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Come up here, I want to show you something;

(Revelation 4; 1)

Sonship and Maturity

BY LISA CREMER
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INTRODUCTION

If you have read my other booklets, you know why they are calling the reader
to; “Come up here”. I have explained the difference between earthly wisdom
and spiritual wisdom extensively in them and the need for us to grow up in the
Lord and become mature so that we can live a spirit led life.

The church has had one preoccupation and aim; to live a good life and go to
heaven when we die. We have tried to live our best Christian lives in our daily
walk in order to be worthy of heaven when we die. This is extremely short
sighted and erroneous. The ultimate goal of a Christian is not going to heaven.
We are told in the scriptures that the righteous will ‘inherit the earth’ in Psalm
37; 29. Proverbs 2; 21 also says “For the upright will dwell in the earth and the
blameless will remain in it” Revelation tells us that there will be a new heaven
and a new earth on which we will dwell. Why is our focus to get to heaven?

Revelation 21; 1-4 “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first
heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice
from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will
dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with
them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes;
there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more
pain, for the former things have passed away.” And verses 22 -27 “But I saw no
temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city
had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God
illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved
shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and
honour into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night
there). And they shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it. But
there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination
or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life”.

Revelation 22; 3 “And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and
of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him”and verses 14 +15
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“Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right
to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But
outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and
idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie”.

Our ultimate destination is not heaven, it is to inherit the new earth and to
dwell on it with God. But from these verses we see that to do that, we need to
be righteous.

Hebrews 5; 12- 14 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you
need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and
you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who
partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a
babe. But solid food belongs to those who are mature, that is, those who by
reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil”

There is an important principle of God linked to eating; the assimilation of

knowledge into the mind, especially the knowledge of God by which we
grow. Everybody knows the saying, "We are what we eat." Our body can
work only with the food it is given. Scripture teaches us that feeding the mind
is like this saying. A major problem that we have is that our human or carnal
nature forces us to focus almost totally upon the physical. God leads us
through "wilderness experiences" to let us know that there is a spiritual
aspect to life that requires feeding and maintenance just as surely as the
physical. Deuteronomy 8: 2, 3 “And you shall remember that the Lord your
God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble
you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep
His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and
fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that
He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man
lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”

Starvation of the spirit is not visible on the outside because its signs are not
physical. Spiritual malnutrition may go unrecognized for long periods because
the body and life goes right on. But just as surely as one's body gives signs
that it needs nourishment, so does the spirit, and it, too, will eventually be
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recognized on the outside by its symptoms. When the body is hungry for
food, you feel emptiness in the stomach, weakness in the muscles, sleepiness
and faint. But when the spirit is malnourished either from no food or the
wrong diet, the signs are different. Spiritual malnutrition manifests with
spiritual immaturity. Spiritual immaturity looks like this; anger, irritability,
exasperation, depression, discouragement, melancholy, despondency,
gloominess, bitterness, hatred, resentment, self-pity, hopelessness, despair,
paranoia, envy, jealousy, family conflict, arguing, divorce, drunkenness,
addictions, and competitiveness as self-centeredness deepens. Don’t all
these things sound like the works of the flesh described in Galatians 6: 19 –
21 “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies,
outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders,
drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I
also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit
the kingdom of God.” Oh my goodness! Haven’t we been rebuking and
binding these things as the works of demons? Instead they are signs of
ungodliness caused by spiritual immaturity.

In order for us to progress from the milk of scripture to the meat, we need
adequate teachers which lead us into maturity, and not to a destination or
place.

Maturity is not a concept that is explored or even preached in our churches

today. Yet it is absolutely fundamental to the Purpose of God spoken in
Genesis 2; 26 “let us make man in our image and according to our likeness.”

The Hebrew word used for ‘image’ is tselem and it means representative,
resemblance and the word used for ‘likeness’ is Demuth which means like
manner. Demuth is used in 2 Kings 16; 10 for the word ‘pattern’; “Now King
Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, and saw an
altar that was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the design
of the altar and its pattern, according to all its workmanship.”

