Section 3
CHRISTIAN MATURITY
The Scriptures frequently compare Christian growth to natural growth. Baptism is like birth; we are urged to grow out of spiritual childhood; our goal is to arrive at full maturity in Christ. We have put into this section the conditions for salvation which can be fulfilled by one who has been sincerely living the Christian life for some time and making progress in holiness.
Suffering
We sometimes imagine that an ideal world would be one in which there is no suffering. But if it had been in our best interest to eliminate suffering, a loving and almighty God would certainly have done so as part of our salvation. Instead, the Father sent His only Son Jesus, His Beloved One, to enter our world as it is, suffering and all. He came to save us, not from our suffering, but in our suffering.
Jesus has promised to bring us abundant life (see John 10:10). If “life to the full” means to live vividly, fully alive, fully experiencing life, then it means great intensity in both our joys and our sufferings. The opposite of “life to the full” would be a timid and fearful life of depressing monotony, a living death.
Jesus Himself certainly lived life boldly and deeply, fully embracing whatever God sent His way, whether exultant joy, great grief, or bodily torture.
God is able to create great good out of suffering if we allow Him. Jesus has given us the supreme example: by freely accepting His passion and death at our hands (the greatest crime in human history), He won eternal salvation for us (the greatest good in human history):
Indeed, it was fitting that when bringing many sons to glory God, for whom and through whom all things exist, should make their leader in the work of salvation perfect through suffering (Hebrews 2:10 NAB).
St. Paul, who exhorts us to follow his own example, exclaims:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (Colossians 1:24).
St. Peter shows the place of suffering in the life of the Christian and what our attitude should be toward it:
There is cause for rejoicing here. You may for a time have to suffer the distress of many trials; but this is so that your faith, which is more precious than the passing splendor of fire-tried gold, may by its genuineness lead to praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ appears. . . because you are achieving faith’s goal, your salvation (1 Peter 1:6-7,9 NAB).
By accepting our suffering in the same way Jesus accepted His, God can transform us from being lost in our own self- centeredness to becoming fully awake to ourselves in self- giving generosity:
We even boast of our afflictions! We know that affliction makes for endurance, and endurance for tested virtue, and tested virtue for hope. And this hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:3-5 NAB).
True love is always focused on the beloved; we will do anything for the good of the ones we love:
If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer (2 Corinthians 1:6).
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus with its eternal glory (2 Timothy 2:10).
Anyone who follows Jesus’ path to eternal life can expect to suffer:
[Paul and Barnabas] gave their disciples reassurances, and encouraged them to persevere in the faith with this instruction: “We must undergo many trials if we are to enter into the reign of God” (Acts 14:22 NAB).
Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12).
The suffering which is most like Jesus’ suffering is the persecution which comes with proclaiming the Gospel:
“Blest are those persecuted for holiness’ sake; the reign of God is theirs. Blest are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven; they persecuted the prophets before you in the very same way” (Matthew 5:10-12 NAB).
In comparison with the joy and the glory that is to come, any suffering we endure in this life is a small thing:
This slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Corinthians 4:17).
[Let us look to Jesus], who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).
Happy the man who holds out to the end through trial! Once he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life the Lord has promised to those who love him (James 1:12 NAB).
Dying to Self
The tell-tale sign of genuine love is a generous outpouring of self for others. Our attitude must be that of Christ, who
though he was in the form of God, he did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather, he emptied himself (Philippians 2:6-7 NAB).
If we find that we are grabbing or clutching for anyone or anything other than Jesus, it is a good sign that our love is not fully genuine. Jesus said,
“Whoever loves father or mother, son or daughter, more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37 NAB).
It is good for our spiritual health to release any hold we may have on others:
“There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).
Jesus said, “‘He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life’” (John 12:25). And again, “‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’” (Luke 9:23).
St. Paul indicates that this denial of self is not merely a mental thing, when he says,
I do not run like a man who loses sight of the finish line. I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. What I do is discipline my own body and master it, for fear that after having preached to others I myself should be rejected (1 Corinthians 9:26-27 NAB).
We do not desire to die to self merely for our own benefit, but primarily to better love and serve others. Again, St. Paul says:
Though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. . . . To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some (1 Corinthians 9:19,22).
I try to please all men in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of the many, that they may be saved (1 Corinthians 10:33).
Another beneficial way to die to self is to accept correction from the Lord when it comes:
Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. If you beat him with a rod you will save his life from Sheol (Proverbs 23:13-14).
The discipline of the LORD, my son, disdain not; spurn not his reproof; for whom the LORD loves he reproves, and he chastises the son he favors (Proverbs 3:11-12 NAB).
