What is spiritual maturity?

The maturity of the fathers consists in knowing Him that was from the beginning, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritual progress and maturity is a deep knowledge and appreciation of Christ. The Apostle Paul illustrates what real Christian maturity is. He had but one desire to know Him; not I but Christ; Christ is all. The Fathers have Christ for their fullest portion and walking in Him have learned the depths of His grace and the glory of His person. They are occupied not with their experience but with Himself It has been well said, "All true experience ends with forgetting self and thinking of Christ." To know Him, to know Him still better, to be entirely dependent on Him, to have none other but Him, never losing sight of Him-- that is the highest attainment of a Christian.

As to spiritual fathers, it is clear that this term is used to indicate full spiritual maturity. The lessons of the earlier stages have been learned well, and put into practice in their lives. They have gained a deep personal knowledge of God over the years. The wisdom that comes from experience has become evident in the wise counsel they are able to give to those less experienced than themselves. The Christian community is a spiritual family. Spiritual maturity, where it is evident and given opportunity to express itself, is a wonderful blessing for the whole Christian family.

The word perfect is also used in another way in the Scriptures, as in Hebrews 5:14: "Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age." Here "full age," or maturity, refers to spiritual maturity. The words "them that are of full age" are literally: "The ones being perfect:" that is, spiritually mature. And it may be that this is the thought in the apostle's mind: or, perhaps, he had both in mind: One full grown, spiritually; in perfect training. And to all such the apostle says: "Let us be thus minded." Let us have the same mind towards the race that Paul has just described so vividly: "Let everything go that would interfere with your running; do not hesitate; let the eye be single. Saints in this condition, with Christ as their one Object, the Word of God as their one Guide, will not be long in seeing eye to eye." (Lincoln).

A. The Epistle to the Ephesians contemplates the Church all through in its perfectness and privileges, and does not touch the question of its decay as entrusted to man's responsibility, which is in 1 Corinthians. God has provided for the accomplishment of the object here spoken of in spite of failure, but it is here looked at without reference to it. The adding of the knowledge of the Son of God was necessary, because it is up to His stature thus known that we are to grow. The arriving at common unity of faith is the general basis, solidity as freed from the vacillations of wind of doctrine; but besides that, we are to grow up to Him who is the Head in all things (as in Colossians 1:28), that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. The perfect man simply means the state — a full-grown man; but the measure of the stature of a full-grown man in Christ, is Christ Himself, all the fulness that is in Him wrought into the soul, so that it should be formed by it, and like to and filled with Christ in all its thoughts; its subjective state measured and formed by the objective fulness of Christ, so that there should be no discrepancy and no separation from Him; the saint grown up to Him in everything. How wondrous such a thought is, I need not say; but this is what is before us. A perfect man as to the expression is simply a full grown man. So Hebrews 5:14 and Hebrews 6:1. Ἄνθρωπος is the race including man and woman, and would not be appropriate here. Speaking merely of men, I say πάντα ἄνθρωπον, as Colossians 1. Ἀνὴρ is the word of dignity in the race, and so he is looking at it there. You would not think of a woman in saying one was growing up to full manhood.

"Meat in due season" (ver. 45). How blessed to be used of God to minister in any way that which is suitable to His precious saints! Look at the apostle Paul. He could not give the Corinthians what he could give to others; he gave them milk. They were babes, worldly-wise no doubt, and comparing themselves with themselves, and with him too, but they were only babes spiritually, and he told them so. "Perfect" means there "full grown," that is, not babes. Others had been babes; but were now grown and become perfect, or, matured, Christians. There is a sense in which we are said to be "perfect"; and another in which we have not already attained, or are already perfect (Phil. 3). We shall be when in our resurrection bodies. A "perfect" christian now is one who has learnt of the Lord what true christianity is, though there remains still room for growth. The scriptures show we have been crucified with Christ, have died with Christ, been raised up together with Christ, and seated in heavenly places in Christ. One who has learnt Ephesian and Colossian truth is full grown. As we have already said, there is always room for growth, but that is the thought. A large number mix christianity and Judaism, and a person who prays "Incline our heart to keep this law," you cannot conclude to be a full grown christian.