God’s intention was therefore to make us resemble Him and to be His pattern
on the earth. God is Spirit right? So this has nothing to do with physical
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attributes. Man is comprised of body/flesh, soul and spirit. Our resemblance

to God comes from the fact that we are spirit as He is spirit. When God
breathed into Adam, it was not oxygen so that his lungs would work. Then He
would have had to do that with all living creatures. Yet the Word only tells us
that this was done to Adam. Genesis 2: 7 “And the Lord God formed man of the
dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living being. The words “breath of life” is in Hebrew the ‘neshamah
of lives’. Neshamah in Hebrew means puff, breath, spirit, intellect, divine
inspiration.

But did you notice that in Genesis 1; 27 God only created man in His image.
“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.” This means that the ‘likeness’ of God, the
pattern, is something we must develop. This is where maturity features.

I find that we have not understood maturity in the scriptures. We have not had
or used the tools to dissect scripture in order to see that God shows us how to
grow up spiritually into His likeness.

The first Hebrew letter of the first word in the Bible is the Hebrew letter beit.
Remember it represents a tent or a house. The second letter of the first word
of the Bible is the Hebrew letter resh. Together we learnt in Chapter 1 they
spell the Hebrew word ‘Bar’ which is the Aramaic word for son. Interestingly
the first letter of the Hebrew word for ‘build’ is also a beit. Because in the
Hebraic perspective a son builds the father’s house. These first two letters of
the first word in scripture lay out the Father’s plan from the beginning. To build
a house through a son.

The last word of the bible in the last verse of Revelation is ‘amen’ in English
and in Greek, and so the last letter of the last word in scripture is the letter ‘n’.
The English letter ‘n’ is also in Hebrew a letter pronounced ‘n’, it is the letter
‘nun’. Together the first Hebrew letter of the Bible ‘beit’ and the last letter
‘nun’ spell the Hebrew word ‘son’.
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God declares the end from the beginning. He has shown in the simplest form
that everything written from Genesis to Revelation is all about a son.

The translations of the bible into English and Afrikaans have not been very
helpful by replacing the word ‘son’ especially in the New testament for the
word ‘children’ and it has robbed something from us; the understanding that
the whole purpose of God has been to be a Father to His sons.

When we hear the word ‘sons’ we think of gender and identify it as

masculine. But we have misunderstood. The ‘son’ is a position not a gender.

In ancient civilisations, the firstborn son was a prize, he was the inheritor of
his father’s estate and he was the carrier of the seed to continue the house of
his father, i.e. the lineage of his father. It is this role and position of favour
and rank that is inherent in the position of the son in scripture.

The principle of sonship is interwoven throughout the Bible. I will unpack it for
you in this booklet.

In the Old Testament we are told in Hosea 11; 1 “When Israel was a child, I
loved him. And out of Egypt I called My son”. God refers to Israel as His son.
Were there woman and daughters in the group of people that left Egypt? Of
course, but God called this collective group of people His Son. This scripture
therefore not only tells us that God considered Israel as a son, ie; in the son
position, but also that they were collectively regarded as ONE SON. You will
see how this notion of a collective being a son is played out later in the
scriptures.

Psalm 82; 8 “I said ‘you are gods’ and sons of the Most High”. Even Jesus
quoted this in John 10; 34. The English translations have use the word
‘children’ instead of the correct translation of ‘sons’. The replacement of the
word ‘child’ or ‘children’ for the correct word ‘son’ in the scriptures has stolen
our identity and our purpose from us. You will understand why I say this when
you have finished this entire booklet.

Adam was called God’s son (Luke 3; 38).

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Abraham was not. Yet he is vital to the understanding of sonship. He was a

representation of THE FATHER. Isaac was Abraham’s son; he was the seed, the
Promise to Abraham, and in that he is a type and shadow of Jesus, the seed
and the Promise in Genesis 3. When Isaac was almost sacrificed, all
commentaries agree that he must have been about the age of a teenager. We
never read that he resisted what his father was going to do, or that Abraham
had to forcibly restrain Isaac to carry out his instruction from God. Isaac
willingly allowed Abraham to bind him and put him on the altar, he trusted his
father – in this he represented Jesus who willingly went to the cross,
submitting to His Father’s will.

