“… solid food is for those who have attained maturity, for those who by use have their senses exercised in the discernment of good and evil” – Hebrews 5:14
Spiritual maturity is an extremely necessary quality or condition for the man of God, and it is attained only through a continual and gradual process, clinging to the Lord. Nor is it something that necessarily depends on chronological time; rather, maturity comes from a genuine surrender to God, so that Christ may live His life in us. When we live permanently in the Spirit, our inner man develops fully, and all the beauty of the character of God is manifested in him. Then those who relate to us will see godliness and the fruit of the Spirit in the way we live. Therefore, something that can serve as a yardstick to measure that growth in the Spirit is when we act with maturity.
The Lord desires every Christian to attain maturity, but above all those who are dedicated to some type of ministry. Why? Because we ministers are called to teach godliness with our lives. In the academic realm, the one who has acquired a higher degree teaches those who have a lower level. For example, the one who has a doctorate imparts his knowledge to those who have a master’s degree; the latter teach those who are at the bachelor’s level, and these in turn teach the young people who are in high school, middle school, and elementary school, respectively. The same happens in the spiritual realm: a minister must be a teacher of godliness and of maturity. A minister may have a doctorate in divinity or theology, but if he has not attained a considerable degree of spiritual maturity, he is not fit to begin his ministry. Truth and godliness are not taught academically, but with life. Maturity is acquired by walking with God and living in the Spirit.
The church is full of tutors (instructors of children), but there are few spiritual fathers. Instructors abound, but teachers of godliness are scarce. These are the ones who can teach the truth with their lives. To be an instructor you only need to have been instructed. All who have studied at a seminary and institute are fit to instruct, but they are not necessarily qualified to teach (1 Timothy 3:2). The Cuban educator José de la Luz y Caballero said: “Anyone can instruct; only one who is a living gospel can educate.” The same happens in the spiritual realm: only the one who has attained a high degree of maturity is equipped to teach and lead others. Notice how the apostle Paul refers to maturity in the following passage:
“So, brothers, when I came to you to announce the testimony of God, I did not come with excellence of words or of wisdom. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in much fear and trembling; and neither my word nor my preaching was with persuasive words of human wisdom, but with demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not be founded on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. However, we speak wisdom among those who have attained maturity; and wisdom, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are perishing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But rather, as it is written: Things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, are what God has prepared for those who love Him. But God revealed them to us by the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man that is in him? Even so, no one has known the things of God, except the Spirit of God. And we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who proceeds from God, that we may know what God has granted us, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, accommodating the spiritual to the spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:1-13).
I need to clarify that although at times we may sound as if we despise science or the achievements of modern man, that is not so, because all these things have their standing in natural life and are commendable. What we oppose is the pretense of reaching purposes of a spiritual nature with human tools. Faith is one thing and reason another. People have set them to fighting, but faith is not competing with reason. We need human things to live the natural life, but we need faith to live the spiritual life, which is another kind of life. The problem is that today, even in the training of ministers, the emphasis on everything is the intellectual, the mechanical, the tools of humans, and faith and everything spiritual are discarded. That is why God, in the restoration, is returning the church to the beginning, so that we may accommodate the spiritual to the spiritual, and the natural to the natural.
Spiritual things are discerned spiritually, and for that we need to have the nature of God and a spiritual mind, just as Paul explains: “But the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God, because to him they are foolishness, and he cannot understand them, because they have to be discerned spiritually. But the spiritual man judges all things; yet he himself is judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:14-16). But we have made the mistake of doing spiritual things with natural means, with philosophies, with intellect, with humanistic ideas. We cannot preach with human instruments, because preaching is not human. To preach is not to lecture, like giving a speech at the United Nations or at any forum. Public speaking has its art, its rhetoric, and its rules, but the one who preaches the Word of God has the Spirit, the prudence, the discernment, the wisdom from above, and knows how to accommodate the spiritual to the spiritual. That is why spiritual maturity is necessary for him.