God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which you have all participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:7-11).
God’s ways are not our ways. Unless it had been revealed in God’s word, who would have ever guessed that dying to oneself is even a way to offer genuine worship to our Father?
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Romans 12:1).
Humility
True humility always accompanies fear of the LORD. We are awed by His presence, bow down to worship Him, and are ready to obey Him in everything. We have, for the first time in our lives, a realistic concept of our own stature before God.
This first taste of genuine humility is in danger of fading away, however. A man becomes truly humble only when his whole way of life over a long time is permeated by fear of the LORD:
This is the one whom I approve: the lowly and afflicted man who trembles at my word (Isaiah 66:2 NAB).
Jesus, in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, helps us to see what true humility is. The Pharisee was the opposite of humble—he was one of those “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others” (Luke 18:9):
“The [tax collector], however, kept his distance, not even daring to raise his eyes to heaven. All he did was beat his breast and say, ‘O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’ Believe me, this man went home from the temple justified but the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled while he who humbles himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:13-14 NAB).
There is a natural connection between humility and willingness to serve others. Jesus said,
“Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26- 28).
After washing the feet of His disciples, a task ordinarily done by a slave, Jesus said,
“Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:12-14).
When our fundamental outlook is concern for the benefit of others rather than for our own benefit, we are becoming truly humble:
Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who . . . being found in human form he humbled himself (Philippians 2:3-5,8).
The one who has nothing and who knows he is nothing is one Jesus can bring to salvation:
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18).
For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy (Psalm 72:12-13)
The LORD keeps the little ones; I was brought low, and he saved me (Psalm 116:6 NAB).
For God abases the proud, but he saves the lowly (Job 22:29).
Jesus loves the little children so much because they depend so trustingly on others for everything:
“Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4).
“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:15).
Poverty
It is hard to ignore what Jesus said about poverty for the sake of the kingdom. It is also difficult to explain away Jesus’ sayings on poverty as merely allegorical:
“Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20).
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23).
“Avoid greed in all its forms. A man may be wealthy, but his possessions do not guarantee him life” (Luke 12:15 NAB).
It is not poverty for the sake of being poor that Jesus speaks of. It is poverty for the sake of His kingdom.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44).
“Or again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant’s search for fine pearls. When he found one really valuable pearl, he went back and put up for sale all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:45-46 NAB).
In the end, poverty for the sake of the kingdom is always chosen because it leads to a greater good. As St. Paul says of Jesus,
He was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).
To the rich young man, Jesus advised:
“If you seek perfection, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor. You will then have treasure in heaven. Afterward, come back and follow me” (Matthew 19:21 NAB).
There seems to be a relationship between material poverty and spiritual wealth: “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom?” (James 2:5). Indeed, the opposite is also true: too many possessions can crowd out what is important in life:
And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together (Genesis 13:5-6).
Guard Our Speech
Our salvation depends on what we say and how we say it. Sooner or later whatever fills our heart and our thoughts will get out; we cannot help but express what is inside us through our words, our attitude, our tone of voice, our body language, and our actions:
“A good man produces goodness from the good in his heart; an evil man produces evil out of his store of evil. Each man speaks from his heart’s abundance” (Luke 6:45 NAB).
A baby Christian is most likely to be “still of the flesh” (1 Corinthians 3:3). Since whatever fills the heart flows out of the mouth, a spiritual infant probably will not consistently bring forth goodness in speech. The Scriptures indicate that the tongue is the last member of our body to come under our control:
All of us fall short in many respects. If a person is without fault in speech he is a man in the fullest sense, because he can control his entire body. . . . We use [the tongue] to say, “Praised be the Lord and Father”; then we use it to curse men, though they are made in the likeness of God. Blessing and curse come out of the same mouth. This ought not to be, my brothers! (James 3:2,9-10 NAB).
Besides revealing the abundance of our heart, the words which come out of our mouth have an effect on other people—an effect for good or for evil:
A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit (Proverbs 15:4).
A fountain of life is the mouth of the just, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence (Proverbs 10:11 NAB).
Because of the power of the tongue to urge others to either good or evil, St. Paul exhorts us:
Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29).
In addition to the good or evil that comes to others through what we say, we ourselves gain or lose depending on our words:
He who guards his mouth protects his life; to open wide one’s lips brings downfall (Proverbs 13:3 NAB).
Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who make it a friend shall eat its fruit (Proverbs 18:21 NAB).
“He that would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile” (1 Peter 3:10).
Jesus confirms that, indeed, our salvation hinges on our speech:
“I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37).
