Do you like recipes? Here’s one for spiritual maturity …

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Going to church every Sunday doesn’t guarantee spiritual maturity. Neither does having a ten-minute daily devotional time or participating in a small group each week.

So what is a reliable recipe for spiritual maturing?

Let’s look to scripture for the answer.

In Hebrews 5, the writer expresses a level of exasperation with some of his readers who remain spiritually immature when they should be mature believers by then. We read in verses 11-13:

“There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right.”

The writer of Hebrews then contrasts his readers’ condition with this statement in the next verse (14):

“Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”

From that statement, we can devise the following recipe:

Training + Skill Development = Spiritual Maturing

The original word used for training is the same used for doing vigorous exercise, and the word for skill connotes the idea of constant habit. The combination is the concept of an actual commitment to rigorous learning, with a constant application of what is learned, to the point a level of skill is developed. We usually call this discipleship! Is this the recipe you’re using for following Christ? If not, you may not be experiencing much in the way of real spiritual maturing. But that’s an easy fix: just follow the recipe!

Scotty