The thought occurred to me last Sunday in our house church discussion that we have maturity all wrong in our church culture. My premise was that maturity is really not at all about obedience, rather knowing right from wrong and knowing where to go when we are wrong. I still believe that we have maturity all wrong, but the obedience thing I was wrong on. Let me briefly explain.

In the "modern" church, similar to the Pharisaic movement in Jesus' time, maturity is about obedience to an external code of conduct, such as the law or whatever culturally-imposed regulations we place on our fellow church members. Of course Jesus came and put this to rest, emphasizing time and again that inner purity or morality was more important that outer obedience (Matthew 15).

True maturity, I then surmised, was not about this external obedience but about the inner things, the thoughts of a man's heart. I'm sticking with that. However, my thoughts on the disregard for obedience is totally unfounded. I had thought obedience was unneccessary due to the fact that it is impossible, no one can be totally obedient, so why try, and I thought a few Scriptures supported that. I don't know that I follow the commands of the Lord any better today than I did the week before I got saved. I do less external things that are wrong, but the thoughtso my heart remain impure. Why then focus on obedience? However, the NT writers continue to encourage us toward obedience, just one example being 2 John 1:6, "And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love." Seeking to be obedient to the ways of the Lord is of utmost importance, balanced with knowing what to do when we do sin, as 1 John 2:1-2 states, "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense–Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." When we sin, we need to go to the Father who is there with open arms offering forgiveness and grace.

My conclusion then is that the definition of maturity has to change from external obedience to inner obedience to the ways of the Lord. The heart is more important than the actions. Furthermore, obedience is necessary, but we must also understand what to do when, not if but when, we are disobedient. We need to go to the Father, and be thankful for the atoning death of Christ which allows us this opportunity at grace.