Become a Mature Christian: 4 Ways from Hebrews

Learn how to become a mature Christian. Hadassah Treu unpacks how the book of Hebrews reveals four ways that will help you grow into spiritual maturity.

Friend, have you prayed for spiritual maturity? Do you want to know how to become a mature Christian? Have you been looking for ways to grow spiritually? Then don’t be surprised when trials, hardship, and suffering enter your life regularly. 

I could not sleep again tonight. My pillow was wet from tears, my heart heavy with pain, and my head full of questions and worries. 

It has been a hard time since I lost my husband. My life has turned upside down and every single day more losses have kept piling up. 

Lord, I don’t understand. Why do I need to endure such pain? Why? 

The Lord gently whispered to my heart, “It is part of the spiritual maturity process, my child. I am training you in endurance, diligence, long-suffering, and patience. I am making your faith stronger, your hope steadier, and your love deeper.” 

Four Ways of Becoming a Mature Christian

We can find four major ways of becoming a mature Christian in the book of Hebrews in the Bible. 

Spiritual maturity is not a matter of how much we know about God or how much we are involved in religious activities. 

Rather biblical maturity has to do with endurance, diligence, long-suffering, faith, patience, hope, good deeds, and love. It has to do with the fundamental transformation of our character. 

God’s aim for us is to advance on to spiritual maturity. “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity.” (Hebrews 6:1 NIV) 

Diligence and Confidence to the Very End 

The first way of becoming a mature Christian is to develop diligence and be persistent in our heavenly calling to the very end. “We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized.” (Hebrews 6:11 NIV, emphasis mine) 

Not just today. Not just tomorrow. Not for the next three years. To the very end. 

Not just when the sky is blue, when our prayers are answered the way we have hoped for, and when life is comfortable and easy.  No. We need to develop diligence in the dark places of our lives too when life is spinning out of control.  

How can we do this? 

We can do this by holding on to our high priest who knows our pains and struggles intimately and is able to help us perfectly. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15, emphasis mine). 

Faith and Patience 

The second way of becoming a mature Christian is to deepen our faith and stretch our patience. 

“We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” (Hebrews 6:12 NIV, emphasis mine) 

“And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.” (Hebrews 6:15 NIV, emphasis mine)  

Patience and waiting are needed to receive the fulfillment of God’s promises. It is in the waiting that we learn to take care of the spiritual seeds that God has planted in our hearts and grow strong enough to carry the fruit.  

Taking Hold of the Hope 

When our world collapses under the weight of a tragedy, a life-altering loss, or inexplicable suffering, our hopes in lesser things are stripped down. 

Related: How to Find Freedom from Overwhelming Grief

Then we have a choice–either to grow roots in the greater hope we have in Jesus or to grow discouraged and depressed. Let us be the ones who take hold of hope constantly and thus always find encouragement, steadiness, and security. 

“God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” (Hebrews 6:18-19 NIV, emphasis mine)

We take hold of the hope because we can rely on God’s faithfulness and on the integrity of His character. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23 NIV, emphasis mine).

Spurring One Another Toward Love 

Another way of becoming a mature Christian is to grow in love in our relationships. We grow in love when we make the constant choice to take care of one another by the power of the Holy Spirit. When we see a need we can meet, we don’t close our eyes and hearts, but we make space for interruptions and interactions. 

Finding ways to encourage one another, especially the difficult persons in our lives, is challenging. But it’s possible as long as we live yielded to God, abiding in His truths and grace. As receivers of lavish and unconditional love, we can grow in being better love-givers.  

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.“ (Hebrews 10:24 NIV, emphasis mine)

Advancing on to Spiritual Maturity 

When we are struggling with a present challenge and in pain, let’s remember our commitment to become a mature Christian and submit to God continually in this process. Growing is painful, and it takes us out of our comfort zones, testing the boundaries of our patience, faith, hope, and love. 

Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus, our Trainer and Teacher, “the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:2). 

Let’s endure the pain of the training, focusing on the reward: “a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11 NIV).

How else can you become a mature Christian?

Read on: 7 Characteristics of Spiritual Growth

Hadassah Treu is a bilingual Christian writer, poet, and blogger, the Encouraging Blogger Award Winner for 2020. Her blog encourages the readers to persevere in the journey of faith and walk deeper with God amidst discouragement, suffering, and unmet expectations. Hadassah is a contributing author to several faith-based platforms and devotional and poetry anthologies. You can receive her free e-book “7 Scripture-based prayers When You Don’t Know How to Pray” here.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™