“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ.” (Eph. 4:15)
We can clearly see the chaos, division, anger, hate, fear, and uncertainty in folks across our country today, but can you also see the overwhelming lack of maturity and wisdom that exists, even from those in our most powerful positions? Where is the wise and mature person among us, and why do wisdom and maturity seem to be non-existent today? Education may be the key to many great things, but education is not the key component to the wisdom and maturity that we see lacking in this country. The wisdom and maturity that this country needs are not the wisdom and maturity that comes from the world but from God! “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Cor. 1:25) So why have we become so immature as a people, and why is a lack of maturity becoming more and more commonplace even in our leaders today?
Scripture reveals that God’s wisdom and maturity in Christ can only be obtained through the Spirit of the Lord, and He will only give His wisdom and reveal His knowledge to the one who earnestly seeks Him. (Prov. 1:7, Prov. 2:1-6) If earnestly seeking the Lord is how you become mature in Christ, then a lack of earnestness in seeking Him will result in immaturity… a lack of growth. We are generations deep in diluting and distorting the Word of God; today, there is predominantly a false grace being preached, one that claims an alternate path to His kingdom. Of course, there are many catastrophic consequences to preaching a false gospel, one of which is that it removes the very thing that God’s Word provided to properly motivate one to earnestly seek Him… a fear of the Lord! The elephant in the room, that is Satan, does not want folks earnestly seeking God because he knows that then they might actually come to know Him and desire to know Him better, mature in Christ! So, the devil attempts to remove the fear of the Lord from our teaching. The one fear that the devil does not want us to have, is the one fear that is given to us by the grace of God to win Life! (Luke 12:5, Titus 2:11-13, Ex. 20:20) What better way for the enemy to remove the motivation for man to earnestly seek God than by deceiving folks into believing that the eternal salvation that they so desire is something that they’ve already attained? If you can convince folks of this, you essentially remove their motivation to seek the Lord with the wholehearted devotion that God requires for one to spiritually grow and mature, “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Lying, bearing false witness, slander, discord, envy, greed: according to the Word of God, these are characteristics of those who will not enter His kingdom! (Eph. 5:3-7, Rev. 21:7-8) Today, however, the church says that these same characteristics describe those who are to be called His children! “You accepted Christ as your Savior, have you? Then by golly, you are a child of God.”, our pastors promise! Detestable! Does anyone not see how ridiculous this premise is? Does it make any sense that God’s children would be those who disobey His commands and do the very things that He hates? (Prov. 6:16-19) You can give yourself whatever label you want, and the church can promise whatever they want to come with the “Christian” label, but I can assure you by the Word of God that His children are not those who disobey His commands! (1 John 3:24, John 8:51, Heb. 5:8-9, John 14:23-24, Heb. 4:11-13)
The church was to focus on God and the things of His kingdom, but the focus of the church today is completely on selling “salvation” and promising all the good things that believing in Jesus can bring to you in this life. I understand there’s a fine line here, there’s no question that the freedom from the bondage of sin that His Spirit provides improves your life like nothing else can or will, but my point is that the purpose for providing that freedom is so that you will desire to serve His will. That is what obeying His commands out of love is all about! Following His Word will always bring everything back to God, the message within the church today brings everything back to us. The concept that the church is to “teach and admonish with all wisdom that everyone becomes fully mature in Christ” is considered offensive today: “How dare someone tell us how to live. We are an entitled people doggonit and it is ‘God’s grace’ that everyone who ‘believes’ goes to heaven no matter how we choose to live!” So rather than truly growing in Christ, we simply grow in our number of those who we claim to be “in” Christ. Therefore, the church has basically become a mental health support system for believers living without the Lord’s Spirit… aka, the lack of maturity you see in the American Christian today.
There are no brownie points for gathering to “praise our Savior” without understanding that the praise Jesus desires is that we live like our Savior. You cannot live like Jesus without growing in your knowledge of Jesus; and you will not grow in your knowledge of Jesus without understanding the role of perseverance. The child of God matures through the suffering that has been granted to us on Christ’s behalf. (Phil. 1:29) But these biblical concepts (suffering and perseverance) have been removed from our teaching. Understand that Jesus never promises good things for us in this life. Sure, Jesus promises hope and provides purpose for this life, but that hope and purpose that His Word provides to this life is only found by being freed from your preoccupation with this life! Again, Jesus provides hope and gives purpose to your life in the flesh, but you will only experience that hope if you understand that He IS the purpose of your life in the flesh! If you think that Jesus will provide all that His Word promises to provide to you without fully surrendering your heart to Him, think again. True freedom is not found in believing that He exists, true freedom is found in dying to that which binds you so that you can exist!
God desires that we focus on His kingdom, not the things of this world. Preaching His truth properly motivates one to earnestly seek Him in His Word and provides the knowledge required for one to understand the reason that we desire to grow in Him. (Col 1:28-29) This lack of maturity that we are witness to today is just one of many catastrophic consequences of a false teaching. If the church is responsible to “equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ,” then the church must take ownership for the lack of spiritual growth and immaturity of those who call themselves “Christians” today. (Eph. 4:11-16) Pastors must accept responsibility for the subjects that their false teaching produces. This false teaching (easy-believism) is producing false believers, armchair Christians, that lack the Spirit of the Lord, as well as the desire to mature in Christ!
There is as much or more sin within the church today as there is in the world. How can this be? There is only one way; it is because we have rejected the Truth and believed in another “way”. It is one thing to be mocked for what you believe, but it is another thing entirely to be mocked for the hypocrisy in which you live. Christians: the world is watching, and the Lord’s Name is being blasphemed because of you! Lord have mercy!
Share this post on social media
From a small book of inspirational messages which I read daily, a recurring theme urges us to be thankful for difficulties and struggles in our lives as well accomplishments and successes. I find that VERY challenging!! We are all human and being thankful for an illness, an injury, a loss, or any number of other possible problems is asking a lot. OR IS IT? The recurring concept is that these problems will occur in every life, and they bring an individual into closer contact with God which outweighs any sadness in the long term. Would you say that a person who masters this has taken a giant step in Christian maturity?
Thank you for your comments and question. Yes, without question, to “glory” in our sufferings is extremely challenging!(Rom. 5:3-5) And I would add, without the Lord this is impossible! I agree with what you are saying but I would add that our struggles can bring us closer to God IF we are earnestly seeking Him and trusting Him through that process. Without faith, life’s struggles will likely only push one further from God. You ask a very good and deep question here, I would love to be able to elaborate more than this platform will allow. However, I will say that persevering is how we grow and mature IN Christ but I would hesitate to suggest that one can ever “master” these types of pain because without the suffering we can’t grow. I hope that makes sense, I’m just suggesting that no one ever grows/matures to the point (this side of eternity) that they no longer feel the pains of this world/life, they simply grow stronger and stronger in their faith as they grow closer to God. (James 1:2:4) I hope this helps answer your question. Thank you again for your feedback and please continue to do so!