bible and theology on Spiritual Maturity

Sanctification is a process. Basically, the word sanctified means “set apart.” The term saint comes from the same root and means “a set-apart one” to the Lord. Another word with the same meaning is ho...

To me, growing into spiritual maturity is becoming less self-conscious and more God-conscious.

One of the truest tests of spiritual maturity is seeing the miraculous in the monotonous.

Spiritual maturity is not reached by the passing of the years, but by obedience to the will of God.

To novices it is a beginning; to those who are advancing, an increase; to those who are concluding, a confirmation.

Without transformation, you can assume you're at a high moral, spiritual level just because you call yourself Lutheran or Methodist or Catholic. I think my great disappointment as a priest has bee...

In my own pastoral and personal Christian experience, I can say that I’ve never known a man or woman who came to spiritual maturity except through discipline. Godliness comes through discipline.

When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less.

Christian maturity is not indicated by the infrequency of temptation but by the infrequency of succumbing to temptation.

There is nothing that more tends to strengthen the faith of the young believer than to hear the veteran Christian, covered with scars from the battle, testifying that the service of his Master is a ha...

The Bible was composed in such a way that as beginners mature, its meaning grows with them.

The devastating power of wildfires has never been more apparent as their intensity, size, and frequency has increased dramatically over the last few years in the United States (and elsewhere), causing...

The author Oscar Wilde once remarked that by the age of forty everyone has the face they deserve. This is a truly profound, if painful, truth. But it really applies to the “within” expressed by the fa...

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just...

I believe in Christ and confess him not like some child; my hosanna has passed through an enormous furnace of doubt.

The key to maturity is time and community. Discernment and godly wisdom develop in a community that spans generations. The church is called to be this place where the [God's] Spirit uses normal pa...

Spiritual maturity is not knowing what to do with your whole life, but just knowing what to do next.

According to Father Thomas Keating—a Cistercian monk—at the time of conversion we orient our lives by the question, “What can I do for God?” Seems appropriate, right? But when we begin the spiritual j...

The proof of spiritual maturity is not how pure you are but awareness of your impurity. That very awareness opens the door to grace.

Spiritual maturity is measured in terms of persevering faith, not perfect behavior.

The clergy profession is fundamentally self-defeating. Its stated purpose is to nurture spiritual maturity in the church - a valuable goal. In actuality, however; it accomplishes the opposite by nurtu...