MATURING: FROM CHILDISHNESS TO ADULTHOOD

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth – 1 John 3:18

“The key word, the measuring stick for maturity, is LOVE – humble service, gracious thoughtfulness. If you want to test your maturity, test how loving you are…It is interesting to note that both Jesus and Paul equated maturity with LOVE. Jesus said, “Be merciful like God.” Paul said, “The greatest of these [the most mature of these] is love.” The most mature person is the person most able to be loving; the cry here is, “Let me do something for you; let me be your servant, let me help you; let me be a friend and a neighbour and a servant to others.”

We see these three approaches to life dramatically expressed in the story of the prodigal son. At first, he selfishly demands, “Give me my inheritance now! I don’t want to wait around until you die.” How childish!

Then he moves into the adolescent stage – he runs away. As he walks down the road, he says, “I’m my own boss, I’m Number One. I’m not answering to anybody anymore. I can make it all by myself; I don’t need anybody.” How adolescent!

But he squandered his money in riotous living and became a feeder of pigs. For a Jewish boy, that was the depths of degradation. You can’t get any lower than that. That was the “two-by-four” that got his attention! “He came to himself,” the Scriptures put it. He matured! He returned home and said humbly, “Father, make me a servant. I’m no longer worthy to be your son. Make me a hired servant.” He had grown up!

And, in these three stages, we see the way people relate to life today – the way they relate to the church, to marriage, to work, to school, to others, to God, to the nation…”