Who Wants Maturity

In our society today we have a strange dichotomy at work. On the one hand, we want to be treated as an adult, as a mature person.  On the other hand, adolescence has pushed into the mid-20's, people get 7 year itch every 3-5 years, and mid-life crises seem to rise in the 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's. We want all of the clout of maturity without any of the responsibility. 

Responsibility, that is a word as well received as maturity...I digress.

I have a puzzling occurrence in my studies as of late. The concept of maturity in Christ keeps coming up. I don't know if God is trying to tell me something and I'm just not getting it or if there is a running theme that we (I) often miss.  I first noticed it in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. "But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Matthew 5:48

Surely he doesn't mean we are to be perfect, blameless, with out sin as he was. No- that is impossible. So what does he mean? The word translated "perfect" here is the Greek word "teleios," which means to be mature, complete, of full age, full grown. Jesus is calling us to maturity, to be transformed into his image (2 Corinthians 3:18). 

Then I'm reading 1 Corinthians for our small group on Tuesday nights. I'm reading the first couple of chapters, and there it is again jumping off the paper at me: "We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing." 1 Corinthians 2:6 

Maturity here again is "teleios" in the Greek.  Paul, like Jesus, is calling us to a maturity that doesn't look like the world. This maturity isn't something that one can just come up with on their own. It is cultivated, brought into maturity, becoming complete. (See Romans 12:1-2 for more on this, and yes it mentions "teleios" too)

What does spiritual maturity look like? How do we come into this maturity? Is this something we strive for or does it just happen? 

Unfortunately, we often equate maturity with experience. I believe experience plays into it but it is not the foundation or the building block of maturity. Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians 3 to explain it further.

1) God causes the growth. (3:6) 
2) We need others to plant and water in our lives. (3:5-10)
3) The Spirit of God takes up residence in us causing transformation. (3:16) 

And there should be evidence of the Spirit and others causing growth and change in our lives (see Galatians 5:22-25). As we allow the Spirit to do his work in us, maturity comes as a by product. If you ask me what marks maturity or "teleios," I would tend to answer: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.