To do so is to become spiritually mature

We had lots of snow here when we woke up this morning. There was a good ten to twelve inches. I took my three year old son outside for a while and he loved it. It took me a good hour to shovel us out (I also shoveled the neighbors out). The ole back and arms are a bit stiff but I needed the workout.
Last Sunday I preached a sermon on spiritual maturity. I don't normally do the preaching because the senior pastor does that. However, he was on sabbatical for a few weeks so I got the chance to preach. I was very excited to do so and had been in prayer about it for quite a while. God really blessed me because I do not consider myself to be a dynamic speaker but the message was just that. I truly have no doubts that the spirit of God worked through me so that His word was spoken with authority and elegance. I prayed that He would do just that and He did. If you want to see a copy of the sermon text visit our churches website and click on "Sermons." Then click on the February 5th link (2 Peter 1:3-11). The church site is www.lancasterchurchofthenazarene.org
The basic premise of the message is that it is a Christians responsibility to pursue spiritual maturity. At the end of the message though, I addressed those who do not hold to the Christian
faith or at least who have not embraced salvation. I feel as though I could rewrite the sermon right now and make it into a blog but I will refrain from doing so.
There is an aspect of spiritual maturity that I didn't really talk about in my sermons that I would like to address here. I am fairly certain that if you were to ask any random person if they believed in spiritual maturity and to define what it was you would get a diverse response. I imagine nearly everyone would say they believe in spiritual maturity but am not real sure how they would define it. Probably most people who hold to a certain religion would say that it is "a state of arriving at a certain level of enlightenment." I must confess that I am not interested so much in what they would say as much as I am about what those who hold to no religion would say.
I can only imagine that in their answer they might mention such words as truth, understanding, purpose, fulfillment and may include something about life after death. What may be interesting to them is that Christians would or at least should define it using another word in addition to the others mentioned. That word would be love.
It is no secret that scripture places an extrordinary emphasis on servant-hood, caring for others, giving of oneself and love. You see if it wasn't for other people, there would be no reason for a Christian to continue living in this present world. If it wasn't for others God would instantly take those who embrace salvation to heaven. However, God has made it clear that we are to tell others the good news of Christ. We are not only to tell others about the good news but we are to model Christ's humility and love. Now whether we as Christians often do a good job at that or not is another matter.
So spiritual maturity for us is really all about perfect love. When we perfectly love God with all our hearts, soul, mind and perfectly love others as ourselves we are spiritually mature. Now maturing spiritually is a process, a journey. The more understanding and experience we have of who God is, the more we are compelled to obey and conform to what God says and is. When we love perfectly we are everything scripture tells us to be, humble, gentle, kind, persevering, caring, and so forth. When we learn to love more, we mature spiritually. Now I should throw in a word of caution here so that no one misunderstand me. God is a God of love and His word is explicit about loving others, however God is not only love. He is also just and holy and scripture clearly presents that as well. We are not told to be doormats for the world but we are told to be servants not because we must but because we love. Now love is more than a feeling, in fact I don't think it is a feeling at all. Yes it can include feelings but that is not what it is. Love is a sincere commitment to care for someone. It is the willingness to persevere in caring for others even when it is not easy. It is putting others before yourself. It is no wonder that the Bible tells us that the ultimate expression of love is found in God sending His son Jesus Christ who died willingly on the cross for you and I. We are to model such perfect love for to do so is to become spiritually mature.
Mark 22:37-39
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it; love your neighbor as yourself.