A Surprising Sign of Spiritual Maturity

"When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely."

~ 1 Corinthians 13:11-12

What makes a person spiritually mature? Perhaps their number of years following Jesus? No. Maybe the amount of knowledge they have about spiritual topics? No. Perhaps the regularity with which they engage in spiritual practices? No.

All of the above are good, and they can lead to maturity when done regularly and relationally with God and others, but they are not the evidence of spiritual maturity.

Last Sunday in church we continued our journey through 1 Corinthians and had a robust discussion on 1 Corinthians 13, the "love chapter." In this chapter the apostle Paul gives two evidences of spiritual maturity. The first is the obvious one: the presence of love.

In the context of the Corinthian church, they felt that certain spiritual gifts like prophecy and miracles were a sign of spiritual maturity, and they chased after them to the point of looking down on those who did not practice them. So Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 13 to correct that attitude and remind them that these spiritual gifts they pursued would one day cease, but the love they ignored would continue forever and was the true evidence that God was at work among them.

However, I don't want to write about the more obvious evidence of love, because Paul addresses a second, less obvious evidence of spiritual maturity at the end of the chapter when he writes about childishness. He says that when he grew up he put away childish things. What were these childish things he put away? According to the next verse, the evidence that he had matured (put away childish things) was the acknowledgment that "all I know now is partial and incomplete."

The Corinthians coveted knowledge as much as they did spiritual gifts. They thought, "We're so mature because we know everything," and Paul retorts, "Actually, you're really childish because you think you know everything. If you were grown up, you'd realize all you know now is partial and incomplete."

The metaphor Paul uses is a mirror, which in ancient times gave a mottled, somewhat undefined image. That is what we know of God. Even though Jesus gives us insight into the heart of God, events like the Transfiguration tell us there is more than meets the eye. God is Mystery, and one evidence of spiritual maturity is the acknowledgement that I know this Mystery only in part.

(And keep in mind this is Paul writing these words. Paul, who was "caught up into the Third Heaven" [2 Cor 12:2] yet still says he only knows in part!)

To be honest, this is hard for Western Evangelicals. We teach certainty, we systematize God into a neat box, and we don't handle Mystery well. Theological humility is a foreign phrase to us. However, with God, even though we have the Bible and the gathered church (which is the body of Christ), there is more to know, and more to come into. This forms the basis of our humility.

PAUSE and REFLECT: 

Do you need to "be sure that you're sure that you're sure" about what you know theologically? Are you able to accept God is bigger than you are and well beyond your capability to fully understand today? Can you be comfortable saying, "This is my understanding based on my reading of Scripture and my experience with God, but I accept at best I have a mottled view and can only grasp a small picture of my infinite God."

But there is comfort for us in these verses. Paul writes one day "I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely." So the being fully known has already happened. That's established.

As Dr Lucy Peppiatt says, "We are fully known now. But we can't reciprocate that yet. We can't know God as fully as he knows us, but we can rest in the truth that we are fully known and that being fully known is what is drawing us in to the point where we will fully know and see face-to-face."

In the meantime, spiritual maturity allows us to be ok with the fact that yes we are fully known, but we do not yet fully know, and as such we embrace relationship with God and theology about God with both humility and gratitude for Mystery.