This post article is an excerpt from Healing: Hope or Hype? Eloquent Books Copyright 2007. Dr. Stephen Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org.
Maturity—is there a more dangerous Christian concept? The preaching of a Christian maturity message is the #1 opening for legalism in the life of a believer. The tendency is particularly strong in what might be called deeper-life, high-calling, high-commitment, pursuit of God, sonship, or discipleship environments. The underlying thinking in these settings is the erroneous concept of “getting more of God.” This is defined as the acquisition of virtues and the elimination of sins resulting from our effort in various spiritual disciplines: out with the bad, in with the good. Allegedly, if we’re sincere, obedient, and embrace the latest “word,” we will experience some sort of spiritual return on investment blessing. If we fail, or do not perform to standard, then spiritual jeopardy supposedly results as the fruit of our disobedience. This performance and reward paradigm is sadly normative of much Western Christianity.