WE CAN AFFIRM THAT THE SPIRITUAL MAN IS MATURE, for he has a spiritual nature that enables him to discern good and evil. But when one born of God cannot discern the things that are of the Spirit, it is because he is a child, that is, he walks in the flesh, just as the apostle describes it: “So, brothers, I could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1). That is to say, a spiritual man is one who has been born of the Spirit and walks in the Spirit, whereas the carnal man is one who has also been born of the Spirit, but walks in the flesh and is occupied with the flesh; consequently, he has grown much in the flesh, but has not grown at all in the Spirit. He remained a child. And if he keeps feeding only on the flesh, walking in the flesh, and exercising himself in the flesh, he will continue to be a child. We saw that Adam, who was created in the image of God, when he sinned, became incapacitated for the spiritual and entered into the world of the flesh. A carnal man is the same as a child. And this is as true as a mathematical formula:
Carnal man = Child
Spiritual man = Mature or perfect man
Sadly, this has been little understood, and therefore the only thing required of a minister is biblical knowledge and a theological degree. This has resulted in children teaching children. In many places, the church is led by immature people. I say this with much respect and at the same time with much sorrow. I work with pastors and leaders in some parts of the world, and I see colleagues who are called apostles and bishops but do not have the maturity of even a disciple. I am amazed by leaders who head large ministries and seem like newly converted children. They fight, compete, manipulate, cause scandals, and do not care about the harm they do to the work of God, as long as they hold positions or promote themselves; they oppose the purpose of God and live a disorderly life. I have seen more maturity in many deacons and deaconesses of local churches than in these ministers.
Maturity is measured by the degree of subjection to which we have subjected our flesh and by the level of submission with which we have submitted ourselves to the Holy Spirit. A person may have a great title (apostle, bishop, presbyter, etc.), an ecclesiastical position, an unequaled anointing, be astonishingly charismatic, but if he walks in the flesh he is a dangerous immature. On the other hand, even if a brother lacks everything mentioned, if he lives according to the Spirit he is mature and, consequently, can represent God and be useful on behalf of others. Solomon said: “Woe to you, O land, when your king is a youth…” (Ecclesiastes 10:16) Today we can say: “Woe to you, church, when your leader is immature!”
Spiritual maturity is not necessarily determined by time or age. I have seen brothers who in six months in the Lord have matured more than others who have years as believers. Therefore, and because of the importance that maturity has in the Christian life and the relationship it has with the life according to the Spirit, it is necessary that we dedicate a segment of this chapter to studying it.
We have already said that the man of God must be a teacher of godliness, of maturity, because he has attained more. That is to say, what makes you a servant in the kingdom of God is not only the calling, but that you be equipped to give, because the one whom God calls, He equips. That is, if He sent you to preach, He puts His word in your mouth (Jeremiah 1:9). That is why the Bible says that He has made His ministers a flame of fire (Hebrews 1:7), and has imparted to them gifts and ministries. But the Lord also gave them the fruit of the Spirit, so that they may grow in what has to do with character, and to be able to administer with maturity all the things He has placed in their hands. The fruit of maturity in a minister has to be, by far, greater than that of an ordinary Christian, since he is called to be a model of everything God has given. Consequently, as someone who has grown much, he can give, impart, and teach. He must be a mature Christian to the highest degree, in all the aspects that govern maturity.
In the ministry of the Spirit, character is of the utmost importance. We have left behind the traditional ecclesiastical ministry, or the religiously cultural one, to submit ourselves voluntarily to the ministry of the Holy Spirit; therefore the formation of character is more important than any other type of ability, even more than the technical aspect, which is the part most emphasized in ministerial training. But maturity is not a requirement only for ministers, but for all believers born of the Spirit. Therefore, studying some aspects of maturity is very important to complete all that we have set forth in this book.
First, let us go to the book of Hebrews, where the apostle Paul focuses on a fundamental aspect of the subject:
“Concerning this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, because you have become slow to hear. For though by now you ought to be teachers, after so much time, you need someone to teach you again what the first rudiments of the words of God are; and you have come to be such that you need milk, and not solid food. And everyone who partakes of milk is INEXPERIENCED in the word of righteousness, BECAUSE HE IS A BABE; but solid food is for those who have attained MATURITY, for those who by use have their senses exercised in the discernment of good and evil” (Hebrews 11:11-14).
