Okay, I've got a problem here today. My job is to find a nugget or passage or thought from the Scriptures to focus on every day. Often something jumps out at me. Sometimes its a real stretch. But today there are two points that need to be made and I'm not going to choose between them!
The Greatest Verse in the Bible!
Of course, that is a silly statement since there are so many great verses throughout God's Word. But for a person like me, so prone to sin and failure, Psalm 103:10 is about as good as it gets.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
The last thing anyone ought ever demand is that we be treated as we deserve. We are sinners who stand in rebellion against the authority of God and the wages of such sin is death. Physical death. Eternal death. Separation from God and an eternity under God's wrath. To "get what I deserve" from God would be a horror beyond words.
That is not what God does. He does not deal with us as our sins deserve, but in Christ he grants us grace. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins so that we could live in forgiveness and experience the goodness of God instead of his terrible justice.
It just doesn't get any better than that!
The Mark of Maturity
What is it that marks a mature Christian? Is it a deep knowledge of the Bible and theology? It is a conformity to a certain set of lifestyle guidelines? Can it be measured by a level of activity in the church - leadership positions, teaching, service? Of course each of these has its place. A knowledge of the Bible is foundational to all Christian growth. We should be conformed to Christ and live in obedience to him. We ought to be devoted to the people of God. But Paul had something else in mind when he spoke of spiritual maturity, in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3.
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh.
After leading off with encouragement in chapter 1, Paul said some harsh things to the Corinthians about their sinful attitudes. Here he accused them of being immature Christians who lacked spiritual patterns of thinking. We are born with a mind bound to the flesh and to sin. Christ comes in and begins to reprogram us, to give us "the mind of Christ" so that we think biblically, spiritually, in accord with the character and purposes of God.
That had not yet happened in the Corinthians. They were still immature in their thinking, unspiritual, fleshly. But what was the marker of that immaturity? Paul makes that clear in verses 3-4.
For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
Jealousy. Strife. Division. Dissension. Schism. Immature Christians tend to divide over secondary issues, especially personalities. I like this preacher. I like that. I'm into this teaching. I'm into that. I'm loyal to this. I'm loyal to that. Some of the Corinthians were followers of Paul. Some followed Apollos. Paul identified this as immaturity.
Let me make this as plain as I can. A divisive, angry, schismatic spirit is a marker of spiritual immaturity. Mature Christians seek unity with other believers, even those with whom they disagree, who have different backgrounds, loyalties and preferences. The tendency for schism comes from the flesh and is evidence of spiritual immaturity.
It is one of the most amazing moments in history, as Jesus looked down from the cross at the soldiers who had nailed him there and were now casting lots to divide his garments. "Father, forgive them," he prayed. Jesus, even in his pain, was about forgiveness and mercy.
Mature Christians mimic the grace of Jesus Christ. They seek to love and forgive and serve. They do not let little things, secondary issues, personal loyalties or preferences to become points of division in the Body of Christ.
Father, thank you for dealing with me on the basis of grace and not according to my own works. I have received life I didn't deserve instead of the death I did. May I also live in maturity, seeking unity in the Body of Christ instead of schism.
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