Fallacies of Spiritual Maturity

Majority of Christians have erroneous belief about spiritual maturity. Such erroneous beliefs are based on myths instituted by religious traditions. The following are some myths related to spiritual maturity.

Spiritual maturity is when a person gain religious leadership.
Spiritual maturity is obtained by sacrificial services to God.
Spiritual maturity is reach through generous giving.
The standards set by each religion are valid criterion for spiritual maturity.
A believer can achieve spiritual maturity by his determination and power.
Every believer will reach spiritual maturity before his death.
Spiritual maturity is measure by length of time in Christian ministry involvement and endurance in serving.
Spiritual maturity is not important before God but loving one another.
Spiritual maturity is obtained at the moment of baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual maturity is received through the laying of hands.
Every believer will eventually become spiritually mature when they reach heaven.
A believer can reach spiritual maturity even without Bible doctrine.

Every spiritual blessing that God has provided man is counterfeit-proof. Satan cannot fake the eternal life, spirituality, the gospel, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and spiritual maturity. There is only one eternal life, one Gospel, one salvation, spirituality and maturity. The “other gospel’ is not the gospel of God. The “other salvation” is not the salvation by which Christ offered Himself for the sin of the world. The “other spiritual maturity” is not from God. Those who are without Bible doctrine are easily deceived to accept the counterfeit version which Satan has produced.

Satan succeeded in distracting the majority of believers from spiritual growth and advancement toward maturity, creating a enormous crowd of immature believers in every generation. All throughout the Scripture, the spiritually mature believers are identified by their full knowledge (epignosis) of God. They knew God and known by God. Spiritual maturity is the full knowledge of God. Moses for example had maximum knowledge of God which he acquired by meditating (thinking) on the information God Himself revealed to him. For Moses, it took 40 years of his life to know God. There is no instant spiritual maturity.

The spiritually mature believer is a winner in his Christian life, because he has developed the capacity to receive every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place in Christ (Eph. 1:3), all of which are tailor-made for him before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). The majority of the “religious Christians” are ignorant of the true criteria for spiritual maturity since the devil has successfully distorted the truth. Believers are “wishfully” thinking that by some luck or chance they will become spiritually mature without going through the procedure designed by God.

Majority of believed that since all believers inherit salvation (Matt. 25:34, Titus 3:7, Heb. 1:14), they will also inherit the kingdom of God (Rom. 8:17, Col. 3:22-24, Heb. 6:11-12). They missed the point that only the spiritually mature believers will inherit the kingdom of God. They are co-heirs with Jesus Christ and they will rule with Him. If the spiritually immature will rule in the kingdom of God, simply because they have gained such access through sacrificial service, rituals, or following some dogmas, then God is not perfect and just.

Some believers thought that spiritual maturity is instantaneous, direct and not gradual or progressive procedure. They claimed that if God called a person to preach, then He provided the preacher instant power and wisdom to preach, eliminating the necessity for hermeneutics. They misinterpret the context of Luke 21:15. Salvation is an instantaneous event, but spiritual advancement is a task of a lifetime. In Christ, all believers have positionally overcome the world at the very moment they believe in Him (1 John 5:4-5, Rev. 21:7). It happened apart from our will and power. However, only the spiritually mature believer will overcome in a way to receive eternal rewards and authority to rule, on the basis of their experiential life in Christ (Rev. 2:7, 17, 26, 3:5, 12, 21). They lived their Christian life under the divine protocol and inside the divine dynasphere.

The New Testament uses the noun pleroma (fullness) to describe the mature believers. They are complete (full) in itself, complete in quantity, quality and duration since they alone can execute the plan of God. They are the champions of the spiritual realm who advances through undeserved sufferings which glorifies God. Spiritual maturity is not the ability to mention or cite the grace of God but to live and function inside His plan of grace.

^{J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries}