DIFFERENT SPIRITUAL PERSONALITIES
We are all different. Everyone knows that. We are glad for variety in personalities and characteristics. We would not want everyone to be the same. That is impossible! It would never work. Yet sometimes as Christians we think there is just one right way to be spiritual. We stereotype exactly what being a mature Christian looks like. But that is wrong. God made us different and that can’t be changed. Just as there are a variety of personalities in people, so there are different spiritual personalities as well. Let me illustrate.
On the morning of the resurrection, Peter and John went running to the tomb (John 20:1-10). John outran Peter and got there first but didn’t go in. He took it all in from a distance, processing the evidence before him. Peter then burst in and looked around in confusion. John then entered and concluded Jesus had come back to life. It doesn’t seem Peter fully believed until later. They had different reactions to the same event. They processed differently and responded differently. Neither was more right, or wrong, than the other.
Introverts process and respond differently than extroverts, men are different than women, adults than children and so do different nationalities (i.e. Germans and Hispanics). God created us to have a variety of ‘spiritual personalities’ and we can’t change that. So don’t judge those who are different. The one who raises their hands in worship is not necessarily more spiritual than the one who doesn’t. Approaching your faith through an emotional grid is no more spiritual than a rational grid. If we aren’t careful, we can put subtle pressure on others, or even ourselves, to show our faith in a certain way. Don’t evaluate the faith of others by how they express themselves or react to life. Don’t evaluate your own spiritually by how you compare to someone who is different than you. Remember Peter and John at the empty tomb. Just be yourself!
1 Peter 4:10-11 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Do you evaluate others spiritual growth by what you see outwardly? Do you have a standard you assume is the ‘right’ way all spiritually mature Christians should act?
Do you sometimes think you aren’t as spiritual as others because you worship, relate or think differently than they do?
cto Rev. Dr. JERRY SCHMOYER
Christian Training Organization
Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org
(India Outreach, Spiritual Warfare, Family Ministries, Counseling, World View)
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