Picking apples too soon or too late can a big difference in how said shiny fruit tastes.  We look for evidence that it's matured and has grown as it should.  People are the same way.  We usually expect folks to mature in varying degrees depending on where they are in life.  We usually anticipate progress in their life's journey.  Our spiritual journey is similar as well.  Regardless of what age we begin our journey of faith, we are expected to mature and ripen.  In fact, we need to show progress.  In other words, the Christian life is to be evidential.  As people redeemed by the blood of Jesus and saved by grace through faith, Christians have the holy privilege of growing up (Eph. 4:15) in Christ.  While Christian growth and maturity (Eph. 4:13) are often subjectively evaluated, we may be sure that there are objective marks of maturity revealed in Scripture. Indeed, the Apostle Paul, in his letter to the church in Colosse, identifies the following as outward manifestations of the work of Christ in and through His people: compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, love, peace, and gratitude (Col. 3:12-17).  These virtues are objective evidences of a Christian life that is growing and maturing.  We will discuss, in more depth, three of the evidential marks of maturity from Paul’s list: patience, forgiveness and gratitude.

Patience

The growing and maturing Christ-follower will demonstrate patience as a result putting on Christ.  It is akin to yielding to the work of the Spirit in and through their life.  Indeed, Christians do not exhibit the virtue of patience of their own accord but rather as a result of the work of the Spirit of God.  Additionally is the notion that patience is a relational virtue as gleaned from this text and the parallel texts in Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus.  It is relational in the sense that patience is a virtue to be exhibited in community with other people; one another and all (Eph. 4:2; 1 Thess. 5:14).  At times, patience is understood in the context of needing to wait for an event to occur, circumstances to change, or seasons of life to transpire.  Yet, Paul is referring specifically to how Christ-followers relate to one another.  Further, we may understand patience by what it is not.  Patience is the opposite of quick anger, resentment, or revenge and thus epitomizes Jesus Christ.  It endures injustice and troublesome circumstances with hope for coming relief (MacArthur 2005).  Patience is a characteristic of God that is to be reflected in mankind who are made in His image.  As image bearers, Christ-followers should evidentially model patience as reproduced in those who bear His image (Bruce 1984).

Forgiveness

Paul exhorts Christ-followers to bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances they may have with one another and to forgive as the Lord forgave them (Col. 3:13).  Again the virtue of forgiveness is intended to be contextualized in community with other people.  Indeed, people do not have the “power” to forgive sins.  Notwithstanding, Christians are able to no longer hold others in debt to themselves for physical or emotional grievances.  Indeed, forgiveness is the notion of releasing the offender from indebtedness of any kind.  It is giving up the right to hold any trespass or personal grievance against the offender.  Paul’s command is sweeping and leaves no room for “degrees” of grievances.  Indeed, the term “whatever” encapsulates any and all sins or trespasses.  This is precisely why Christian maturity and growth are evidenced when Christ-followers model biblical forgiveness.  They are to forgive even the major and seemingly unforgivable grievances through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Indeed, the proof that Christ-followers are forgiven is that they forgive others (Lloyd-Jones 1976).  The man who knows he has been forgiven, only in and through the shed blood of Christ, is a man who must forgive others (Lloyd-Jones 1976).  This reveals Paul’s echo of Jesus command for Christians to forgive others if they are seeking forgiveness from God.  To be sure, those who seek the forgiveness of God must be ready to forgive others (Matt. 6:14-15).  Additionally, God forgives only the penitent and that one of the chief evidences of true penitence is a forgiving spirit (Stott 1978). Because Christ, as the model of forgiveness, has forgiven all of our sins total, believers must be willing to forgive others (MacArthur 2005).  There are to be no limitations whatever to the forgiveness of others.  It is to be an attitude of mind even before the offending party requests forgiveness (Elwell 2001).  Indeed, limitations on forgiveness are not allowed for.  Jesus taught the principle that there is to be a willingness of the Christian to continually forgive and to keep on forgiving even unto “seventy times seven” (Matt. 18:22).  Indeed, patience is a mark of Christian maturity which evidences growth and discipleship and is inherently connected to spiritual formation.  Through the spiritual disciplines, the Christian can seek to allow God to work patience in and through them in their interpersonal relationships with other Christ-followers and the world in general.  To be sure, Christians are called to willfully choose to forgive and to give up the right to hold any grievance against any person regardless of the degree of the grievance or the frequency of the grievance.  As forgiveness of others is directly connected to God’s forgiveness of the Christ-follower, there is a remarkable outcome that is both cathartic and healing.

Gratitude

The virtue of thankfulness and gratitude is a unique mark of Christian maturity in that it is principally in relation to God rather than other people.  In short, gratitude is a response to God’s grace to us.  Indeed, Paul exhorts the Christ-followers to do Christian activities with gratitude in our hearts to God and to give thanks to God the Father through the name of Jesus Christ (Col. 3:16,17).  The notion of gratitude and thankfulness are therefore “to God”.  He is the object of this virtue and the aim of our hearts.  The Christ-follower is to exhibit a life of thankfulness in all things “whether in word or deed”.  The all encompassing nature of this exhortation is profound in that Christ-followers are to evidence gratitude in all circumstances.  It is a lifestyle of surrender and worship in response to God’s work of grace wrought in the life of the believer.  Bruce aptly posits, if thanksgiving is God’s due from all humanity for His gifts of creation and providence, how much more is it His due from those who have received the surpassing gift of His grace (Bruce 1984)?  Indeed, the Christ-follower who is thankful to God in all circumstances is evidencing an important mark of Christian maturity.

So What!

Growth and maturity in Christ-likeness is a process that is continual and ongoing.  The process is transformational, relational and evidential.  The evidences are markers that are objective in nature and quantifiable.  Patience and forgiveness are virtues that are relational in nature and primarily evidenced in community with other people.  They are inherently connected to spiritual formation through the intentional yielding, surrendering and dependence on the Holy Spirit.  Gratitude is God-oriented and is in response to the work of God in the life of the Christ-follower and should be evidenced in all circumstances.  The Christ-follower evidences these virtues to the exclusion of self and the exaltation of God.  Indeed, God desires all Christ-followers to mature and grow in their faith.  Patience, forgiveness and gratitude are remarkable evidential marks of this process of spiritual formation and maturation.

If it looks ripe.  It's a good sign that it might be.

WORKS CITED

Bruce, F. F. The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1984.

Elwell, Walter A. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. 2nd Edition. Edited by Walter A. Elwell. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001.

Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1976.

MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Bible Commentary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005.

Stott, John R.W. The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, USA, 1978.