Spiritual maturity

I’ve heard many substitutions for “perfect”.

Whole. Complete. Finished.

But I heard one alternate translation about 10 years ago sitting in a religion class at BYU that I’ve never forgotten.

What if we replaced “perfection” with “spiritual maturity”?

As the mom of a 5 year old, 3 year old, and almost 1 year old, I am very very VERY familiar with what it is like dealing with emotionally IMMATURE (but very cute) little human beings all the time.

Crying about wanting a popsicle when I’ve just offered them ice cream.

Getting frustrated that I insist they wash their hands after going to the bathroom.

Wanting to do everything by themselves, even if they absolutely are not able to.

Not understanding that temporary situations or requests won’t last forever.

They are immature adorable little kids who I have full faith with grow in maturity as they develop patience, broadened perspectives, empathy, and reasoning abilities.

So when Jesus invites us to “Be ye therefore perfect”, (Matthew 5:48)…

What would that look like if we thought about it in the sense of:

Be ye therefore spiritually mature.

When I examine my life, I find many areas of spiritual immaturity.

Impatience for when I want prayers answered on my timeline, or when I want other people to change immediately.

Pride that makes me think I don’t need constant humility and dependence on the Lord.

Annoyance that other people are doing better than I am, and boastfulness that urges me to judge others for everything they are doing wrong.

And that’s what I see as I read the Sermon on the Mount!

Jesus is teaching principle after principle aimed at raising our levels of spiritual maturity.

No one expects us to reach perfection in this life.

But it seems reasonable to me to keep moving toward that mark of spiritual maturity.

To grow and develop so much that I start to realize how silly it was that I had all those rules about keeping the Sabbath, or how embarrassing it was that I judged that woman by what she was wearing, or how blind I was in thinking that God was nowhere to be found.

Be ye therefore spiritually mature.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black