4 Defining Markers of Spiritual Maturity

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I’ll never forget the first time I heard my dad say this from the pulpit.

The imagery was vibrant and it illustrated clearly the frustration of many pastors having to bottle-feed Christians who should have grown into maturity — but haven’t.

Over my years in the church, I have encountered many such Christians.

They have walked with the Lord for decades, but have little understanding of basic Christian doctrines and have never developed basic Christian disciplines.

For Christians in developed and free countries, there is no excuse.

The lack of Christian maturity is puzzling given the plethora of quality, free Bible teaching materials, Bibles, and study guides available online.

The vast library of free study aids available today would have cost well into the hundreds of dollars only 30-40 years ago.

Commentaries by trusted leaders, Bible dictionaries, concordances, sermons, Bible translations…

And yet, spiritual maturity is declining rapidly.

4 Defining Markers of Spiritual Maturity

Paul wraps up the book of Colossians by giving us four defining markers of the spiritually mature Christian.

After presenting a clear picture of Christ as the head of the church, contrasting Him against the legalistic doctrine of the Judaizers, he shows us what spiritual maturity should look like.

1. Spiritually mature Christians are praying Christians

In his book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Pastor Jim Cymbala illustrates the hypocrisy of the modern American church’s attitude toward prayer.

He argues that while we heavily promote See You At the Pole or prayer clubs in schools, our churches have canceled their weekly church prayer meetings.

While we celebrate the National Day of Prayer once a year, we can’t bother to gather for a weekly church prayer meeting.

In Matthew 21, Mark 11, and Luke 19, Jesus quoted Isaiah while cleansing the temple saying, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”.

But for our church – where our congregation gathers – to be a house of prayer, we as living stones that make up that church must first be houses of prayer.

Are we?

Have you made prayer a priority in your personal life?

We won’t find time to pray. Satan will make sure of that.

He will design interruptions any way he can to make sure that you’re so busy you don’t have time to pray.

You must make it a priority by setting aside time in your day when you sit and do nothing else but pray – and then develop a strategy so that throughout your day you’re communing with God.

Paul says in Colossians 4:4, “…being vigilant with it in thanksgiving”.

Do you whine to God?

How much of our prayer is whining to God, instead of thanking Him for the good things He has done?

When we turn our whining into thanksgiving, our perspective changes!

Thanksgiving and prayer are a true marker of spiritual maturity in the life of a Christian.

2. Spiritually mature Christians pray often for their leaders

How often do you pray for your pastor and his family?

I have had the privilege in my life of being on both sides of the church; both behind the pulpit as a pastor’s kid and in front of the pulpit as a congregant.

I have served in leadership and have simply attended church, serving nowhere.

This has given me a unique perspective from both sides, and I can testify with absolute certainty the level of exhaustion and discouragement pastors face on a regular basis.

Many, if not most, pastors are crushed under the tremendous weight of carrying the ministry alone.

My family and I used to laugh saying, “If the pastor’s family isn’t doing it, it won’t get done.”

The congregants would complain that there wasn’t a certain ministry available, but when we’d ask them to volunteer, it wasn’t “their calling”.

The burden of ministry coupled with the amount of time it requires to keep a church running smoothly often keeps pastors and their families too busy for adequate time with the Lord, much less to be aware of the opportunities God gives them to spread the gospel.

Something else that many church members lay solely on the shoulds of the pastor.

And yet Paul urges the church in Colosse to pray that God would open ” a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ…”.

Pray for your pastor.

Pray for his family.

Pray that God would strengthen and encourage them. Pray that God would give them wisdom to lead with divine understanding.

Pray that God would show you where you can help shoulder their load, and finally pray that God would give them open doors to share the gospel.

There is nothing quite as encouraging and life-giving as sharing the gospel with someone who does not yet know Christ!

3. Spiritually mature Christians understand the brevity of this life

When you look at the average lifespan of a human – 70-80 years – and compare it to the length of human history – roughly 7,000 – 8,000 years, our lifespan is incredibly short.

Contrast that to eternity, and you realize that our time on earth is barely a perceptible speck.

We spend our time investing in our toys and creating a comfortable, enjoyable life for ourselves, forgetting that we were sent here on a serious mission.

God didn’t send us here to live a comfortable, fun life, enjoying success by the world’s standards.

He sent us here with a mission to win the lost and make disciples.

Paul jerks us back to reality in Colossians 4 when he says, “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.”

You hear a lot of people today talking about “time currency“.

I am amazed at what people find interesting on social media; and the amount of time they invest leaving comments – even engaging in online debates – over the most meaningless things.

Such as a cat walking across the floor of someone’s house.

Or a woman getting dressed.

Why?

It’s wasted time you can never get back.

When Paul talks about “redeeming the time”, he’s not talking about trying to buy back time.

You can’t buy time back. Once time has passed, it’s gone forever.

The Greek word he used in this verse is “exagorazoo”, which is an interesting word – that I hope you’ll take the time to read about in my post: Understanding Your True Identity in Christ.

The context of that word in this verse means to wisely use time in a sacred manner, taking every opportunity to do good and live with earnest devotion, as if this is the currency by which we purchase time, making it our own.

We are grasping time, we are purchasing it with our laser-focused attention on fulfilling Christ’s mission for our lives so that the time we are investing here on earth is used in a wise and sacred manner.

Maybe this sounds too radical.

But Paul warned in 1 Corinthians 3 that “each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.”

One day we will stand before Christ and be held accountable for how we spent our time here on earth.

What kind of investment are we making in this time we’ve been given on earth?

4. Spiritually mature Christians control their tongues

Not long ago, I was watching a video with a Christian couple who exclaimed about the “power of well-placed profanity”.

Words cannot express my dismay at this thinking.

And yet, I’ve read and heard similar statements by other Christians. This couple is not alone in their opinion.

Paul did say in the previous chapter:

But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Colossians 3:8

And in Ephesians 4, he says:

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Ephesians 4:29

Our words are the fruit of what is growing in our hearts.

Jesus said this in Matthew 12:34, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”.

So, when we are praying with thanksgiving when we are interceding for our spiritual leaders, and when we live with eternity as our focus, what will come out of our mouths will be graceful words seasoned with the salt of God’s Word.

We will automatically reject profanity, complaining, whining, pessimism, and negative speech.

I challenge you this week to listen to the words you are saying.

Are the majority of them negative?

Complaining?

Harsh?

Gossipy?

Occasional profanity?

These are the fruit of what growing in our hearts.3

Jesus said in Matthew 12:33, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.”

If we want to do as Paul said in Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt” then we need to have good seed planted in our hearts.

We need to watch what we’re allowing in our ears and through our eyes…

We need to fill our hearts with the good seed of God’s Word and let Him cut out the bad trees we’ve let grow there.

We’re all called to spiritual maturity.

This is not just a calling for those who are in full-time ministry or Christian influencers.

This is God’s will for every person who calls themselves a Christian – because if spiritual maturity isn’t happening in every Christian, there’s a serious problem.

Jesus said that we should go and make disciples of all people.

But in order for us to do that, we have to be a disciple first.

We can’t make people into something we have not yet become ourselves.

What step do you need to take first toward spiritual maturity? Are you ready to start today?