Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 157 - The Miracle Of Maturity - Part 2 Received this from a friend? Why not join Eternity Daily Bible Study by sending a blank email to: eternitydbs-subscribe@yahoogroups.com The thirty-one studies on the Kingdom of Heaven have just been compiled into an ebook that can be downloaded (for free) from: http://www.aibi.ph/kingdom/ Yesterday I wrote: "To live in love, with perfect maturity and peace is the ultimate goal of God's work in us. Turning a selfish, complaining, proud, vain sinner into a gracious, loving humble saint is God's greatest miracle." But what is so "miraculous' about it? Surely people will mature all by themselves without any divine miracle whatsoever? Is God needed for people to become mature? Surely that is something everyone does as life goes on? Well that depends on what you mean by maturity. If maturity means mere social adjustment - getting a job, a house and a car and being socially respectable and not too embarrassing at parties, then yes, most non-Christians and atheists and even Communists can accomplish that much without needing any miraculous intervention from God. But that is not what God calls maturity. God's maturity is the Christ-like expression of selfless agape love - and we do not end up living in agape love unless God works within us. The apostle John writes a very insightful paragraph on this: (1 John 4:7-12 NKJV) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. {8} He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. {9} In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. {10} In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. {11} Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. {12} No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. Listen to John's startling statement: "Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." Does this mean that every starry-eyed lover is born-again? Or that every parent who loves their child is thereby saved? John is writing about agape - mature love, the love that can love even enemies, the love that aims at the good and the unique love that is the perfect love of God. Agape love is so characteristic of God that where God is, then agape love must also be "for love is of God" and "God is love". In many respects God and agape are one and the same so John can write. "If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us." Thus real agape love can only exist in born-again people who know God. The presence of real agape love indicates that a person is truly of God. The absence of it a certain sign that they do not know God: "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." So love, and therefore all Christian maturity, is a completely divine creation that is actually the life of God, the very personality of God Himself, dwelling in us and flowing out through us and expressing itself in our character, our words and our deeds. The presence of God in the human personality is called the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and it is transformational for us: (2 Corinthians 3:17-18 NKJV) Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. {18} But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Thus maturity is not an artificial process that is attained in a seminar, discipleship class or bible college but rather is an incarnated divine process operating in the midst of real life with all its trials and tribulations: (Acts 14:22 NKJV) strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God." (Romans 5:3-5 NKJV) And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; {4} and perseverance, character; and character, hope. {5} Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Yet maturity needs the word of God spoken in love (Ephesians 4:15). So there is nothing wrong with bible colleges, seminaries or even daily bible studies! God sends us aids to maturity and there are helpful but "the growth is from God". (1 Corinthians 3:5-6 NASB) What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. {6} I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. Our patient obedience under trial counts, our faith counts, our prayers count, our receiving the Word counts, but in the end it is God who causes the growth. Maturity cannot be produced by sincerity, study or effort. I have seen very sincere Christians, fellow missionaries, and even theologians with a very low level of maturity as defined by living in agape love. They may be mature as academics, they may be capable leaders and administrators, they may even be successful evangelists, but they don't really love people and are pre-occupied with their status and achievements in the Christian world. If you do not love people deeply from the heart, then you do not have the love of God operating in you at a significant level, are not like Jesus, and therefore are not spiritually mature. The solution to this is outlined in Paul's prayer for the Ephesians: (Ephesians 3:14-21 NKJV) For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, {15} from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, {16} that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, {17} that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, {18} may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height; {19} to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. {20} Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, {21} to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. We need to "know the love of Christ that passes knowledge", the love which transforms us so that we attain not to a merely social, human level of maturity but to the point where we are "filled with all the fullness of God.". We simply cannot get to be filled with all the fulness of God by wishing, by studying or by attending a thousand seminars. That is something that God has to do for us through the love of Jesus Christ. God intends for you to be totally awash with the love of God. In our frantic selfish world that takes a miracle. The miracle of maturity. Blessings in Him, John Edmiston Asian Internet Bible Institute http://www.aibi.ph/ Free Online Bible And Ministry Training Try our free ebooks on prayer: http://www.aibi.ph/ebooks/ Visit the Eternity home page at: http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ This devotional may be freely forwarded to others and used for non-profit ministry purposes as long as the following copyright notice is included. © Copyright John Edmiston 2003