What is Christian Maturity?

St. Paul uses a Greek word, semnotes, in I Timothy 3:3 that wonderfully describes an emotionally mature Christian.

Aristotle defined it as the average or virtue that lies between two extremes. One extreme is authadeia, arrogance or trying to please nobody. The other is areskeia, servile humility, or trying, at all costs, to please everybody. Semnotes stands as the balance between arrogance and servility and it has in it the ability to perform ones duties well as a citizen while modeling the truth that real dignity is not earthly but from heaven. It thus draws our respect.


10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10


Servility+++++Balanced++++++Arrogance

Paul instructs Timothy to look for leaders who had reared their children to relate with semnotes. Thus, senior pastors must be old enough to produce and rear children who are themselves, mature.

Semnotes means one can speak the truth in love. We learn how to pastor the church of God by being a parent. Children teach us as much as we teach them.

Paul looks for the signs of maturity in relational skills. People who are either arrogant or servile are not ready to be senior pastors. In fact, those who have failed to rear children to be semnotes are not mature. This is a strong endorsement for parental involvement. Balanced children do not spring from the earth.

Pastoring is almost exactly like parenting. Children grow slowly over a long period. They require many hours of thankless and boring nurture. Yet, our love for them compels us to give the best we have.

Members often require hours of thankless servanthood. They need to be nurtured, confronted, encouraged and taught. We pray they will move toward semnotes quickly. The fact is adult members are usually servile or too arrogant. Rarely is one born again with automatic, balanced maturity.

Those who are fearfully shy require great sensitivity and encouragement lest they withdraw in pain. The prideful and arrogant are just as much in need of sensitive love and encouragement, but we find it harder to give since they are so difficult to live with. We want to confront them harshly and tell them to "shape up or ship out" but that almost never works.

So, we need to minister to the arrogant and the servile with semnotes; balanced love and truth. Paul says in Ephesians 4:15 that we will grow up into Him, the head of the church, when we speak the truth in love to one another. We may be tempted to offer only love to the servile and truth to the arrogant but scripture indicates a very different approach that combines truth with love.