Reading · Oakleaves | Grace Church Ojai

My kids are seven and four. While this season of parenting is uniquely sweet, it comes with its own set of difficulties. The reason for this (of course) is that my seven-year-old acts like a seven-year-old, and my four-year-old acts like a four-year-old. That my children behave childishly is not a problem, it’s a byproduct of their age, and God has given Olivia and I, as their parents, the job of slowly helping our children “give up childish ways” (1 Cor. 13:11). We’re called to shepherd them toward taking responsibility for their words, time, actions, health, finances, relationships, and faith, as they move toward this vague and amorphous thing we call “maturity.”

Born again in a moment by grace through faith, the Bible speaks of the Christian life as a long, slow journey toward “spiritual maturity.” However, the finish line of our journey of spiritual maturity is not vague and undefined. Rather, in Jesus Christ, we have the perfect model of spiritual maturity. We might even say that a Christian is only as spiritually mature as he is “conformed to the image of [God’s] Son” (Rom. 8:29). Still, as Christ’s followers strive for spiritual maturity together, it’s helpful to break down what Christlike maturity looks like into smaller, more manageable bites. Let’s do so by focusing on four words: Knowledge, Holiness, Worship, and Mission

Knowledge – We focus first on how a spiritually mature disciple will think. A mature disciple will know God intimately, as a person, but he will also believe right information about God. In other words, a mature disciple’s beliefs will be Biblical and orthodox from regularly feasting in God’s word and drinking from orthodox wells. The Spirit will use God’s word to “[renew] the spirit of your minds” (Eph. 4:23, cf. Rom. 12:2). This growth in knowledge comes not only from reading God’s word, but trusting faithful teachers who will warn and teach everyone with all wisdom “that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28), feeding them with “spiritual milk” and moving onto “solid food” as they mature (1 Cor. 3:2, Heb. 5:12–13).
Holiness – We focus next on how a spiritually mature disciple will live. A mature disciple will live as the new creation he is, putting off the old self and putting on the new self, “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22-24). Put another way, spiritually mature disciples are “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22). As they follow their “holy, innocent, [and] unstained” (Heb. 7:26) Lord, they will be “transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18). This process of growing in holiness (often called sanctification), is not an optional add on for the super spiritual, but is the will of God for every believer” (1 Thes. 4:3).
Worship – We focus now on how a spiritually mature disciple will love. The more a disciple grows in his understanding of how holy God is, and grows in his understanding of how unworthy he is of God’s free grace, the more his affections for the Lord will burn within him and overflow in worship. As his affections are drawn ever more to the Lord, the disciples’ affections, formerly “corrupt through deceitful desires” (Eph. 4:22), will begin to align more and more with his, loving the things God loves, and hating the things God hates.
Mission – We focus finally on how a spiritually mature disciple will serve. A mature disciple will not be spiritually obese, consuming religious content and doing nothing with it, but will understand that as “God’s workmanship” he has been “created in Christ Jesus for good works” that reveal his righteousness and grace (Eph. 2:10). He understands that the great commission isn’t reserved for pastors and missionaries, but for all the saints (Eph. 4:12), serving one another as they steward the gifts of God (1 Pet. 4:10). Thus, mature disciples attend church not just to get fed, encouraged, and challenged, but that they might take part in the feeding, encouraging, and challenging of others, practicing the “one anothers” of scripture, that the church might “[build] itself up in love” (Eph. 4:16).

To put all this into one pregnant sentence, we might say that a spiritually mature disciple is someone who knows God deeply and truly, who seeks to imitate his holiness, who treasures Christ and all Christ treasures, and who puts his faith into action. But what does it look like to walk this path? Let’s dive deeper into this question in our upcoming newsletters.

Grief Support Group: Our next Grief Support Group is tomorrow, July 1, at 4 PM in the sanctuary. This group is open to the community and led by Paul Lenderman of Mark Ministries.
Quarterly Meeting: Please mark your calendars for Sunday, July 26. We will be having our quarterly congregational meeting right after the morning service.
Service Opportunity: Looking for a way to serve? We’d love to have you join the music team! We are always looking to add singers and instrumentalists so please contact Ed White to get more info.
Vacation Bible School: We need lots of volunteers to make this happen, so sign up soon! We will be partnering with Redemption again for an exciting new VBS this summer the week of July 20-24. It is called “The Defenders: The Last Stand” and is the last installment of the trilogy! It runs from 9 AM to noon for ages 5-12. If you would like to register your kids or volunteer to help, the QR codes for both are in the foyer on the bulletin board.

There will be no sermon questions this summer, as we encourage our small groups to take a break from meeting. This gives leaders a chance to rest, makes it easy for people to jump back in to small groups come fall, and, most importantly, frees up a little more time in your schedule to join us for some other summer community and discipleship opportunities. We’d love to see you at our events this summer. Keep your eyes open for those announcements!

What Is a Mature Disciple?

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