Wait for the Lord
When things are not going the way we like, we are apt to take matters into our own hands. It seems to be better to do something—anything—than to turn to God and allow Him to take charge. But sometimes we get stuck in impossible- seeming situations.
When the Israelites were trapped, in a panic, between Pharaoh’s army on the one side and the Red Sea on the other, Moses said to the people,
“Fear not! Stand your ground, and you will see the victory the LORD will win for you today. . . . The LORD himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still” (Exodus 14:13-14 NAB).
Waiting on the LORD implies trusting Him, even though it doesn’t look like anything is happening:
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15).
This quiet trust is the fruit of life-long prayer:
I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother’s breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul (Psalm 131:2).
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly moved (Psalms 62:1-2).
Those who wait on the Lord instead of rushing ahead on their own strength find that they have energy enough for the long haul:
They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings; they will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint (Isaiah 40:31 NAB).
Scoffers and mockers demand to see immediate action:
Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:3-4).
So also the chief priests mocked [Jesus] to one another with the scribes, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down from the cross, that we may see and believe” (Mark 15:31- 32).
But the Lord, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, has stern words for those who demand an account from God:
Woe to those . . . who say: “Let him make haste, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!” (Isaiah 5:18-19).
What seems to us to be a delay is really a work of mercy by God—He is holding open the door of salvation a little longer so as many as possible may be saved:
The Lord does not delay in keeping his promise—though some consider it “delay.” Rather, he shows you generous patience, since he wants none to perish but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9 NAB).
What a marvelous God we have! But how far our hearts are from His. His is full of mercy, while ours are full of impatience. May we learn to be more like Jesus:
But as for me, I will look to the LORD, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me (Micah 7:7).
The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD (Lamentations 3:25-26).
Hope in the Lord
Hope involves looking forward to something good that has not come yet. Hope has to do with waiting eagerly for a promise to be fulfilled:
Hope is not hope if its object is seen ; how is it possible for one to hope for what he sees? And hoping for what we cannot see means awaiting it with patient endurance (Romans 8:24-25 NAB).
Our hope can be in things good or bad. We can look ahead to self-gratification or to self-giving. Each bears its own reward:
The hope of the just brings them joy, but the expectation of the wicked comes to nought (Proverbs 10:28 NAB).
The hopeful Christian waits on the Lord:
Our hopes are fixed on the living God who is the savior of all men, but especially of those who believe (1 Timothy 4:10 NAB).
The Christian waits on the Lord in joyful hope. “We rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God” (Romans 5:2).
Is it necessary for us to have Christian hope to be saved? St. Paul is clear: “In hope we were saved” (Romans 8:24 NAB). This is because we do not yet possess eternal life in its fullness:
[We have been] sealed with the Holy Spirit who had been promised. He is the pledge of our inheritance, the first payment against the full redemption of a people God has made his own, to praise his glory (Ephesians 1:13-14 NAB).
Indeed, we are “heirs in hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7), that is, we do not yet taste it, but by hope we possess it now.
It is good to hope for salvation, “the free gift of God . . . eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
I hope for thy salvation, O LORD, and I do thy commandments (Psalm 119:166).
Our hope is not for our own salvation only, but for the salvation of all God’s people:
O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plenteous redemption (Psalm 130:7).
If our hope is in God, our hope is in a sure thing:
This hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:5 NAB).
Only in God be at rest, my soul, for from him comes my hope. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed (Psalm 62:6-7 NAB).
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews goes to great lengths to describe how certain God’s promise is:
When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we . . . [might] seize the hope set before us (Hebrews 6:17-18).
St. Paul also underlines God’s trustworthiness when he greets Titus “in hope of eternal life which God, who never lies, promised ages ago” (Titus 1:1).
God’s promise is so solid that He desires us to
seize the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf (Hebrews 6:18-20).
Hope of future glory can sustain us when life gets tough:
This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him” (Lamentations 3:21-24).
But see, the eye of the LORD are upon those who fear him, upon those who hope for his kindness, to deliver them from death and preserve them in spite of famine (Psalm 33:18-19 NAB).
The hope of salvation is part of the armor of God, protecting us from losing heart in a world filled with darkness:
Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:8).
As a fitting closing, we echo St. Paul’s prayer for you:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope (Romans 15:13).
Perseverance
There are some who believe that salvation, once obtained, cannot be lost. But a wider look at what the Scriptures say does not support this view. The Scriptures repeatedly exhort us to persevere, to “hang in there.” It is only the one who endures to the end who will be saved.
