What does it mean to be a mature Christian? Are the mature Christians those who know a lot about the Bible? Have perfect church attendance? Don’t use certain four letter words? What is the hallmark of Christian maturity? How can you identify a mature Christian? And what is the goal you should be reaching towards as a Christian growing in Christ?

       Paul comments on this in 1 Corinthians 13:8 and 11 where he says, “8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever…11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.”

       Paul says that we will grow out of things like prophecy and miracles and special knowledge. He equates them to the childish parts of faith. That doesn’t mean they’re bad. It just means they belong to the time of our faith journey when we were immature. Then he says that the thing that will last, the thing that we grow into, where we’re headed on the journey of faith, is love. Love is sign of an adult Christian.

       This Sunday, you’re practicing maturity. Serving at church is not just something somebody has to do to keep the church moving forward. It’s the goal of the Christian life. All of us are growing towards loving and serving others. The goal isn’t Bible verse memorization or how many sermons we hear. The goal isn’t the ability to answer Christian trivia. The goal is to better love and serve our neighbors. That’s what lasts forever.

       Thank you for loving and serving this week. Thank you for being the example to the rest of us what Christian maturity looks like. Thank you for answering that call!