Lambs dressed as mutton

“When I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

Turning forty is no great achievement for an upper-middle-class westerner, part of the privilege we are born in to in Australia I believe. I was recently at the ER with some concerns about my heart (which turned out to be nothing), however I was pleasantly chuffed when the Doctor said “We don’t tend to worry too much with men as young as yourself.”

I remember back to the first time I was called a gentleman at the ripe old age of nineteen as I walked through the doors of an art gallery for a friend’s exhibition in rural Victoria.

A school teacher was exiting with her class of primary school students and said “Move across and let the Gentleman through”, I remember it clearly because I looked around for this gentleman she was referring to so I could get out of his way!

Both of these moments left me with a spring in my step; the school teacher’s remark left my young chest puffed out as I realised I had finally made it to this thing we call adulthood, and likewise my ego was kindled when the Doctor referred to me as young man.

Perspective is a funny thing which changes as we grow older. I imagine some of you past your sixties are smiling at this point, sage observations indeed for a spring chicken such as myself!

The young wish they were ‘old enough’ sooner and the old wish they were young once again. So it goes for creatures born with eternity in our hearts, yet ordained to grow old and die.

The Way of Life begins with a new birth, and no matter how old you are when that happens you begin again as a babe in Christ. You will need mothers and fathers about you while you learn to walk in the Spirit, to pick you up when you fall down and remind you that you are very much loved, even as they wipe the porridge from your spiritual chin.

Unlike our physical childhood, with its signs of healthy growth measured in discarded shoes too small and pencil-marks on the wall, growth as a child of God is measured by other means. Yet just as in the physical realm children are wont to stand on their tip toes, so are spiritual children wont to see themselves as much more mature than they really are.

Paul makes it clear that the expected rate of growth for new believers far out-strips a human childhood for speed however:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

— Paul, Letter to the Hebrews

Spiritual maturity is not an issue of the passing of time, but in training and discernment in the Word and growing in the knowledge of the heart of God. Paul expects all believers to grow into full maturity much faster than you might believe given the average bum-on-seat Christian today.

So how can we measure our growth? For surely one must be concerned lest we prove to be stunted unknowingly. The scriptures call us to assess ourselves to determine if we are indeed in The Way at all.

In 1 John we find the beloved disciple of Jesus, John, as an old man most probably in his late eighties writing to his ‘little children’ in the faith to warn them of false teachers and to assure them of their salvation.

This same John who once had asked Jesus if he should call down righteous fire from heaven on those who rejected them, who Jesus had to sternly rebuke. Now after a lifetime of sanctification the wise and gentle Elder who’s most heartfelt message is that we simply love one another as Christ loved us, once more takes up his pen.

From this vantage point, John writes in the poetic language of a loving grandfather:

I am writing to you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.
I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, children,
because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.

— John, a disciple of Jesus

Here lies a true yardstick for spiritual maturity! Should we care to hold it against ourselves we will find its measure true.

In John’s whimsical fashion he makes the measure clear:

Little children are those who know who their Father truly is, and know that their sins are forgiven them, for Jesus’ sake.

Young men and women are those who are strong, in whom the Word of God abides, and who have overcome the evil one and have conquered their sin.

Fathers and mothers are those who know Him, who know Jesus’s heart because they have taken the Word from their mind into their heart through relationship with the Son.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

— Jesus, preparing to leave His disciples

My prayer tonight is:

Father, let each one of us in humility take up the measure John has left for us and take stock of our own spiritual state, give us eyes to see ourselves as You see us, by the power of your Holy Spirit who lives within us.

Lord, the Way to maturity is clear, that we must fill ourselves with your Word and not be ignorant of your ways. That we must live in obedience and trust to You so that the Word which brings life can make its way into our heart from our mind, that we would have Your heart in all things, that you would call us your friends.

The Least Disciple

Lambs dressed as mutton

A little lamb with its mother

You must be born again.