The faith of which the Apostle speaks is the whole system of Christian truth. The unity is not a unity of common agreement as in a creed, or an alliance formed by the expedients of men, but a unity of mind and heart produced by the apprehension of the truth as taught by God in His word. Connected with the faith is the knowledge of the Son of God, for in Him God is fully made known and the truth livingly set forth. Anything that touches the faith, or in any way belittles the glory of the Son of God, will hinder the perfecting of the saints. The knowledge of the faith as revealed in the word, and set forth in the Son of God, leads to the full-grown man as set forth in all fulness and perfection in Christ as Man. The figure sets forth the idea of Christians fully developed and in full vigour. The passage appears to have in view all saints, for it does not speak of full-grown men, but “the full-grown man”, conveying the thought of all Christians setting forth in unity an entirely new man. The measure of the stature of the full-grown man is nothing less than the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. “The fulness” presents the thought of completeness. “The full-grown man” is nothing less than the display in believers of all the moral excellencies of Christ. The whole passage contemplates believers as a corporate body to set forth the fulness of Christ. Moreover, the standard set before us is not only that every trait of Christ should be seen in the saints, but that they should be seen in perfection. It may be said that this will never be attained in the saints down here. Actually this is so, but God cannot set before us a standard that is short of the perfection seen in Christ. We do well to beware of seeking to evade what God sets before us, and excuse our shortcomings by saying that God's standard is impossible of attainment.

This process of spiritual growth finally reaches its height in that Christ Himself is seen in the believer. Living by the Spirit conforms us to the image of God's Son (Romans 8:14, 29). This is shown in type by the last two sons of Jacob, Joseph and Benjamin, beautiful types of the Lord Jesus. Christ Himself is the climax of our blessing, the crown of our happiness. In Joseph we see Him both in His rejection and in His exaltation, and our lives should be in agreement with this. On the one hand Christ in His utter humiliation is our model (Philippians 2); on the other hand Christ in His heavenly glory is the goal of all our ambitions (Philippians 3). If He is formed in us in this way, our life will be more and more under the Lordship of the Man at God's right hand, who allows us to partake in the results of His victory (Benjamin divides the spoil). Thus we reach spiritual maturity, which is so often mentioned in the New Testament, and the image of Christ is clearly seen in us (1 Corinthians 3:1-3; Galatians 4:19; Ephesians 4:12-16; Colossians 1:28).

The perfect, or full-grown, Christian is one who in faith is in the place that is ours in the purpose of God, one not merely knowing that Jesus is the Christ, and that his sins are forgiven him, but that he is in Christ before God, dead and risen with Him. Forgiveness refers to the works of the old man, to sins committed: perfection, to the new place into which we are entered in the second Man, to the actual possession of which we press forward, to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of us. This is the teaching of Philippians 3. Christ is our life; He has laid hold of us for that, and we are pressing forward towards it: there is no other object before us.

This is observable in St. Paul. Although his great work was unfolding the redemption of Christ and the counsels of God's glory founded on redemption, yet he cannot but insist on this full growth of the saints in connection with the deepening knowledge of the Son of God. It is the person of Christ that rises up before the soul; and this is very much more a test of spirituality than any acquaintance with His work. It is with Himself, as a divine person, that we become more and more intimate through the truth that God ministers to our souls. This is what is put before us — "Till we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at a perfect man." Knowledge of the past ways of God would not do now. The Old Testament saints did look to the Messiah in the way of hope; but the present form in which the Spirit of God presents the object to us is the knowledge of His person, as the Son fully revealed for our joy and praise and worship. So that we have here the great christian object and form of knowledge that God has in view with all His saints now. The comparison with verse 14 gives the force of the expression, "a perfect man;" it is in contrast with being children, "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; that we henceforth be no more babes, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine." What God designs for us is that we should be full-grown, and this "unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." It is in contrast with this condition of weakness and exposure to all the craft of men, and their changing, scheming tactics of error.

"As many, therefore, as be perfect, let us be thus minded." v. 15. He speaks of himself and others also, as being "perfect"; but there is no contradiction of what went before. When he had, in verse 12, disclaimed as yet the reception of the prize and being perfected, he meant that he was not yet out of the conflict in a resurrection condition. But when he here exhorts "as many as be perfect," he means those who are of full age in the faith, thoroughly grounded in the Christian position, entering into it by faith and spiritual intelligence. It means a Christian who is not a babe, but full grown; not, of course, a Christian who has thoroughly finished his course, for this is in resurrection, but one who has become a man in Christ. He shall not have grown up into the full likeness of Christ till He comes and transforms us like to His glory. But there is such a thing even here as growing into the full knowledge of the mind of God, and it is through having got Christ in glory before us now the personal object of our souls. But suppose there are others among the children of God still in difficulty and doubt, what then? Are we to make them adopt our feelings and judgment about things? Certainly not. It would be a positive loss, unless it were by the power of the Holy Ghost leading the saints into a fuller apprehension of Christ.