The Apostle Paul had been traveling in the Mediterranean for several years helping to build and grow Christian churches there. As an evangelist he was always wanting to get things started, establish local leadership and press on into the horizon to establish more churches. His message was urgent, his preaching was unvarnished and, more importantly, it was imbued with love. He pushed off from the shores of the new Christian churches, but kept in touch with them. For this lesson we will be looking at portions of two of his letters to churches.
It is clear from Paul’s letters that he loves these Christians. What love had filled Paul’s life? It was the love of God through Jesus Christ. In several of his letters, we can read the accounts of his pre-Christian behavior, describing himself as having been a powerful and loveless religious leader, bent on the destruction of those new Christians (Acts 9). But then he became one of them. The day on the road to Damascus he was struck down by the weight and beauty of the pure, altruistic love of Christ Jesus. From that point forward not only was Paul converted to the way of Christ, but he continued to grow and mature as a Christian. For a lengthy time, he sat under the steady teaching of Aquilla and Pricilla, discipled and guided by folks who became his trusted friends. The suffering and persecution he experienced as a Christian also shaped him. There is little doubt that his skills as a religious leader and scholar prior to knowing Christ were transformed as he worked with new bodies of believers to help plant the Christian Church of Jesus Christ.
We may like to idealize the New Testament churches, but the reality was that they are much like our own—a bunch of people learning how to be like Jesus together. It’s important for us to be realistic about these groups of Christians, especially in relationship to maturity. In the timeline of the New Testament, they had not been religious organizations for long at all. What kinds of growth, jostling and exploration might they have been doing as relatively newly gathered groups of people? They were learning how to have appropriate structures of governance and accountability. They were still experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in new and fresh ways. They were still learning how to be loving. They were still immature.
Now immaturity is not necessarily a negative or bad thing. It can be a simple state of fact. Immaturity is quite like ignorance. Ignorance is simply a lack of knowledge that does not indicate rebellion or stupidity. Both of these words have been given varnishes of negativity over many years. But let’s go to the example of a child, as Paul did. When a child is born, it is completely and wholly dependent upon her/his caregivers. A child can do very little for herself/himself. A child cries because she/he is hungry or dirty. The child cannot gather food or make a living. So, naturally, the parents or caregivers are, or should be, focused on their every need. This is appropriate. But when the child begins to grow physically and emotionally, a healthy parent will begin to teach and guide that child so that she/he can begin to provide care for themselves and others. This is the movement of physical and emotional maturity. It should happen and it can happen.
It is also true in the individual Christian and the life of the Church. If appropriate teaching, guidance and accountability do not take place, both the person and the Church get stunted in their growth and do not become all that they can be in Christ. Eventually, if there is no continual growth, both turn destructively self-centered.
To this end, then, we find two particular passages on spiritual maturity that Paul wrote. If we just took his directness as power-tripping or authoritarianism, then these letters are unnecessarily harsh. But there was something at the bedrock of Paul’s admonitions and confrontation. That was love.
Read 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13.
Paul wrote the “Love Chapter” out of love. But too often this Scripture has taken on a humanistic reading. Beautifully read and sung at weddings, if taken from a human perspective, it appears to be all on our shoulders to “always” be loving and “never” failing. These are quite an impossible task unto ourselves this side of heaven. However, if we read his great words from a Christ-perspective, then we see that this is God’s love that is perfect and never-failing.
Can we be honest here? Who among us is always loving and never fails in that love? If it is all up to me to be loving there is a guarantee—I will fail you, myself and Jesus. But, if that love is God’s love that comes in and takes over our lives individually and corporately, it will never fail!
Read Ephesians 4:1-16.
If you have read the first three chapters of Ephesians, you may notice a shift in the rest of the letter. William Malas, Jr. wrote: “By using the words, I urge you, Paul has transitioned primarily to instruction more than theological reflection…to make sure that they put their beliefs into practice, though it should be noted that there is nothing in Ephesians that suggests that they were not already doing so.”[1] When combined with the passage from I Corinthians we just read, it is clear that in two different places and times in the Mediterranean Paul recognized the need to spur these Christians on to greater growth and unity and love. He wanted them to move forward in a “life worthy of the calling they had received” (v. 1) Just as the Corinthian Christians had been called to do.
