Spiritual Maturity

When I was a child. I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Three things will last forever – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:11-13)

One thing I have learned is that spiritual maturity is a life long progression we have to continue to grow in the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ until we have the benefit of meeting him face to face. Here in the 13th chapter of Corinthians, Paul is telling the people of Corinth that love is what defines our worth to God and the church, not the spiritual gifts we have received from God, in fact without love our spiritual gifts are of no value. Verse 11 Paul explains the process of maturity and how as God’s children we must be ever growing in our faith and knowledge, or as Norman Vincent Peale put it, “Ask the God who made you to keep remaking you.”

As we read on into verse 12 Paul talks about how our knowledge of God is limited here in this life, but how we will know everything once Christ establishes his eternal kingdom, then we will see everything with perfect clarity. Verse 13 Paul explains to us that faith, hope and love are more important than spiritual gifts because they last forever and of these three the greatest is love, because love is the exemplary nature of God himself. Read 1 John 4:7-12.

Abba Father, I have so many more things to learn, I ask that you give me the will and courage to never give up, to never stop want to learn more about you and to know you more. I need you to keep me yearning to grow Father and I need your strength to develop me into the man you desire me to be. I pray this in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.