America recently celebrated an anniversary of the D-Day landings on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France during World War II. We had parades, speeches, banquets, awards, and stories in the media – all in honor of the vets who landed under fire on those bloody sands that terrible day, where over 2,000 soldiers were killed in the first few hours on the beach.
And I was struck by the words of one veteran who had been an officer on the beach that morning. He was describing on TV how he and his men survived the horror, and he said, “Success on the beach wasn’t measured by what you said or how you looked. It was measured by what you did and how you did it.”
I think that elderly vet’s idea of role-modeling is true in Christianity too. Spiritual maturity in Christianity isn’t measured by what a Christian says, or how a Christian looks. It’s measured by what he or she does, and how he or she does it. Said another way, the test of Christian Spiritual maturity is Spiritual behavior.
The test of Christian Spiritual maturity is the level of supernatural love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness that we have (or don’t have) while “landing” on our own “Omaha Beaches” every day. Soldiers in combat quickly learn which of their officers are real. The real officers stand up amid the noise and chaos and show others what to do and how to do it. The fake officers hide in the sand.
In that same way, Spiritual maturity isn’t proved by pretty words or pretty appearances. It’s proved by doing the Spiritual thing “under fire.” Spiritually mature Christians have a level of supernatural happiness, peace, and purpose under stress that nobody else has.
But let’s make this even more personal. Using the test of having happiness, peace, and purpose under stress – do you know any Spiritually mature Christians? Do you see one when you look in the mirror?
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