For, in the first
place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among
you; and in part I believe it (Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1
Corinthians 11:18) .
But solid food is for
the mature, who because of practice have their senses
trained to discern
good and evil (Ibid. Hebrews 5:14).
Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and
knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love (Ibid.
1 John 4:7-8).
Often, the young learn from their
elders. You can read in Proverbs, “The
beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom…” (Ibid. 4:7). A prominent place to
acquire wisdom is from those who have been around a while and learned a thing
or two about life. However, age does not
always mean maturity. It’s likely that
we’ve all seen adults act like children.
In a small community, there was a group of adults who were unhappy with
the leadership of their church and decided to leave*. However, this group of adults chose to make
sure that everyone in their small community knew that they had left that
church. They called other members of the
church and told them that they were more spiritual than that church and they
should leave with them. They went about
spreading rumors about the pastor and his wife.
Oddly, these actions and behaviors sound more like what you find amongst
immature teenagers, but, these were adults.
In fact, they were the parents of teenagers, adults who regarded
themselves as mature and spiritual leaders.
Perhaps, maturity is found more in
action than in age. We can see that very
idea in the pages of the New Testament.
This principle can be seen in Jesus’ own words to believers when He said
that we should let our lights shine before the unbelieving world. Specifically, our actions, with the hope of bringing
glory to God (Matt. 5:16). His teaching
evidently rubbed off on the Apostle John, because he wrote that, we should love
in actions or in what we do, as opposed to simply by words (1 John 3:18). Therefore, as you seek a Spiritual Guide,
does their walk consist of gossip or in love, joy, and peace? Do they display their spirituality by causing
division and factions in the body or in kindness, goodness, and
faithfulness? When they speak of others
is there malice and maligning or gentleness and self-control (Galatians
5:22-23)? These fruits of the Spirit are
real evidence of maturity.
[* People have left a church for a variety of reason, some
good and some bad. However, their
actions speak louder of their spiritual walks than their words.]
Written by Pastor Ozzy
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Works Cited
1995. Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible.
LaHabra: The Lockman Foundation.
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