Out of Isaac came the 12 tribes of Israel, and out of Jesus comes a spiritual
seed. Israel as a collective was God’s son and as such was a type and shadow
that in Christ, as a collective, we, the church of God, are His Son.

There were 12 tribes of Israel born to the 12 sons of Jacob. 12 is representative

of perfect government, order, organization, united, perfect subdivisions of
time (12 hours in day, 12 months in a year, and 12 primary constellations) and
of people (12 tribes of Israel, 12 Disciples/Apostles). This demonstrates a holy
people serving a holy God based on the Creator’s clock and calendar.

The twelfth Hebrew Letter in their alphabet is Lamed.

‫ל‬
Its numerical value is thirty. Jesus started his ministry after his baptism at the
age of 30. The number 30 is representative of spiritual maturity.

The ancient picture of the letter lamed is of a shepherd’s hook/staff.

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It represents teaching, learning, goading, protection, yoke, to bind. In all

possible detail, God is giving us a picture.

Moses was also not referred to as a son but as a servant in God’s house (Israel);
Hebrew 3; 5, Numbers 12; 7, Joshua 1; 2 and 8; 31, 33. The Greek word used
for ‘servant’ is therápōn – an attendant (minister) giving "willing service.” It
refers to a faithful attendant who voluntarily serves another, like a friend
serving in a tender, noble way. In essence; Moses was a servant to the Son
(Israel). In Numbers 20;8 he was given an instruction; a torah to speak to the
rock - to move from works (beating the rock) to proclaiming what God had
said with faith, which is what God’s sons are expected to do, but he failed. He
stayed with what he was comfortable doing; works. In this, he misrepresented
God to the people and GOD said that THIS was why he was not allowed to lead
the people into the Promised Land. Moses begged God to allow him to cross
the Jordan and see the land, but God would not allow him to cross the Jordan,
he was only allowed to see the land from the wilderness side of the Jordan.
Moses did in effect not mature spiritually enough in the wilderness to move
from what was known to him and comfortable to him to what God told him to
do although it didn’t make any sense to him at the time.

Moses is synonymous with the LAW and the Law was the tutor to bring us to
faith, the law kept us under guard for faith. Galatians 3; 23-26. The Holy Spirit
is described in a way similar to the functions of a tutor; John 16; 12 – 14” I still
have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However,
when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He
will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and
He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is
Mine and declare it to you.”

We can see that as Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the
wilderness, he was acting as their tutor. But Moses couldn’t make the move
from law and works to faith and confession. Righteousness by faith speaks
(Romans 10), it believes in the heart and confesses. 2 Cor 4; 13 “and since we
have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and
therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak.”
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Moses was a type and shadow of the work of the Holy Spirit in the leading and
guiding of the people to their final God given destination. However Moses,
when he did not represent GOD (who is Father, son and Spirit) properly to the
people by speaking to the rock, could no longer lead the Son (Israel) into their
inheritance. He failed in representation. He couldn’t inherit the promise as a
slave, because only a son can inherit from his father. Yet God was merciful and
allowed him to see the Promised Land from afar. Galatians 4; 7 “Therefore you
are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through
Christ.”

Sonship is the original purpose of God visible throughout scripture.

Let us look at a few New Testament scriptures.

Ephesians 1;3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption
as sons (huios) by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of
His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted
in the Beloved.

Romans 8; 29 “for whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed

to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

1 John 3; 1 “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that
we should be called sons of God!”

Galatians 3; 26 “for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For
as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither
Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female;
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are
Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” It is this verse that
explains that in Christ there is no status, no rank, no gender, and no nationality.
The house of God is comprised of men and woman of God from all nations. For
this reason, there is strictly speaking no ‘daughter’ of God; we are all sons. This
is why Israel as a collective was called God’s son and why the church of God
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today is called son in Christ. This is why the word ‘son’ to God has nothing to
do with gender but position.

