“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things.” (1 Corinthians 13:11, CSB)
What makes us adults so different from children, other than the fact that we are more developed physically and psychologically, is the maturity of our thoughts.
When it comes to Christianity, the mature man thinks deeply about the meaning of life, and his thoughts gain more depth as he dialogues with God and engages his surroundings with a spiritual perspective.
The Search for Meaning
Some people search for meaning in life, outside of God, through humanist absolutes like justice, compassion, etc. It’s called secular spirituality.
Others turn to a higher power, still outside of God, in search of transcendence (Destiny, Energy, etc.). To the mature Christian, searching for meaning outside of God is a ticket to an empty place. It is like following a trail that leads to a vacant cabin in the woods where there is no life, no answers and no one waiting for us.
We can always create our own meaning and find purpose by keeping God out of the process, but to the mature Christian, that would feel like holding on to something imaginary since it is not rooted in God’s objective reality. We can choose to imagine a meaning for our life and convince ourselves that it is true, or we can choose to believe in the meaning of life as revealed to us by the Giver of life. The mature will prefer the latter.
When Paul penned his letters to the Corinthians, many issues had been brought to his attention that made it clear to him that the Christians of this city needed to grow up. He was calling them to let go of their childish way of thinking. The Christian life is not about loving and serving ourselves through spiritual means. It’s about loving God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves. That’s the path that leads to a meaningful life. On this path, things are not necessarily easy. Sometimes they can actually be really hard but still meaningful because we’re in line with the will of God, which is our higher purpose.
Whenever our priority is to serve ourselves and to live a life pursuing our own will, we are thinking like children, and we need to grow up.
Whenever our priority is to serve ourselves and to live a life pursuing our own will, we are thinking like children, and we need to grow up.
Love God, Love People
Some would argue that there is still meaning in serving others without loving God, but that leads to an empty place. It is like wanting to be full while at the same time refusing to eat. The true purpose of life is not just to love people and ourselves; God is the food our souls desperately need to live. The mature Christian understands that the truth about who he is, what he is and why he is, is found in a deep relationship with the One who made us.
Just as children need interaction with other humans to grow into full maturity, men need interaction with God to grow into their true identity. As mature men, we need more than “information” about our manhood. We need the revelation of Who made us and why. As we learn to walk and interact with him, we encounter the love and truth our inner being needs to grow into full maturity. Sometimes this happens through a crisis, and sometimes through contemplation.
But it cannot happen without him.
The Road to a Meaningful Life
God is more than a destination on our map. He is the very way to deep fulfillment. Outside of him, there are no truly satisfying answers to the complex questions of our existence. We can fight this idea and do away with faith, but we can never succeed at discarding the truth of God.
At the end of a path made by faithless men in search of meaning, there’s a graveyard: men made of dust return to their dust. But the path made by God leads to a never-ending life abundant experience. It may sometimes take us through a valley of death, but the journey surely ends in glory:
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus:
6 who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.
7 Instead he emptied himself
by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity.
And when he had come as a man,
8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.
9 For this reason God highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
(Philippians 2 :5-9, CSB)
The thoughts of the mature Christian are different from those of children. They are not directed toward self-gratification at the expense of others. Instead, they are directed toward love and service according to the model we have in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son and image of the invisible God. He endured suffering and gave his life so that many might live to one day see him face to face. As he is, so are we in this world. Therefore, we aspire to walk in a manner worthy of his calling, humbling ourselves by becoming obedient, constantly seeking to do his will, even imitating those who imitate him, for there is no higher purpose to the mature Christian.
If you aspire to be a mature Christian, let God continually renew your mind as you walk in daily obedience to him. And at the end of it all, when it is all said and done, may your life story speak of Jesus.
Better yet, may Jesus – not you – be the main character of your biography.
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