Spiritual Maturity?

By Fred Wikoff

Act your age! Grow up! Who hasn’t heard or endured these sharp reprimands? We often associate psychological maturity (mental, spiritual, and emotional maturity) with physical maturity or age. But linking the two can cause confusion and alter the true meaning of maturity. This is especially true of so called “spiritual maturity.”

In a recent survey 21 percent believed that having a relationship with Jesus defines spiritual maturity; 15 percent, following rules and being obedient; 14 percent, living a moral lifestyle; 13 percent, possessing concern about others; 13 percent, being involved in spiritual disciplines; 12 percent, applying the Bible; 8 percent, being spiritual or having belief; and 6 percent, sharing their faith with others. (The Christian Post 5-11-09)

Such diversity clearly shows that Christians in general do not really understand what maturity is, let alone “spiritual maturity.” We yearn for something called, “spiritual maturity;” but when ask to define it we are hard pressed for an answer, and offer widely diverse and often hazy ideas of what it entails.

According to my dictionary maturity is a state of full development or growth . . . which denotes a finished state or complete end to the growing process. Thus anything that is physically mature has finished growing.

Spiritual growth, on the other hand, never reaches a finished state, so it never reaches maturity. We say spiritual maturity when in reality we are describing advanced spiritual growth. This not only mislabels what has taken place, but reinforces the erroneous belief that spiritual maturity actually exists.

Blame this in part on the public’s tendency to wrongly link psychological growth with physical maturity

Fred Wikoff writes from Eugene, Oregon. Eugenespud@msn.com