We are begotten (brought into existence by or as if by a parent) through the

gospel; 1 Cor 4; 15 “For thou you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ,
yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you
through the gospel.” Galatians 4;4 ,5 “But when the fullness of the time had
come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those
who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And
because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
crying out Abba Father. Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if
a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

God’s plan was from the beginning to bring many sons to glory. Hebrews 2;10
“For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things,
in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings”.

These scriptures are overwhelming proof of the fact that God wants us to
occupy this son position. He wants us to move out of our slave mentality to a
son mentality. He wants us to grow up into the fullness of the stature which is
Christ. Ephesians 4; 11-13 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping
of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till
we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”. The
Greek word for ‘stature’ is the word ‘helikia’ and it means ‘maturity’. God is
telling us that He wants us to come to the full measure of the maturity of
Christ.

You can see now that maturity is central to the principle of sonship.

Now, there are different levels of maturity explained in scripture by the use of
the words beginning with the most immature being Nepios, and then growing
up into Paidion, Teknon, Neaniskos and finally Huios. Huios is the final or most
mature level. Unfortunately, as I have already mentioned, the English and
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Afrikaans translations of the Bible of the word ‘son’ in Greek is always ‘child’
or ‘children’. But if you research the original Greek words and understand their
characteristics, you will finally understand the progression in spiritual maturity
that God interwove in the scriptures.

At the age of 30, Jesus submitted himself to a man, John the Baptist, to be
baptised. When he arose out of the waters, God spoke from heaven. Matthew
3; 16,17 “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the
water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and he saw the Spirit of
God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came
from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The
Greek word for ‘son’ in this word is the word ‘huios’. This is the mature son.
What had Jesus done before that day? He hadn’t yet performed a miracle or
preached a sermon. So that was not the reason why God called him His huios.
Let us examine what Jesus did until that point that qualified him to be called
huios.

In the years before he was 30 we read in Luke 2 that Jesus spent time in the
temple with the teachers listening and asking questions, and growing up in
wisdom and in favour. Through the study of the torah, he must have
recognised the path chosen for him, the prophecies about him.

This is why he sought out a Levitical priest to baptise him. Why? Because Jesus
understood that he was the Lamb of God, the sacrifice for the sins of the world.
And the Lamb had to be examined by a Levitical Priest for any spot or blemish
before the sacrifice. Jesus understood the spiritual type and shadow of this
sacrifice and of the Lamb, and that is why He went to John the Baptist. John
was not just any type of priest, yes he was from the tribe of Levi, but he was a
very particular type of priest. He had taken the Nazirite vow. He was what they
in those days would have called an exceptionally ‘clean’ priest. After his
baptism and time in the wilderness Jesus was called up in the temple to read
out of the Torah in Luke 4.

This is a very significant event. He didn’t pick and choose a portion of scripture
to read. At that time on that day, there was only a particular scripture to be
read because it has always been custom among religious Jewish communities
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for a weekly Torah portion to be read during Jewish prayer services. The
commentaries on this chapter of the Bible and internet research tells us that
each Torah portion consists of two to six chapters to be read during the week.
There are 54 weekly portions. Torah reading mostly follows an annual cycle
beginning and ending on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, with the
divisions corresponding to the lunisolar Hebrew calendar. This means that
specific portions are read in the cycle and every year the cycle repeats. It was
no accident that Jesus was called up to read the piece of scripture that he did
on that day at that time of his life.

Luke 4; 16 -21 “So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And
as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood
up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He
had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the
gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, To proclaim
liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those
who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Then He closed
the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all
who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them,
“Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

We can understand then from reading about Jesus who is the pattern son,
what huios looks like and how to arrive at that level of maturity.

But let us begin at the lowest level of maturity and move up.