That is to say, according to the Word of God, when our ears are not hearing, whether because they have not been opened to us or because we do not have the willingness to hear the Word, we resist it, the simple becomes complicated, and we cannot understand it. Jesus said that more blessed than all others are those who hear the word of God and keep it (Luke 11:28). When someone wants to do the will of God, he understands God, because the desire and the longing, his demand and eagerness are so strong that they push him to hear and to seek what is of God. But when we have not grown in walking according to the Spirit, our ears become slow and understanding the Word becomes DIFFICULT. That explains to us the problem God has with a large part of the church today.
The Christian life for many is tedious and overwhelming, slow and obstructed, and they even become neutralized, because they have become slow to hear. The apostle has explained the reason for this impossibility. He said that there is much to say, and it is hard to explain, not because it is veiled, since the mysteries of the kingdom have already been revealed, but because of the inability to understand even though our ears were opened by the Holy Spirit from the time we believed. The one who is born again has ears to hear God, has eyes to see, and a heart to understand, but when we do not walk in the Spirit but in the flesh, then our senses become dull, the eyes go blind, our ears become obstructed, and what is easy to perceive becomes hard to understand.
Observe what happens when the illumination of the Spirit comes into your life, at a given moment, and your understanding is opened to the Word or to the mysteries of the kingdom or to anything in your life that God wants to show you in His good will. When this happens, you notice that your understanding is opened, that the piece of the puzzle falls into place, and you feel a joy, as if a light were shining on you from within. This is because the breath of the Spirit has made you understand. But when the opposite happens, and you read and reread, but do not understand, it is because your senses are not in God, but in the flesh, and they become obstructed. Then, although there is much to say, it is hard to explain, because the ears are closed; there is no receptivity.
The apostle attributes this difficulty to immaturity. He said: “For though by now you ought to be teachers, after so much time, you need someone to teach you again what the first rudiments of the words of God are; and you have come to be such that you need milk, and not solid food” (Hebrews 12:12). Who needs milk? Children, the newborn. Adults are the ones who seek solid and nutritious food to eat, not caring about its appearance or taste. We see that for children, in their first years, milk is of primary importance more than anything else. And later, when we move them to other types of food, it has to have a sweet taste or a colorful appearance, so that they find it attractive and want to eat it. This description is proper to an infant, but an adult who has this attitude in order to eat has not matured in his palate or in his food awareness. Therefore, it is very possible that his state of health is anemic and frail. And just as there are children who have learning problems and fall behind in school, which affects their social and emotional development and everything that the natural implies, so it also happens in the spiritual, when our senses are not exercised in the truth.
According to the apostle Paul, a person is a spiritual child when he walks in the flesh. This person has been born again, but is occupied with the things of the flesh and disregards or neglects the things that are of the Spirit. This is a simple revelation of the Word, but it has great significance in the spiritual realm. It is not enough to have been born again; we must walk in the Spirit, for if we do not walk in the Spirit we do not grow, and if we do not grow, we do not mature, and when we do not mature, we atrophy, and as a consequence, we become slow, ineffective, and unproductive. How can we understand the things of the Spirit if we do not walk in the Spirit? We must understand in order to discern and walk in the truth. How can we be godly men if we do not know godliness? The Word exhorts us to exercise ourselves unto godliness (1 Timothy 4:7), instead of exercising ourselves to tone our physical body. Bodily exercise profits little, but godliness —says Paul— “… is profitable for ALL things, since it has promise for the present life and for the one to come” (1 Timothy 4:8). Bodily exercise only tones your muscles, but godliness strengthens your spirit.
