Maturity

Imagine you planted a tree in your backyard. If planted properly, a sprout will emerge from the ground, followed by a seedling, then a sapling and so on and so forth. This is the expectation for a seed; that it will grow into something. So it is with men and women who have had a real encounter with Jesus. There is an expectation that the seed of salvation planted within them will grow by the very real and lifelong process of sanctification. Let’s peek at what it looks like to miss the mark on this, and then we will stare for a bit at a picture of the right way.

Lifelong boys are an evident and frightening issue in our culture. Everywhere we turn, we see dudes who are failing to launch into the world as real men, and it is wreaking havoc on our society. These perpetual children are lazy, incompetent, dependent upon their mom and dad, and life-draining to everyone around them. They are shallow and ignorant versions of what manhood is, and often they are applauded for their laid-back lifestyle. This shouldn’t be so. It is the responsibility of the mature and godly men to reach down, take these boys by the arm, and guide them into real manhood.

I want to attach the word responsibility to this idea of biblical maturity. I believe this lies at the heart of a mature man of God. Responsibility, as I am using it here, is the awareness and joyful acceptance of all that God has called you to be and do. As our Christian walk progresses in a natural and biblical way, we will become exceedingly aware of the areas in our lives that we fall short of how we ought to act and who we ought to be. Part of the journey to maturity is the simple fact of recognizing all of this. The mature man grows daily into someone who resembles Jesus, the ultimate mature man. He “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). From the time he was born he steadily and consistently increased in his wisdom and maturity, ever increasing in his recognition and joyful acceptance of the cosmic responsibility that had been placed upon his shoulders, namely, his sacrificial death for the sins of the world. For Jesus, it wasn’t that he acted like he was 30 when he was 10, he was just a perfectly mature and responsible 10-year-old.

This is a great example for us as men: Don’t strive to be more mature than where you are, but never settle for being less. If you are a young father, don’t beat yourself up because you aren’t the same as a man who is three times your age. Instead, labor every day to become the most responsible and godly man your age, never settling for the standard of the world around you but rather growing up in Christ by growing down in your depth of understanding his word, works, and ways.