The first or lowest level of maturity is the NEPIOS. Nepios in Greek means an
infant (minor); figuratively, a simple-minded person, or an immature Christian.
How do we know this? Because of the context of the following scriptures;

Matthew 11;25 “At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and
prudent and have revealed them to babes/nepios”
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Matthew 21; 16 “And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of
the mouth of babes/nepios and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?”

1 Corinthians 13; 11 “When I was a child/nepios, I spoke as a child/nepios, I

understood as a child/nepios, I thought as a child/nepios; but when I became
a man, I put away childish things.” We see in this verse that Paul is telling us
that we must move away from the nepios stage and mature.

Galatians 4; 1-3 “Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child/nepios, does
not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians
and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we
were children/nepios, were in bondage under the elements of the world.”

The story of the prodigal son, (Luke 15) uses the word nepios to describe him.
From these verses and others we can see that a Christian as a nepios is
immature, he thinks all Gods goodness and promises are for living how he
wants to, in essence to quote the phrase that is so popular now in our culture;
to live his best life now. He squanders his blessings on earthly, sensual things
which result in him lacking or coming short. Luke 15; 14.

Nepios Christians are in bondage under the fundamental belief systems (the
elements) of the world. This means that the way the world thinks, is the way
this Christian thinks. His mind has not yet been renewed. The Nepios is
described in Ephesians 4; 14 “…then we will no longer be infants/ nepios tossed
to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men,
in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.” This Christian is like the seed
that has fallen into the rocks and thorns, there is no root and the cares of this
world choke their faith, and they easily lose their faith in challenging times.

The next level of maturity is the PAIDION. The definition of a paidion is a

childling, a half-grown boy or girl. Figuratively it carries the sense of an
undeveloped understanding.

The paidion starts to identify and experience the kingdom of God contrary to
the kingdom of man. Math 19;13.14 “Then were there brought unto him little
children/ PAIDION that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the
disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer the little children/PAIDION and
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forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven./ Of
this sort is the kingdom of heaven”

Luke 2; 39, 40 “So when they had performed all things according to the law of
the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the Child /
paidion (Jesus) grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the
grace of God was upon Him”

1 John 2; 13 “…. I write unto you, little children (Paidion), because ye have
known the Father.”

A paidon starts to have an awareness and knowledge of the Kingdom of heaven

and of the Father and will grow strong in the spirit and be filled with wisdom.

1 John 2; 18 – 26 John explains to the paidion that they have the anointing that
allows them to know all things and encourages them regarding the anti- Christ
that they will know this spirit, implying that contrary to the nepios, they will
not be deceived by any wind of doctrine, and be tossed about, because they,
through the anointing will have the knowledge they need.

“Little children/ paidion, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the
Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we
know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us;
for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went
out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. But you
have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not
written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it,
and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the
Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies
the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has
the Father also. Let Truth Abide in You. Therefore let that abide in you which
you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in
you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise
that He has promised us—eternal life. These things I have written to you
concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have
received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you;
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but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and
is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”

Paidion is used as a term of comparison when Jesus made the point that we
are to become like a little child (Mk 10:15 Lk 18:17). The implication of course
being that this is not an infant but a child old enough to express saving faith
in the Messiah. There is a need for the Paidion to have moral training and
guidance because as the definition of paidion states, their understanding is
undeveloped.

The next level of maturity is that of a teknon. Helps word studies describes
what a teknon is like this; “téknon – properly, a child; (figuratively) anyone
living in full dependence on the heavenly Father, i.e. fully (willingly) relying
upon the Lord in glad submission. This prompts God to transform them into
His likeness. Téknon ("a child living in willing dependence") illustrates how we
must all live in utter dependence upon the Lord (moment-by-moment),
drawing guidance (care, nurture) from our heavenly Father. Teknon
emphasizes the childlike (not childish) attitude of heart that willingly (gladly)
submits to the Father's plan. We profoundly learn this as we are receptive to
Christ speaking His rhēma-word within to impart faith (cf. Ro 8:16,17 “ The
Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children/teknon of
God, and if children/teknon, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

In comparing the paidon and the teknon the website Young men (3495)
(neaniskos) - Sermon Index has this to say:

“Another has said that teknon emphasizes more the relationship, the
dependence or weakness of the infant, the community of nature and
kinsman ship between parent and child, while paidion stresses the
immaturity of the child, the need to be under instruction or direction.”

