What is a good gauge of our spiritual maturity?
Hebrews 13:15, Revelation 5:13, Psalm 150:1-6
We were created to praise God… continually, forever and ever. God created the universe to put his glory on full display. Every creature in it displays some aspect of God’s glory, for the whole earth is full of his glory. But angels and humans were created with the special ability to know God’s glory in detail, and to marvel at it in our minds, to love it in our hearts, and to give forth worship with our bodies. Since this is our ultimate purpose, it is the pinnacle of spiritual health to worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. The healthier we are spiritually, the more fervently and continually we will worship God.
This worship comes in many forms, far too numerous to mention here. I just want to focus now on two major patterns for worship: personal and corporate.
First, personally. There is a worship all Christians should do continually, daily, in his or her own heart and with his or her own body. This is informal and circumstantial, coming as the Spirit moves and reveals some aspect of God’s glory in scripture or in creation. Whenever the Spirit moves and we marvel, we express that to God in words, songs, prayers, and bodily actions. We fall on our faces, lift our hands, weep with our eyes, shout with our mouths, sing with our voices… these actions should permeate our lives every single day. If not, we are in sin; some loss of perspective, some idolatry, some sin pattern, something has crowded the glory of God from our minds and hearts, causing the flow of praise to stop. We should immediately ask God to show us where the blockage is so that we can resume giving him the glory he deserves. Paul ended his magnificent book of Romans with these words, “… to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen” (Romans 16:27). Just as he had earlier celebrated the glory of God in the infinite depths of gospel mysteries when he wrote, “To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Romans 11:36). In both places, Paul is saying that God is always worthy of glory, always worthy of worship. He never changes. His achievements in creation and even more in redemption through Christ are infinitely majestic. So, a maturing Christian develops a lifestyle of continual personal worship. This includes a daily habit of quiet times but also extends throughout the moments of every day.
“…God is always worthy of glory, always worthy of worship.”
Second, corporately. Maturing Christians delight in corporate worship with other Christians, especially in a local church to which they have joined themselves by covenant. They do not forsake the assembling of themselves together with other Christians. (Hebrews 10:25). Certainly they may need to miss occasionally through illness or highly unusual circumstances. But they yearn to be immersed in corporate worship. And they do not do so in a cold, distant, perfunctory way; they are not guilty of the charge Jesus leveled at the Jewish hypocrites, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain” (Matthew 15:8). Rather, they are never lacking in zeal but are filled with spiritual fervor as they worship the Lord. This is the goal to which the Spirit builds all maturing Christians. For in heaven, we will never cease worshiping God for his radiant glory!
