change to your life. This means desensitising ourselves. It also means not to take offence.

5. Are we ever contended with ourselves?

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Babies do get satisfied but never for long. At best, it’s between feeds. At worst, it can last as long as a blink of an eye. Babies are also averse to many other situations where contentment is difficult to picture (see what happens when they lost hold of their pacifier...). Apart from hunger, babies get tired easily, or they find discomfort in their physical position or they feel pain from wind or colic or they are constipated. Any of these will trigger a deep sense of dissatisfaction in which babies will certainly make known very vocally. In other words babies are rarely satisfied.

So how satisfied are we then? Or are we always complaining? Maybe the sermons are a tad too long? Or they are too boring to stay awake? Maybe we got upset because the pastor did not notice or acknowledge your efforts in organising the youth retreat. Or perhaps he forgot to include you in that special list you’ve been looking forward to. 

Maybe the wall colour is unspeakably ghastly. Crikey, even the carpet stinks. You’re irate that they don’t play the right mix of worship songs to suit your palate. The hymns are way too old-fashioned. And why are we stuck with the same worship leader all the time? Can’t we have different refreshments after the service instead of the same old?

There is always a never-ending barrage of complaints in church. What I’ve mentioned touches only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There would be many who would’ve a field day telling us all the things that don’t go right in church! All of these and more simply widens the passage for Satan to hinder and frustrate all of us who diligently want to advance God’s ministry. When we are so impossible to satisfy, we not only play into God’s displeasure but we surely welcome His judgement to befall us when the time comes.

Num 11:1 relates a foreboding incident with an unmistakable warning for us all: “Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the Lord; and when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.” 

We don’t need to experience an inferno for this verse to make sense. It alone is a serious warning of the consequences we face when we are nothing but a complaining discontented lot.

Dissatisfaction also leads us to be disobedient. When a baby is dissatisfied, he could just as easily rebel. A person who is spiritually impaired disobeys out of discontentment. He simply doesn’t do what God expects him to. Instead he persists in discontent, ingratitude and does not rejoice in Him (Php 4:4, 4:11, 1 Thess 5:18) and often at his peril.

6. Do we have trouble staying out of trouble?

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As all of us know, babies hardly ever stay clean for long. Before we know it, they’ll be messed up especially after a feed. Babies regurgitate without warning, leaving their faces plastered with spat-out milk and splotches everywhere else, on their clothes, in their hair and on the bedsheets. 

Don’t forget too that, unless you know the signs and can read them well, babies will also move their bowels without your knowledge. Thank heavens for diapers! It’s only when the stench tickles your nostrils that you know trouble is about. And once they become a little more mobile and learn to crawl, more trouble will arrive. More often than not, that won’t be too far away as well!

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that we all live in a world already plunged headlong into sin. Sin is everywhere we look. Sin is everywhere we read. Sin is what we hear all the time. Sin finds us without effort. Try finding a Hollywood movie to watch that doesn’t have blood and guts, gratuitous sex, outbursts of profanities, lewdness and darkness and you’ll get what I mean.

Many of us like to believe that we can walk the talk but it isn’t easy these days because life today demands that we negotiate and meander our way through the numerous pitfalls that are laid in front of us. We have to deal with pornography, child abuse, sexual violence, crime, gambling, chronic substance abuse and corruption in everything we read, see, look, find and listen to. All of these are so ingrained in modern society that it has become a wallpapered complexion; a sign of the times if you will. Many of us have become so numbed by all of them that we take them in our stride.

While Jesus says, “You are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you (Jn 15:3),” the problem is that we are far likelier to indulge in everything else but read the Bible. A churchgoing Christian may be faithfully at the same pew for the last many years but don’t be surprised at all if he doesn’t read Scripture much. A young Christian who loves to be part of the music ministry might sing praises in the most theatrically electric fashion but he might not know what Paul says in his letters to the church in Corinth. 

That is why staying out of trouble is easier said than done. When we Christians continue to fail to be spiritually prepared, we are basically preparing ourselves to fail.

7. Are we envious of others’ success?

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Since when do babies ever do what their parents want them to do (especially when they refuse to)? After all babies feed not because the parents convince them to but because they are hungry and want to be fed. They don’t really wonder what you think; they just do what they want to do. What they want has nothing to do with what you need them to do!

Similarly when a baby wants something that another (baby) has, he will simply demand one for himself and there is nothing we can do to ignore it unless we wish hell to descend upon and wreck peace at home. In other words, a baby is spectacularly successful whenever he is jealous enough to want something that others have. 