There are several Scriptures that make it clear that it is possible for a believer to apostasize, that is, totally reject his faith:
For when men have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and become sharers in the Holy Spirit, when they have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to make them repent again, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves and holding him up to contempt (Hebrews 6:4-6 NAB).
St. Peter warns us to take steps to avoid a fall, making it plain that a fall is possible:
Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall; so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:10-11).
None of us is to take it for granted that we are in good standing with God:
Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. . . . For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end (Hebrews 3:12,14).
Consider the kindness and the severity of God—severity toward those who fell, kindness toward you, provided you remain in his kindness; if you do not, you too will be cut off (Romans 11:22 NAB).
Even the great St. Paul does not talk as if he has a guarantee of salvation:
I do not run like a man who loses sight of the finish line. I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. What I do is discipline my own body and master it, for fear that after having preached to others I myself should be rejected (1 Corinthians 9:26-27 NAB).
Speaking of the end times, Jesus said,
“They will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead men astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. But He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:9-13).
Perseverance is related to zeal. Our natural tendency is to find our energies dwindle and our resolve dissolve. Without the supernatural pilot light of the Holy Spirit we will burn out:
Our desire is that each of you show the same zeal to the end, fully assured of that for which you hope. Do not grow lazy, but imitate those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises (Hebrews 6:11-12 NAB).
There is a defensive quality to perseverance; no matter how the enemy surges at us, we will dig in and resist at all cost, using the armor God has a given us:
Finally, draw your strength from the Lord and his mighty power. Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil (Ephesians 6:10-11 NAB).
In addition there is “offensive” perseverance, where we go on the attack wielding “the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left” (2 Corinthians 6:7). Indeed “the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4). The kingdom of darkness is no match for our labor of love:
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Jesus warns us to be on the watch; we must be prepared at all times for His return! This means we must persevere in faith, hope and love over the long haul, living each day in readiness for judgment:
“The groom arrived, and the ones who were ready went into the wedding with him. Then the door was barred. Later the other bridesmaids came back. ‘Master, master!’ they cried. ‘Open the door for us.’ But he answered, ‘I tell you, I do not know you.’ The moral is: keep your eyes open, for you know not the day or the hour” (Matthew 25:10- 13 NAB).
We endure trials, not alone, but as part of the community of faith. The generous efforts of one member of the Body of Christ can help obtain the salvation of others:
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus with its eternal glory (2 Timothy 2:10).
At last, after a lifetime of persevering in the faith in the face of all odds, by God’s grace we enter into our reward:
Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him (James 1:12).
“Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).
Maturity
Every living creature in the natural world that does not grow and develop dies. It is no different with our spiritual life. And so the Scriptures urge us to grow to spiritual maturity. In fact, it is essential to salvation to grow up spiritually:
Like newborn babes, long for pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation (1 Peter 2:2).
To remain spiritually immature through one’s own fault is an obstacle to salvation:
There is, to be sure, a certain wisdom which we express among the spiritually mature. . . . Brothers, the trouble was that I could not talk to you as spiritual men but only as men of flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, and did not give you solid food because you were not ready for it. You are not ready for it even now, being still very much in a natural condition (1 Corinthians 2:6, 3:1-3 NAB).
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8).
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity (Hebrews 6:1).
If we are going to remain like children in anything, says St. Paul, let it be in innocence toward evil:
Brothers, do not be childish in your outlook. Be like children as far as evil is concerned, but in mind be mature (1 Corinthians 14:20 NAB).
A mark of physical maturity is the ability to reproduce one’s own kind. It is clear from the Scriptures that the Father wants us to produce good fruit in abundance:
“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).
“He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
“It was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit. Your fruit must endure” (John 15:16 NAB).
Only those who take Jesus’ word into a good and honest heart can bear fruit in abundance. There are also unfruitful ways to receive the Gospel message:
“This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. Those on the footpath are people who hear, but the devil comes and takes the word out of the their hearts lest they believe and be saved. Those on the rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. They have no root; they believe for a while, but fall away in time of temptation. The seed fallen among briers are those who hear, but their progress is stifled by the cares and riches and pleasures of life and they do not mature. The seen on good ground are those who hear the word in a spirit of openness, retain it, and bear fruit through perseverance” (Luke 8:11-15 NAB).
It is vital to “hold fast to the word,” not falling away when other, more attractive “gospels” come along, if we are to produce good fruit for the kingdom.
Not only individual Christians, but the whole Body of Christ grows to maturity:
[Hold fast to the Head], from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God (Colossians 2:19).