The one who exercises himself in godliness grows spiritually, just as the one who exercises physically has his muscles grow. When you are a devout person, you dedicate much time to the spirit in your personal devotion, you get involved in every spiritual activity, and you expose yourself to being blessed spiritually, because you are feeding your spirit. Your new man is growing; he is exercising himself in the things of God. Therefore, you become more receptive, and you begin to grow in the spiritual, and you will care for your physical body, but in the balance of the Spirit. It is very difficult for a person who is wrapped up in the affairs of the world to be able to flow in the things of the Spirit. It becomes heavy and uphill for them. When we lose communion with the Lord and do not go to the secret place, even making a brief prayer is extremely tedious for us, for although the spirit is willing for the things of God, the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41).
Nevertheless, there are certain spiritual weapons that allow us to be strengthened in the Lord and in the power of His might, even when our carnal body is weak and resists it. One of these resources is the gift of tongues. Those of us who have received that precious gift have not yet understood what the tongues of the Spirit are. We only speak in tongues at a given moment, but we have to understand that speaking in tongues is the language of the new man, speaking in spirit to God. It is your spiritual language. Even if you only repeat a few words, and think you are saying “the same thing always,” I will tell you that it is not always the same. In spiritual tongues, with five words you can express more than the content of a complete dictionary of a human language, as far as meaning is concerned. But when we exercise ourselves in prayer, and pray in tongues to God, we experience a special growth in the Spirit.
We know that many do not flow in this gift, because of prejudices and mental barriers, but I believe that all of us who have been born of the Spirit have been endowed with this language even if we do not use it. When I began in the life of the Spirit, sometimes I could not pray, and there was a heaviness in me, because my occupations disturbed me and my thoughts flew toward the matters I had to resolve. Until one of those days, I opened my heart to God and expressed to Him how I felt, and the Lord said to me: “Son, you are anxious and it is natural that your thoughts go to that in which you are involved, among so many occupations and activities. I know you long for communion, but the mind is easily disturbed, because it is mechanical. But I have taught you the life of the Spirit and I have given you gifts. Speak in tongues and you will notice the difference.”
I heeded the counsel and began to speak in tongues when it was hard for me to concentrate in prayer. At first I felt discouraged, but I sensed His voice inside me saying to me: Keep going, keep going forward. I heard that I was repeating the same thing, but the Lord said to me: “Do not judge it by the mind or by the senses; this is something spiritual.” I kept on and on, and suddenly I began to realize that I was entering into the dimension of the Spirit and the disturbance was already gone. Then I understood that by exercising tongues I exercise my spirit. Lay hold of that spiritual axiom, because we perish, because we are slow to understand, and we do not practice what we hear from God. Beloved, what is of God is not a theory; when God tells us something, it is true; believe God.
The one who speaks in many tongues speaks much in spirit to God (1 Corinthians 14:2). Therefore, I prefer to speak to God in spirit and not with understanding. In tongues, although I understand nothing, I am saying more, because the language of the Spirit is unlimited and, besides, my spirit is being edified. It is possible that at the moment the mind remains unfruitful (1 Corinthians 14:14), but in the exercise of the spirit, you will realize that, at a given moment, the Word comes to your mind illuminated with revelation, with wisdom, with application, and with all the nuances that an anointed word has. And you ask yourself, where did this come from? That came out of and comes from the Holy Spirit, as a consequence of your exercise in the Spirit.
Paul counseled the church: “… do not forbid speaking in tongues…” (1 Corinthians 14:39), so do not underestimate speaking in tongues nor see it as a babbling or a chattering. Discern that tongues are not to be paraded in public or to interrupt in the middle of meetings, but they are a very special gift for your personal devotion. Tongues are spoken publicly only when God wants to give a prophetic message to the church and, in that case, He also gives the interpretation. So tongues are for your personal edification, to exercise and edify your spirit. The person who is accustomed to speaking many tongues in his home realizes that his spirit is being energized and there is an explosion in his inner man.