Are Christians any different? Hardly. Jealousy predominates as a commonplace response within our emotional spectrum. And it often gets us all into trouble too. We see jealousy at work everywhere we go including within the four walls of all churches. Jealousy reigns among adults of all ages, of all capacities and roles and responsibilities in all ministries. Jealousy clouds all minds and judgements. It drives wedges into friendships and relationships. It poisons and stifles us to destroy and place things into abject disrepair. It eats us up.

Christians are just as likely to be envious of the success of other fellow Christians. In church even. We scheme to manipulate ourselves into positions of envy. Or alternatively we deliberately steer clear of roles and responsibilities we do not want and we set traps so that others may end up doing such work. All because we desire to free ourselves from being of service to God. While this may not be an example of envy, it is a reversal with the same undermining motive.

Without a doubt, everyone of us is undermined by the threat of jealousy. We often walk in the shadow of brewing envy, the type that disembowels our integrity and makes us go spiteful. That is why Paul encourages and exhorts us to train our focus on Jesus (Heb 12:2) and not on the affairs of men if we are to worthily wear His holy name and live a life worthy of it.

_________

A Christian bereft of spiritual maturity not only accepts but has no other choice than to consume a milk diet because he simply is incapable of taking solid foods. And he will forever stay in that position either because that is where he wants to be or because he is ignorant of the importance of spiritual growth. Age has no bearing on spiritual maturity – it is a pervasive state of mind regardless of whether we are elderly, young, parental minded or career fixated. To be spiritually mature is a holy desire to be of deep Christian service in our endeavour to grow in Christ.

Hebrews 5:13-14 says, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” You can’t get any starker a warning than that.

While many Christians profess to embrace God's salvation, they may do so and remain spiritually naïve (or ignorant) – as babies do – and therefore have no understanding of the deeper aspects of the Word of God. So at this stage, it would help to take note of five needful things to help the spiritually immature grow and accept solid foods:

-         Look to Christ and not be distracted by the affairs of men.

-         Remember the cross of Christ for nothing else but His death and resurrection that has set us free.

-         Begin earnestly to build our lives according to Christ’s teachings so that we may have a steadfast foundation.

-         Pray and be selflessly concerned for others, that you may project Christ to them.

-         And then seek God with all our hearts so that we may learn patience, perseverance, tolerance, kindness and maturity.

Spiritual Maturity as a Christian Identity

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So what should the Christian identity be then? Is it one who is devoid of spiritual maturity or one who grows spiritually empowered by Christ? Pertinently, Paul asks, “Do you not realise about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?” (2 Cor 13:5)

How do we go about becoming Christians for everyone to see, know and understand? Paul says, “Because the God who said, Out of darkness, light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6-7).

Is it by how we appear on the outside or by what and who we are from the insides of our heart? 1 Sam 16:7 reminds us that, “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

So the question is, what image do you project that makes the best statement of who we are, or which church we belong to or even where we are all spiritually headed? 

It is the image that reveals Christ in us that is most relevant. When facing the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus labelled them hypocrites and said, “You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every impurity” (Mt 23:27).

Remember the New Testament days when the church was in the homes of believers? These were small assemblies that were about the size of our own usual Sunday congregation and they met in homes (Acts 2:46, 20:20). It was allowable. It was biblical. In fact, much can be said about a small church that may be preferable for some Christians over larger gatherings. Maybe some of us enjoy greater intimacy, more meaningful relationships, warmer worship, and strength in purpose and so on. It’s a fact that larger churches promote cell groups that give credence to the small church advantage.

It is true that the early church met in homes for a reason. After all, where else would they otherwise meet? When there were no official church buildings, there had to be somewhere where believers could convene and worship. Homes replaced everything else then because there were no other venues to have such meetings without attracting Roman persecution. And to think that in this new millennium, many Christians in hostile parts of the world who continue to meet in the same way as 2,000 years ago, tell us that the more things change, the more they actually stay the same.

But there is something very purposeful with how churches used to meet in homes for that was how they established their identity, their image, or for those steeped in marketing talk, their branding. Early church attained their identity by being spiritually relevant, devoted to the Word of God and centred in the purpose of being Christ-like. That means we cannot continue to be spiritual babies no matter where we are. 

If 2016 is to be a year of purpose for us, it must be to change and to die to self but gain maturity in Christ (Php 1:21, Gal 2:20). Only be attaining this milestone can we please God by revealing Christ in each and every one of us (Gal 1:15-16).