Spiritual Maturity and Spiritual Dependence

Ready or not, here we go! My oldest child just finished the book portion of her driver’s ed. Course. She’s 14 and a freshman in high school. She’ll turn 15 in January and is now begging me to let her practice driving. Yikes! As a student pastor of almost 20 years, I have watched many families navigate these types of transitions. Now I am experiencing them firsthand. While I have a pretty high level of confidence in my daughter’s ability to handle driving well, the increased independence has been a little bit of a shock to my system. And we’ve experienced quite a bit of that already! 

Maturity and Spiritual Maturity

We often measure maturity by increased independence. As young people grow older their lives are marked by a series of milestones that indicate a new season of increased responsibility that affords them greater privilege. Parents and student workers want to see them grow and mature. We need to be careful, though, that we do not carry the world’s ideas of growth and maturity into the way we understand spiritual maturity. 

While maturity in our culture is often marked by increased independence, spiritual maturity has a different aim altogether. The more we press into Christ and grow in knowing him, the more we not only recognize our utter dependence on him, we embrace it. The ever-present influence of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, coupled with a culture that prides itself in self-reliance, can misshape the way we understand our relation to God and the picture of maturity we aspire towards. 

When we engage with older saints who have walked with Jesus for a long time, we will not discover a fierce spiritual independence, but an acute recognition of their dependence on the Lord. ​​We will hear stories of a God who has always been faithful to provide, and of the ways they experienced his strength through every trial. We will hear how fervent prayer has produced a greater sense of peace and steadfast faith. In order to lead students into true spiritual maturity, leaders must consistently point them to these realities.

Spiritual Dependence 

The essence of the gospel is our union with Christ. We have been united with him in his death and set free from our bondage to sin. This union necessitates dependency. It is only in him that we are made righteous and bear the fruit of righteousness. This is what Paul means when he proclaims, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). 

God’s creative design does not include any potential for the self-sufficiency of his creation, including humanity. God alone is self-sufficient. Everything else in creation is completely dependent on him (Colossians 1:17). If the Lord ever actually stopped “intervening” in our lives, even for a fraction of a second, we would be completely undone! For those who are in Christ, we grow in consistently recognizing our complete dependence on him, and it is only through surrendering to him that we truly experience life in him. 

The Fruit of Spiritual Maturity

Any fruit borne through our lives points back to the work of the Spirit, not to ourselves. This is why Scripture refers to it as the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25). He produces this fruit in our lives, enabling us to grow by grace. This is an inside-out work, as the inward transformation of the Spirit grows us up into our new identity in Christ and then leads to a renewed outward expression of life. We are completely dependent on the work of the Spirit for this renewed outward expression.

The experience of walking in faith increasingly causes us to look to him for the wisdom we need, not to increasingly depend on ourselves. Proverbs 3:5-6 exhorts the reader to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.” The next verse offers further exhortation to “Be not wise in your own eyes” (v. 7). As we grow and mature these truths do not change as we gain the ability to more and more trust our own wisdom; we are pressed into deeper trust in the wisdom of the Lord and grow in our understanding in the absolute danger of leaning on our own understanding, no matter how long we live or how much we believe we’ve grown.

Spiritual Dependence for Student Ministry

As student ministry leaders, does our understanding of spiritual maturity mirror the view that Paul had for the church? How are you helping students to recognize their dependency on Christ? How are you helping them to see this aspect of God’s redemptive plan for his people?

Our aim is to lead students to Christ and then press them deeply into him by leading them into his Word and into communion with him. Every time we teach affords us an opportunity to remind students of their utter dependence on him. We model this by speaking often of our own dependence on him. We remind them that the very essence of discipleship is pressing each other deeper into him. We come alongside parents and remind them often of their dependency on Christ, especially in the struggles of parenting. We remind them that every struggle, every question, is an opportunity to turn their hearts to him. May we present them mature in Christ, remembering that it is Christ in them who is the hope of glory.