There is a danger in talking about Christian maturity. That danger lies in the idea that we need to do this ourselves, that the expectation is that we pull ourselves up, that we have a checklist that must be punched. But here in Ephesians Paul directs our attention to the source of growth and maturity. He makes some of the most profound statements about the Godhead. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. While the word “Trinity” is not in the Bible, the concept of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as one lives and breathes through all of God’s written Word. And as Christians, we take this by faith. We discover that our Triune God is the well-spring of our growth. (John 15:5) Once we decide that we must count on his help and accept his power, we can live forward, ever forward, by his daily doses of grace!
In verses 8-10 Paul describes the movement of Jesus Christ on our behalf. While commentators have wrestled with this section for many years, (some saying it shows that Christ descended into hell while others say that it was his coming as a baby to earth) Paul seems to want to assure these Christians that Christ’s movement to descend and ascend is evidence of his divine power and ability to “fill the whole universe”. Wow! What if we really lived into that reality and let the flood waters of His power and grace fill us daily?! If we do that then we will mature into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
But Paul recognizes that there are functions that Christ has established in His Church to aid in further growth. He gives people particular gifts to augment his message so that we can mature. The gifts sometimes overlap in individuals as needed in a local body of believers.
Apostles – Establishers
Evangelists – Proclaimers
Prophets- Direct and Specific Revelation Distributors
Pastors – Shepherds to Guide and Protect
Teachers – Expounding and Instructing
In these there is no hierarchy, no one function is more important than the other, all are needed by God to grow His Church. Craig Keener wrote: “They share a common focus and basis of authority as bearers of Christ’s message.”[2]
These functions are designed with purposeful outcomes to equip the whole Church.
To prepare people for works of service (v. 12)
To build up the Church which is the Body of Christ (v. 12)
To reach unity in the faith (v. 13)
To reach unity in the knowledge of Jesus (v. 13)
To become mature (v. 13)
To attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (v. 13)
What an incredibly packed two verses those are! Those outcomes are evidence of mature Christians growing. Craig Keener wrote about this kind of spiritual maturity: “Not the maturity of doctrinal conviction…not personal maturity that includes the ability to relate well to other people (v. 2-3), but the maturity of the perfectly balanced character of Christ.”[3] Isn’t that what we long for?
When reflecting on these passages we can be caught up in wonder that God has provided so wonderfully for us! Especially as we recognize that even today there is “every wind of teaching” and “the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” (v. 14) The enemy of our souls wants to divide and conquer.
One commentator wrote: “The only way to be able to detect error is to know the truth.”[4] When we feel we have the “inability to discern Christian truth”[5] we turn to Jesus! Where there is discord and chaos, the unity of believers can rise above that under the powerful sway of our Triune God. The NIV Study Bible notes: “Unity is not just a matter of a loving attitude or religious feeling, but of truth and common understanding about God’s Son.”[6] That’s what clears our heads and hearts and stands us on the firmest of ground.
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
I believe in the corporate nature of the Christian community. The strength of God is distributed to believers by the Holy Spirit, the guidance of the Father and the presence of Jesus Christ. So, when I am not as loving and mature as I should be, another part of the body of Christ is. This enables all of us to minister healing to each other, bring accountability to the table, distribute forgiveness and encouragement every day. I may be the weak one on a particular day, but then the next, by the help of God, I am the loving one. We make no excuses except to say that we are maturing in Christ and need to grow in His great love.
God’s love is always perfect and, greater still, it is eternal. We can rejoice in this final truth—because God’s love never fails! We can be filled and renewed by it and we can be restored, resurrected and reborn every day as we advance to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who will make all things new! When we admit that we are not as mature as we could be and cannot love as we should, we can also rejoice, because we can return to that vast and deep well of love and grace that will never run dry. We only need to humble ourselves and receive the love of God into those immature, selfish and weak places.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we can grow up!
Amen
M.R. Hyde
© M.R.Hyde 2026
[1] Illustrated Bible Life – Spring 2026, The Foundry Publishing, Kansas City, MO, 2026.
[2] The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL , 1993, p. 548
[3] Ibid.
[4] The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, p. 1310-1311.
[5] Illustrated Bible Life – Spring 2026, The Foundry Publishing, Kansas City, MO, 2026.
[6] NIVSB, Zondervan Press, Grand Rapids, MI, 1995, p. 1798.
