On Maturity
I love the straight lines of the Old Testament. Sure, there are dragons, angelic invasions (and their ensuing half-breed giant offspring), and six-winged creatures made of living fire. Those are curious details on top of what is overall a pretty straightforward arrangement. The famous hip-hop duo Tag Team summarizes the deal well when they question the listener, “Here’s a shovel, can you dig it, fool?” That’s the Old Testament. Here’s your shovel, can you dig it? Oh, you want to be a good person? You want to go to heaven? Here’s what to do. I appreciate the structure and simplicity of the Old Testament. Granted, the 600+ rules are impossible to follow, but at least you know where you stand.
Becoming “good” at Christianity
You know what you don’t hear about in the Old Testament? A “mature” Jew. There’s no language of “baby Jew” and “mature Jew.” You are in or you are out. There are no milk vs. meat conversations. All that changes in the New Testament.
In the great love passage from 1 Corinthians 13, Paul mentions that when he was a child, he acted like a child. But now that he’s grown, he acts like he’s grown. He never directly defines what that means, though (but it has something to do with love).
I went to seminary to become good at Christianity. I was there because a famous Christian yelled at me, questioned my work ethic, and in so doing convinced me I was too young and naive to be a pastor. So, to grow up and get smart, I went to seminary. I found myself in a class considering the warning passages in Hebrews. There, I came across this doozy that’s hidden in every Bible in the world: “you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food (Hebrews 5:12).” Oh my. I didn’t want to be a baby. I wanted to be like Paul, putting away childish ways and growing up. I wanted the solid food of seminary. The Author tells us what Christian baby food is in the next chapter:
“let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” (Hebrews 6:1-2)
That pesky word “mature” shows up, contrasted with the milk the Author wants us to move beyond. The Author informs us that baby food is the basic teachings about Christ, namely repentance, faith in God, baptism, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
I like thick books (and big words)
Ironically, I was also enrolled in a systematic theology course at the time. Surely this was the place to ingest solid food. In college, my friends and I thought Christian baby food was the daily devotionals we’d find on top of older Christian’s toilets (looking at you Chicken Soup for the Soul). Milk was short, easily digestible works. Nothing too challenging to understand, nothing too sophisticated in its thinking. The real meat was Grudem’s Systematic Theology or, for the truly enlightened, Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. Solid food meant thick books and big words. This belief was threatened when I noticed Hebrew’s list of baby food looked a whole lot like the syllabus of my systematic theology class.
Like the Old Testament, I appreciate how simple baby food is. The invitation is to learn theological categories and doctrines. Milk, be it spiritual or bovine, is good...especially for children. But how bizarre it would be if your 37-year-old brother continually demanded to maintain a milk-alone diet. Milk is an important part of a diet, but the older we get, it becomes less of a staple ingredient and more of a supplementary one. The whole pantry begins to open up as we get older. There’s more room to play and explore.
In Systematic Theology 1, I began to fear that the solid food I was craving might be more than sophisticated articulations of doctrine. Consider how the Author describes mature Christianity a few verses later in Hebrews: the mature are, “those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:4-5). There are tight, clear lines around the needs of a baby, but now, in adulthood, there are fewer rules and more relationship. Look closely at some of the verbs the Author uses here:
Experienced: this word means to partake of something, experience something, even taste something. You cannot “experience” an abstract idea. You can contemplate it, opine about it, reflect on it. But to be experienced, it must somehow become concrete and tangible. The mature have moved beyond a cognitive thought and began to participate in a greater reality, something tangible and experiential.
Shared: this word has a wide range of meanings, including to become, to arise and come about, to develop. It’s a word of participation and growth. Here, it’s speaking specifically about a participation in the Holy Spirit. This is more than information and articulation. “Shared” has connotations of relationship and, again, a movement beyond a concept into some kind of participation. The mature thus enjoy an experiential participation in the life of the Spirit.
Tasted: This is the same word translated earlier as “experienced” but used here in a slightly different way. Again, it refers to an experience of something, in this case, the goodness of God and the power of the age to come.
“Maturity is not a box that is checked, it’s a way of being that is continually cultivated.”
It seems Hebrews is suggesting that doctrines create the foundations of our lives and thinking. They are the basic building blocks necessary for a full and thriving life. The evidence of those doctrines taking root, though, is not a cognitive skill but rather experiential, participatory relationships with God and others. What’s more, these are not places of arrival, but rather realities to experience and explore. In other words, there is the assumption of development and growth implied by these words. “Maturity” is not a box that is checked, it’s a way of being that is continually cultivated. The solid food revealed by the scriptures is an experiential, participatory relationship with the risen Christ. That relationship is not a static one but rather an ever-deepening union that develops over time. This idea makes Paul’s mention of grown-up behavior in a long passage about love quite understandable. The mature love a certain way. They relate a certain way.
Living in an upside down house
I grew up with a Christianity that built the house upside down. The mature thought a certain way, they articulated truth in a certain way, and the fruit of maturity was found in the length of one’s sermons and the weight of one’s bookshelf. But...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.
“The fruit of the Spirit cannot exist apart from relationships.”
Do you notice the fruit of the Spirit cannot exist apart from relationships? Each one is an invitation into an experiential, participatory relationship with one’s self and others. It is good and right to pursue greater understanding of what these words mean and all that the scriptures teach about them. But if that is where our pursuit stops, or if understanding and articulation become the goal, we have severely truncated God’s invitation to each of us.
I’m learning that maturity is less about how much I read and more about how I love.
It’s less about the way I think, and more about the way I relate.
This is not to say we stop thinking, reading, or studying. This is not to say systematic theology books are evil and useless. That kind of “either-or” thinking is probably part of the way our houses got built upside down in the first place. Rather, we have to see a more biblical goal underneath our studying. The reason we build strong foundations in our youth, the reason we pursue an ever-increasing knowledge of the truth, is for the ultimate goal of living and loving like Jesus. Paul puts this developmental pathway of maturity quite plainly to Titus when he says, “I have been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives” (Titus 1:1).
The first step in maturity is to trust God (that is faith). Then, to learn the truth (that is spiritual milk). This leads to mature, “godly lives.”
“Maturity is less about how much I read and more about how I love.”
We need to begin understanding Christian maturity not as rigid lines of right thinking, but rather as peaceful harvests of right living (Hebrews 12:11).
We need to pursue right thinking for the sake of godly living.
We need to see the goal of our faith is to live and love like Jesus.
Yes, there were straighter lines in the Old Testament. I for one would rather have rich relationships than rigid rules, though. It seems this is the heart of God, too, because when he came preaching good news, he did not say “go and do.” He said, “Come and see. Come and follow me.”
Jonah Sage is the Lead Pastor of Sojourn Church New Albany, a Harbor Network church in New Albany, Indiana. You can follow him on Twitter.
