Hope Builders: Maturing

Ice-breaker

What do you think maturing is? In a non-Church context, what do you think people think maturing is?

Do you feel you have matured in any way in the last 10 or 20 years, how? In what ways have you changed?

Study

Ephesians 4:1-16 is a very well know passage and there is a lot we could learn from it, today I would like us to look at it from the perspective of maturing and growing.

Please read Ephesians 4:1-10

In what ways does this passage reflect Paul’s maturity? Which are the phrases he uses that reflect the thinking of a mature Christian?

What do you think are the characteristics of a mature Christian?

Can you think of someone who you look up to as a mature Christian? What makes them mature?

Can you think of someone who is not a Christian but you see as a mature person? Why do you see them as mature?

What is the difference between a mature person and a mature Christian?

Please read verse 11-16

What an amazing passage!

v.11 talks about us being gifts to help other mature. In what way do you see others in Church as a gift to help you mature as a disciple of Jesus?

What other traits of mature Christians do we find in verses 11-16? What is the distinction compared to the ‘infants’?

Action

Do you see maturing as a disciple as an exciting challenge? Do you see being more mature in a year’s time as an objective in your live?

What practical things can we do to develop into being more mature?

Let’s remember these verses

“until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Ephesians 4:13,15-16