Spiritual Maturity: Moving Toward Virtue
"But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love." - 2 Peter1:5-7
Each day that goes by causes things that exist to age and grow old. But there is a big difference between something that ages verses something that matures. To "mature" is to go on to perfection and completion and to what something or someone was intended to be.
Spiritual maturity is conformity to Christ.
We are all called to become like Jesus Christ who is the ultimate God Man. When God first created man, he was good and so was everything in our created world. Since God is good, whatever He makes is good and virtuous. But ever since the fall of man took place, man must learn to do good because being selfish and sinful comes natural to us. We must learn to be intentional to learn and relearn what the goodness of God is all about. This requires us to draw near to Him and learn Him and to continually receive from Him who gives freely to us every day.
It is important to note that no one accidentally grows and matures. It does not just happen over time. In fact, many people are wasting their times and as a result their lives are perishing. They are missing the source of their life and drawing from the polluted waters of this world which actually takes away life instead of adding life to us. Therefore, we must be intentional to grow and mature...and one way is by being virtuous.
Virtue means moral excellence or pure goodness.
Virtue is not a popular world in our culture. It is not encouraged much at all in the mainstream of our broken and fallen world. Good is being replaced by evil and then celebrated as the new normal. Much of what is virtuous is considered old fashioned and intolerant. But God's truths do not change and we need to learn what is good and how to be good and identify what is evil and grow in the goodness of God.
The Apostle Peter gives a list of qualities that are necessary for true Christian maturity. Each of these qualities do not naturally come from the fallen nature of man. We need to ADD each of these qualities to our lives and this happens first in our hearts. Therefore, we need a true spiritual birth before we can have true spiritual growth.
The interesting thing about spiritual maturity is that it is the work of God from beginning to end. He is the source of all goodness and virtue so we must draw from Him to be virtuous and good. Now this does not mean that we do not play a part in this, since we are partakers of the divine nature that we may draw from Him as a living well that never runs dry. We must be willing to put our bucket down into the source that supplies us with what we need.
The KEY to all growth is getting ourselves in the place to receive His grace and to allow God to accomplish what He already desires to do in our lives.
The Apostle Paul said, "For it is Him who works in us both to will and to do for HIs good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). We must put our best effort forward to be under the power that comes from God. Peter says that "as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him"
We cannot be our own source of goodness. As Proverbs 20:6, "Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, But who can find a faithful man?"
We don't become more virtuous by trying harder to be good, but by cultivating time in the presence of the source of all goodness. We must learn God's ways and what God says about things. Since God gives us the standard for good, we need to seek to do good in both small and big ways if we are to live a life of virtue.
HEART WORK
Without God, there is no true basis for good and evil. For without a standard of good, how can anyone say that something is truly evil.
- Do you have a good grasp on the standards of God and what is good for life and godliness?
- What kind of virtues are missing from your life at this time? Are you seeking to mature?
- If so, how can you overcome some of the evil that is around you with more good?