To grow in the spiritual, we must exercise communion with God, and intimacy with Him. We have to expose ourselves to everything that is spiritual, hearing the Word, studying it personally, praying to God, praying with the brothers and sisters in intercession; every type of spiritual activity that is constant helps you grow. If you grow in the spirit you will have more desire for God, because the Spirit leads you to God. The one who occupies himself with the spiritual grows in the spiritual; then, when temptation, impediment, or adversity comes, you will have the spiritual strength and the anointed authority to say NO to the devil, and NO to the darkness and to circumstances, and NO to the flesh, because you are exercised. And to things such as envy, jealousy, competition —what Paul calls spiritual childhood— you will be able to say: “No, that is not of God,” and you will resist every thought of the flesh, because you are strengthened in your spiritual man to reject what is evil. And that strength comes from the Holy Spirit working in the new man, in the incorruptible nature that is in you.
This may seem like an ABC to you, but it is fundamental for attaining spiritual maturity. Maturity does not begin up there; it begins down here, and that is why it is elementary. A child is not born big, but after being born, begins to grow. At first he is measured in inches, and later in feet. He goes from the lesser to the greater, from the small to the large. To exercise communion is to open the avenues of the Spirit to hear the Word, to speak with God and for Him to speak to us. It is necessary to take the four lanes of the Spirit, which are: (1) Read the Word, to know Him; (2) Pray, to speak with Him and for Him to speak to us; (3) Gather together, to participate in the meeting with those who, like us, have been called; (4) Testify, to speak of what He has done in our lives. […]
The one who walks in the Spirit does everything in the Spirit, and therefore matures in the spiritual. When the Bible speaks of the perfect man it is not speaking of sinlessness, but of maturity. Maturity is being complete, having attained it. We have spoken of the feeding of a child, and we saw that he cannot be given solid food before its time, because he does not have the system or the age to take it in. That is why Paul said: “I gave you milk to drink, and not solid food; for you were not yet able, nor are you still able, for you are still carnal; for since there are jealousies, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal, and do you not walk as men?” (1 Corinthians 3:2-3). And I ask myself: Were these not men? Then why does he say that they walk as men? Because of conduct, for just as feeding depends on age, conduct also reveals the growth and maturity of an individual.[…]
Christian maturity has nothing to do with years. People relate it to years, and they fill themselves with pride and say: “I have so many years in the gospel; I was born in the gospel.” Now, what matters is to see in them how much they have matured in God. At other times, on the other hand, I have seen people get converted, and in six months they speak, live, and judge in a way that makes them seem like spiritual elders. The immature sit in the churches, are exposed like everyone else, but receive nothing, give no place to the Spirit, do not walk in the Spirit, and do not strengthen their inner man by the Spirit.
Beloved, when you receive a spiritual ministration, do not rush to preach it, but to live it, since the most important thing is not how you preach, but how you live, for you are more powerful with your life than with your words. It may be that with your speeches you impress many people, for some time, but take care that when people come close to you, it does not happen as it does to someone who looks at the peacock and sees many beautiful and colorful feathers, but is astonished when, looking down, he notices the legs, tiny and skinny, and says: “Wow! With such beautiful plumage and with such weak and ugly legs.” So it is with the one who walks in the flesh: you can see all those feathers and anointing, but when you get close to him and observe him in certain situations that are elementary, you are alarmed by his immaturity. They impress us with their gifts and anointing and shame us with their conduct. Then you ask yourself: “And what happened to the spiritual man who has done so many miracles and spoke with such anointing?” The reason is that spiritual gifts have nothing to do with a person’s maturity. We must separate one thing from the other.
Spiritual gifts are like talents in natural life, which one is born with. In my country there is a saying: “God gives a beard to the one who has no jaw,” referring to qualities in people who do not merit them. It is the case of a drunkard who sings beautifully, but who cannot be taken seriously, nor can a contract be made with him, because he does not fulfill his commitments, and nothing is expected of him. With a tremendous voice, but he never gets anywhere. On the other hand, there are people who are disciplined (although they do not have as much talent), who promote their records, who fulfill their commitments, and who come to have success. In the Christian life it happens that you can be very charismatic and have many gifts (of prophecy, of healing, etc.), and be immature. The gifts were given to you by the Holy Spirit when you were born again, and you have them there, because they are part of God’s plan for your life, but it is necessary to grow in them.
