Loving Christians are mature Christians on course for heaven

Mar 20, 2016 by

by Julian Mann, The Conservative Woman:

What is a mature Christian like? How can we know when a Christian is growing in spiritual maturity?

The Apostle Paul in this famous chapter in his first letter to the church at Corinth, 1 Corinthians 13, provides a very clear answer to that question.

A mature Christian is a loving Christian. A growing Christian is a person whose love for the Lord Jesus Christ expresses itself in love for the church, love for the Body of Christ, love for the Christian family.

Now we need to be clear on the definition of love as Paul describes it here.

He is not talking about romantic love. That has its place between a man and a woman in marriage. But romantic love is not Paul’s focus here. Nor is this about niceness. Niceness may overlap at some points with what Paul is talking about here. But niceness at least in its middle class incarnation tends to duck the difficult issues because niceness likes its comfort.

But Paul isn’t out to be comfortable here. Here he demonstrates what real Christian love is all about and it is about Christians wanting God’s very best for their fellow Christians in the family of the church and it is about Christians speaking and behaving in ways that bless and build others up in the loving family of the church. This is about intentionally and practically and committedly loving one another within the Body of Christ, the local church, the people God is saving for eternity in and through his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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