MARCH 16 AND 19

Lent 3 Do You Have It “In You”? 3/16 & 19/06

A definite mark of spiritual maturity is our faithful and regular gathering with the people of God, as we’ve read in our Hebrews text. One may not have to go to church to love God, but one who loves God goes to church! In a similar fashion, I do not have to be with my wife to love my wife, but because I love my wife, I want to be with her. How can anyone seriously claim to be a part of the Church when they consistently choose to be a part from the Church? Why do you suppose a person wants to spend eternity with God after death, when they choose absence from God and His people after birth?

But, spiritual maturity does not nor conclude with going to Church. Spiritual maturity is demonstrated as we go from the Church to be the Church as the Church! There are 10,080 minutes in a week. Spiritual maturity requires more than “the sacred 60 minute” weekly worship. As we mature spiritually through weekly worship, we “bear fruit” in the 10,000 or so remaining minutes each week.

Prior to His death, Jesus told His disciples that it was best for Him to leave them in order that the Spirit of God---the Holy Spirit---might come to dwell in each of them. Let’s turn to John 14: 16/ “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” Jesus, as a human being, was physically limited and able only to be with His disciples. This limitation is removed following Jesus’ resurrection and as God sends the Holy Spirit. In other words, Christ was physically departing from His disciples in order that He might, thereafter, be spiritually present within each of them. The significant distinction here is that Jesus desires to be with-IN us, not only with us! I think of the song, “Come into my heart, come into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come in today, come in to stay, come into my heart, Lord Jesus.”

J.B. Phillips wrote: “The great difference between present-day Christianity and that of which we read in the New Testament is that to us it is primarily a performance; to them it was a real experience. We are apt to reduce the Christian religion to a code or, at best, a rule of heart and life. To these men and women, it is quite plainly the invasion of their lives by a new quality of life altogether. They do not hesitate to describe this as Christ ‘living in’ them.”
When Jesus Christ dwells within us by the power of the Holy Spirit, our lives will change. As I’ve heard, “If your religion doesn’t make a difference, you need a different religion!” As we spiritually mature, we will know, and others will see, that our lives are guided by God. St. Paul offers testimony to this mark of spiritual maturity when he writes: “In my speeches and the sermons that I gave, there was none of the arguments that belong to philosophy; only a demonstration of the power of the Spirit.” (1 Cor. 2:4-5 J.B.)

It is from prison that Paul writes to the church at Philippi: “Therefore, my beloved, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (2:12-13) The maturing Christian asks for, and expects that, God will work through him/her in ways that are pleasing to God. Growing spiritually, as with any other discipline, requires work…on God’s part, within us, and with one another throughout our lives.

A rather elementary question we do well to ask ourselves regarding spiritual maturity is: “Is my way of life pleasing in God’s sight?” If you are not actually clear or certain about what pleases God, you are admitting an inadequate understanding of the Bible. Ignorance of scripture is a mark of spiritual immaturity and, so long as the ignorance exists, the spiritual immaturity will persist. Many church-goers choose, daily, to perpetuate this contributor to spiritual immaturity.

A prominent mark of spiritual maturity is our level of consistency as we live out what we learn from and of Jesus…every day, not only on Sundays. The spiritually maturing person lives, each day, in the awareness that the standard by which we measure our consistency is the Gospel of Jesus Christ…not the “laws of the land” or the directives of political correctness. Again, may we all prayer-fully and care-fully consider: “Is my life, my behavior, consistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?” As the question is persistently asked, and as we continually mature spiritually, our answer will more increasingly be “YES…BY THE HELP OF GOD!” AMEN.