In the same way that a child is born with innate skills and abilities, inherited from his parents, which he develops as he grows, so also the one born again possesses spiritual abilities, gifts, ministries, and functions of the Spirit that have nothing to do with maturity. He can be an anointed and charismatic man and at the same time be a child. In fact, the Corinthians are a clear example of this. Paul said that among them no spiritual gift was lacking (1 Corinthians 1:5-7), yet theirs was the most carnal, most undisciplined, and most childish church of that time. That is why it is good, without ceasing to pursue the best gifts, to grow in them (1 Corinthians 14:12). Maturity is the most important thing, since it has to do with the fruit of the Spirit, not with the gifts of the Spirit. The gifts are anointed abilities that were given to us to carry out the work of the ministry effectively. The fruit of the Spirit, on the other hand, makes us mature to live the life of God among men. […]
When we walk in the flesh we are children; what happens is that when we have many years in the ecclesiastical culture, we can pretend to walk in the Spirit, and our language can sound very spiritual, and what we are showing is appearance, hypocrisy, and religion. But the one who is spiritual has his senses exercised in the discernment of good and evil. That is a characteristic of the mature man, for he can distinguish when something is false or true, when it is of the Spirit and when it is not. For that he does not have to be a prophet or a seer, simply to have the discernment of the Spirit. Let us observe what it says in 1 Corinthians 13, to go into the subject a little more. The context of this chapter in the epistle is important, because it is like the ham and cheese of a sandwich: between two slices. Chapters 12 and 14 speak of the spiritual gifts and of the use of the gifts, and 13 is in the middle.
That is, after the apostle speaks of the nine gifts, he says: “If I spoke with human and angelic tongues, and have not love, I have become like sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). Let me tell you that in the three passages of the Bible where the ministries, the nine gifts, and the spiritual functions or operations are spoken of, in all three, the apostle Paul speaks of love. In Ephesians 4:11-16, when he speaks of the five ministries, notice that he ends by speaking of love; so also in Romans 12:4-10,21, where he speaks of the functions, he then ends by saying that love be without hypocrisy, love one another, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good, etc. And in 1 Corinthians, which is the part where the gifts and manifestations of the Spirit in the worship of the saints are most discussed, he takes an entire chapter to show love as the more excellent way. Therefore, the powerful relationship between love and Christian maturity is undeniable.
If there is any person who in a special way should understand well what love is, it is a born-again Christian, in the full sense of the word, since if God can be defined by anything, it is by love. The Bible does not say literally: God is power, although He is powerful, but it does say: God is love. Notice that the apostle Paul, when he speaks of the gifts, emphasizes the importance of love, as the fruit of the Spirit, in order to administer the spiritual gifts with maturity.
Paul mentions gifts that are extremely extraordinary, for example, tongues, and he says: “If I spoke with human tongues [Spanish, English, German, Portuguese, etc.] and angelic [those that spirits speak], and have not love, I have become like sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). In other words, gifts without maturity are worth nothing. Instead of doing good, they do harm; instead of edifying, they destroy, because without love the gifts bear no fruit. To walk in the Spirit is to walk in the fruit of the Spirit, and that fruit is love. Observe that the apostle goes to the extreme not only of one who can communicate in different tongues, but of one who speaks the heavenly language; that is something sublime, but he says that if he does not have love, his communication is not effective; it says nothing.
He also states: “And if I had prophecy
, and understood all mysteries and all knowledge [revelation, divine wisdom, spiritual discernment], and if I had all faith, so that I could move mountains [remove any impediment however great], and have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2). It is as if he had nothing, for without love one is nothing in God. “And if I distributed all my goods [this is one of the gifts of mercy, giving (Romans 12:8,13), and it is mentioned as one of the functions God gives, which is not simply giving or sharing something, but giving everything] to feed the poor, and if I delivered my body to be burned
, and have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). And the apostle does not exaggerate.
