We’re walking through phroneō in Philippians — the word translated “think” that Paul uses ten times in this short letter. Today, he uses it twice in a single verse and aims it at what spiritual maturity actually looks like.
Paul says something in Philippians 3 that ought to give every long-time Christian pause.
He’s writing from prison. He’s likely in his sixties. He’s been preaching Christ for thirty years. He’s planted churches across the empire. He’s the man God used to write a third of the New Testament.
And he says this —
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal...
— Philippians 3:12
Paul. Not arrived yet.
The admission is staggering. The apostle who saw the risen Christ. The apostle who was caught up to the third heaven. The apostle who could rattle off his spiritual credentials and silence any room. He’s saying — I haven’t arrived yet. I’m still pressing on.
And then, a few verses later, he turns it all into instruction —
Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you.
— Philippians 3:15
That’s our word again. Phroneō. Twice in one verse this time.
Let the mature think this way.
Paul is saying — this stance, this disposition, this orientation of the mind I just described — that’s what grown-up thinking looks like.
The First Mark of Maturity: You Know You’re Not Done
This catches a lot of folks off guard.
We tend to think spiritual maturity means we’ve finally got it figured out. We’ve put in our years. We’ve read the books. We’ve taught the classes. We’ve been around the block enough to know the lay of the land. Surely by now we’ve arrived.
Paul says: no.
The mark of a grown-up mind isn’t that you’ve arrived. The mark of a grown-up mind is that you know you haven’t.
Mature thinking has a forward lean to it. It strains. It reaches. It keeps pressing toward Christ, knowing there’s always more of him to know, more of his image to take on, more of his character to absorb.
If you’re like me, you’ve watched a lot of Christians over the years grow old in the faith two different ways.
Some grow into the runner Paul describes — still leaning forward, still hungry, still asking God to show them what they don’t yet see. You can be eighty years old and still be moving toward Christ. That’s beautiful to watch.
But some stop. Somewhere along the way, they decide they’ve covered the territory. The Bible study slows. The prayer life thins. The hunger fades. And what’s left is a person who was faithful, but isn’t pressing forward anymore. The forward lean is gone.
The grown-up mind keeps leaning. Always.
The Second Mark: You Trust God With Other People’s Minds
Now look at what Paul says next, because this is where it gets really interesting —
And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you.
Paul has just laid out his convictions. He’s confident in what he believes. He’s not waffling.
But notice what he doesn’t do.
He doesn’t get angry. He doesn’t threaten. He doesn’t demand that everyone in the room sign off on his exact wording before they can leave. He doesn’t say, “And if you think differently, you’re not really Christians.”
He says: God will show you.
That’s a profoundly mature footing. Confidence without rigidity. Conviction without grasping. The faith to believe that the same God who is shaping me is shaping you — and if either of us is off on something, the Lord can be trusted to bring us into the light at the right time.
This is what some of us still need to learn. We confuse maturity with control. We think being grown up in the faith means we’re now responsible for making sure everyone else thinks correctly. So we push. We argue. We pressure. We try to make people see things our way, right now, on our timetable.
Paul refuses to do that.
This is not because he doesn’t care. He cares deeply. It is not because truth doesn’t matter. It matters more than anything. But because he trusts God with the timing of revelation.
You can hold convictions firmly and hold people gently. Mature minds learn how.
The Rearview Mirror Problem
Here’s another piece of this passage I don’t want you to miss.
In verse 13, just before he tells us this is grown-up thinking, Paul says:
...forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead...
— Philippians 3:13
The Greek word for “forgetting” doesn’t mean amnesia. It means refusing to let the past have ongoing power over you. Paul never forgot his past — he wrote about it constantly. What he refused to do was let it hold him hostage.
I sometimes think of it like driving. Your car has a rearview mirror for a reason. You glance at it. You’re aware of what’s back there. But if you drive looking only in the rearview mirror, things will not turn out well. You weren’t built to keep your eyes back there.
A lot of saints spend their middle and later years either rehearsing the wins or relitigating the losses. The mature mind acknowledges both, then turns its eyes forward. There’s still ground to cover. There’s still more of Christ to know. There’s still a prize to be pursued.
Grown-up thinking refuses to live in the rearview.
Where Do You Need to Grow Up?
Where in your thinking do you need to grow up?
Have you stopped pressing forward because somewhere along the way, you decided you’d arrived? Has the hunger thinned? Have you stopped asking God to show you what he hasn’t shown you yet?
Or — the other side of this — are you exhausted from trying to control everyone else’s mind? Worn out from making sure your spouse, your kids, your brothers and sisters in Christ all think exactly like you do, on your schedule?
Paul gives us a different way.
Press on toward Christ. Hold your convictions with confidence. And trust God with the rest.
The mind that loves remembers. The mind that’s united moves forward. The mind of Christ bends low. The grown-up mind keeps reaching.
Set your mind there.
