Ephesians 4:13-15 English Standard Version

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

2 Corinthians 10:12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

Since it is unwise to compare ourselves with one another, how can we compare ourselves to Jesus who is perfect in every way?

When we are looking for personal maturity we should be looking at ourselves and evidence of our past to see if we indeed have matured.

Do you journal? Do you put down your thoughts and understandings on paper?

If you do it is the perfect opportunity to look at what you believed in the past and do a realistic comparison with today’s understanding.

I reviewed an article I wrote decades ago and I found it full of arrogant assumptions.

Maturity allowed me to see those writings without condemning myself for being like that in my past.

How much further do I have to mature? That is not up to me. It never was.

John 7:24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.

Context is everything. We must not cherrypick a verse without understanding everything that is being presented in context.

Jesus tells us not to judge but here he says to a type of people to judge rightly.

Who is Jesus answering? In John 7:1 it is the Jews that were seeking to kill him.

Why were they seeking to kill Jesus?

John 7:20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”

The crown is in denial. Their only defense is that Jesus is unlearned and unqualified (John 7:15) so He must be possessed by a demon.

What is right in this situation?

John 7:23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well?

Those who are angry with Jesus do not have a proper understanding of the law and have blinded themselves to the fact that only God can heal this way. If we look to the context of John chapter 7 nowhere in those passages did Jesus heal anyone on the Sabbath. That healing was in John 5 at the Bethesda pool.

John 5:18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Look closely at these words “all the more to kill Him”. They had already made up their minds that Jesus needed to die. They had pre-judged Him, that is prejudice. 

Right judgment can never be made where its roots are founded in prejudice.