If you want to grow in God, do not go after the gifts, but after the fruit of the Spirit, and abound in them. It does not matter how one speaks, what one says, what one does, what one sacrifices, or how one is martyred; if I do not have love, it is of no use. In fact, the instrument for administering the spiritual gifts well is maturity, because an immature Christian can misuse the gifts of God. Therefore, love is a synonym of maturity; observe the following verses:
Love is patient, is kind; love does not envy, love does not boast, is not puffed up; does nothing improper, does not seek its own, is not provoked, holds no grudge; does not rejoice in injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It suffers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ceases to be (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
All that can be summed up in a single word: maturity. And that maturity is attained only when we walk in the Spirit. If there is anything that defines love, it is maturity, and we will see that now with other verses: “… but prophecies
will cease, and tongues will stop, and knowledge will pass away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes [that is, the mature, the complete, something that has reached the goal, that has come to its end like a fruit] then what is in part will be done away” (1 Corinthians 13:8-10).
A tree germinates, grows, puts forth leaves, puts forth flowers, and from the flowers comes the fruit. The fruit goes through stages. At first it is tiny and green (new), then it grows and comes to ripen, and is ready to be eaten. That is, it is all a process. A tree reaches maturity when it bears fruit; a person is mature when he reaches a full development of all his faculties: physical, mental, emotional, and social. Not only because he can procreate (marry, have children, etc.), but because he has the capacity to bear all that. That is, if he can marry, reproduce, maintain a home, think adequately, and behave in a certain way, it can be said that he has reached maturity, perfection. A fourteen-year-old girl can biologically reproduce, but she is not mature enough to be a mother. Spiritually, we can say that there are people who have callings, gifts, and anointing to be ministers, but are not ready for it, because they have not yet attained maturity.
The word perfection in the Bible is the same as maturity. Perfection is not sinlessness as far as we are concerned; only when it refers to God. Maturity is completing something, the quality of what reaches its maximum capacity, its fullness. For example, as to salvation, we are complete in Christ, mature, there is nothing to add, since we are already saved in Him. In the process of sanctification we have not yet reached maturity, and glorification will come only when Christ comes, when we will be fully and totally free from the presence of sin. Through the operation of the Holy Spirit, today we are being set free from the power of sin, but when Christ comes, in the twinkling of an eye, this corruptible will put on incorruption, and sin will be wiped away from us. The kingdom will be established, and the church will arrive where it has to arrive. […]
Mature conduct is perfect conduct, the one Jesus lived, the life the apostles lived, the life in the Spirit. The disciples, while they were in the flesh, disputed over the first place (Matthew 20:21); each one struggled to be the most beloved (Matthew 26:35). They also wanted to know what would happen in the lives of others (Matthew 21:21), but when the Holy Spirit was poured out among them, they were of one accord together and had all things in common (Acts 2:44; 4:32). We must be mature Christians, be a testimony to the church, a testimony to the world. Let us renounce everything that is childish, as the Word says: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I judged as a child; but when I became a man, I LEFT BEHIND what was childish” (1 Corinthians 13:11). And the word left behind means abolish, that is: “I abolished what was childish, I got rid of it and renounced all that, because now I am mature, I have the Holy Spirit and I walk in the Spirit. Thus we will have the conduct of God, and we will walk in that new man, created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians 4:24).
Beloved, ask God for maturity. May this word pass from your ears to your heart, and from your heart to your conduct. May the strong wind of the Spirit come and undo in you everything that is childish, and may all the unfruitful works of the flesh and of darkness be rebuked, so that Christ may dwell by faith in your heart. May there dwell in you the fullness of Him who fills all things, the fruit of the Spirit in all goodness, righteousness, and good works. Maturity is the will of God for our lives. Therefore, we have to think and act as mature people. The Lord desires that in everything we be perfect men and women in Christ Jesus.
Excerpts taken from chapter 5: “Live According to the Spirit,” from the book The Life in the Spirit, by Pastor Juan Radhamés Fernández. For more information on this and other works by the author, visit: The Books section