[When Jesus ascended on high, he gave gifts to men] to build up the body of Christ, till we become one in faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, and form that perfect man who is Christ come to full stature. Let us, then, be children no longer, tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine that originates in human trickery and skill in proposing error. Rather, let us profess the truth in love and grow to the full maturity of Christ the head. Through him the whole body grows, and with he proper functioning of the members joined firmly together by each supporting ligament, builds itself up in love (Ephesians 4:12-16 NAB).
Some elements of spiritual maturity are mentioned in the quote above: speaking the truth in love; attaining to the unity of the faith; attaining to the knowledge of the Son of God; no longer being tossed to and fro by evil.
No matter what stage of growth we are at (or think we are at), those who love Jesus will aim for more. St. Paul, aware that not to go forward is go backward, implores us:
Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more. . . . Indeed you do love all the brethren throughout Macedonia. But we exhort you, brethren, to do so more and more (1 Thessalonians 4:1,10).
The miracle of spiritual growth, just like natural growth, comes from God. The farmer can help the process by preparing the ground and sowing the seed, but after that he can only wait and pray for good weather while the mystery of growth takes place beyond his control:
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).
“This is how it is with the reign of God. A man scatters seed on the ground. He goes to bed and gets up day after day. Through it all the seed sprouts and grows without his knowing how it happens. The soil produces of itself first the blade, then the ear, finally the ripe wheat in the ear. When the crop is ready he ‘wields the sickle, for the time is ripe for harvest’” (Mark 4:26-29 NAB).
Jesus tells a parable which hints that the opposition of evil can help a Christian come to full maturity:
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn’” (Matthew 13:24-30).
It is better for the “sons of the kingdom” to come to full maturity even if they have to live in close quarters with the “sons of the evil one” than it is to risk accidentally uprooting them before they come to full maturity. In fact, learning how to love those who persecute us is to grow in Christian maturity.
There may be another lesson to learn from this parable. A species of weed grows in Palestine that is almost impossible to distinguish from the wheat until they are both mature— and then it is too late to pull up the weeds because the roots of both are so intertwined. Perhaps with people, too, it is difficult to distinguish the good from the bad till we have grown to full maturity.
Growing in Love
What is love? The word is used so many ways in the English language it is sometimes hard to know what is meant by it.
When we look at the cross of Jesus, we see true love revealed. We see that His kind of love involves the total outpouring of oneself for the good of the beloved. This love involves a great generosity, to the point of an emptying of self, to the point of death of self, anything, for the benefit of the beloved.
Love is directly opposed to any sort of grabbing or clutching or draining from others. Sin tends to seize control, to have its own way, especially at the expense of the weak. Love loves to yield itself to the other, to spend itself for the beloved. Every sin, then, is a sin against the law of love:
The commandments . . . are all summed up in this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love never wrongs the neighbor, hence love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:9,10 NAB).
God’s desire is to form us into lovers after the likeness of Jesus. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be transformed into agents of reconciliation and divine love in the world, bringing God’s mercy to those who so desperately need it.
Love is the culmination of the Gospel. Delivered from sin by God Who is love, we are free to love as He loves. If we are attached to Jesus, the Vine (see John 15:5), we have His divine life, His power to love, flowing through us:
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16 NAB).
How can one who does not love then be saved?
“Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3 NAB);
but
The man without love has known nothing of God, for God is love (1 John 4:8 NAB).
St. John is even more plain in the following quote:
He who does not love abides in death. Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him (1 John 3:14-15).
To love as Jesus loves means more than talking about it: “Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
To erase all doubts, Jesus made the good news of love into a command:
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:12-14).
The one who loves in truth loves his enemies. This kind of love can free the enemy to eventually respond in love. If we do this, we are following the pattern of and multiplying Jesus’ freeing, redemptive love: “We, for our part, love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NAB). We are loving like sons of the Father:
“Do to others what you would have them to do you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. . . . Love your enemy and do good; lend without expecting repayment. Then will your recompense be great. You will rightly be called sons of the Most High, since he himself is good to the ungrateful and the wicked” (Luke 6:31-32,35 NAB).
In his great passage on love, St. Paul illustrates the pre- eminence of love:
If I have faith great enough to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give everything I have to feed the poor and hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2-3 NAB).
Love, growing ever stronger, triumphs into all eternity:
[For] love never ends. . . . Faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:8,13).
In the end, love overwhelms sin and evil: “Love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Even death is no match for love: “Love is strong as death” (Song of Songs 8:6) and
“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55 NAB).
God has given a beautiful promise to those who love Him:
Because he cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him my salvation (Psalm 91:14-16).
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