In Luke 2; 43-49 the progression from a Paidion to a Teknon son is portrayed

in the story of Jesus who stayed behind in Jerusalem when his parents left to
go back home to Nazareth after the Passover. While he stayed behind, the
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scripture tells us that he was with the teachers of the law in the temple
receiving instruction and asking questions.

“And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child/ Paidion Jesus
lingered behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother did not know
it….. And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the temple,
sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them
questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and
answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto
him, Son/ TEKNON why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have
been looking for you anxiously. And he said unto them why did you look for
me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?”

At this age which Jesus was in this story, a Jewish boy would start to learn his
father’s trade in order to one day take over the family business one day. Jesus
had developed an understanding of WHO his Father was (he was obviously not
referring to Joseph), what HIS HEAVENLY FATHER’s business was.

The TEKNON therefore, is receiving instruction and teaching, participating by

asking questions, and thereby perceiving who His Father is, like the paidon, but
moves beyond the knowledge and makes decisions based on his knowledge of
his father, submitting willingly to him and living in utter dependence on him.

The teknon has the maturity to understand the commandment to love one
another as God has loved them. In John 13; 33, 34 Jesus calls the listeners
Teknon, and gives them this commandment. He knew that they had the
maturity to understand love and the ability to act in accordance with that
knowledge.

The book of 1 John is full of references to the terms teknon and paidion. It is
from this book that we can glean what these two levels of maturity involve.

1 John 2 addresses the teknon (evidenced by John’s use of this term in verse 1
and 12) and explains to them that even if they miss the mark that the Torah
gives (ie; sin) they have an advocate with the Father. He explains the
commandment of love, and abiding and so we see that these are principles
that the teknon must learn to understand and master.
 17

1 John 3; 7 -12 Little children/teknon, let no one deceive you. He who practices
righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil,
for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has
been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin,
because he has been born of God. In this the children/teknon of God and the
children/teknon of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice
righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is
the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one
another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And
why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s
righteous.”

1 John 3; 18-23 “My little children/teknon, let us not love in word or in tongue,
but indeed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall
assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than
our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we
have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him,
because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in
His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of
His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”

1 John 2; 28, “And now, little children/ teknon, abide in Him, that when He
appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His
coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who
practices righteousness is born of Him.”

1 John 4; 4, 5 “You are of God, little children/ teknon, and have overcome them,
because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the
world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are
of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By
this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

Eph 5; 1, 2 “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children/teknon. And walk

in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a
sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
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1 John 5; 21 gives the paidon a warning – “keep yourself from idols.”

What stands out to me is how from Paidion who starts to understand who His
Father is, maturing to Teknon, is the understanding of what God means love
to be. The more you know and understand your FATHER, the more you
understand love. And love is the greatest commandment; “love each other as
the Father loves you.” John 15; 12 and 13; 34.

The third level of maturity is the NEANISKOS. This word is described by Helps
word studies as a youth, even of a man in his prime (40 years old). The root of
this word is neo meaning new, fresh, new in time, not quality. Very little is said
about neaniskos in the bible, there are only 11 references to this word, and
many of them only refer to someone who played a role in a story. (Matthew
19; 20 The rich young ruler, Mark 14; 51 a young man who followed Jesus,
Mark 16;5 a young man sitting at Jesus tomb, Luke 7;14 the widow’s son who
Jesus raised from the dead and Acts 5;10 the young men who removed the
body of Saphira)

Three references however do however give us more clarity as to what level of

maturity this type of Christian has.

1 John 2; 13 + 14, “I am writing to you young men/neaniskos because you have

overcome the evil one……I have written to you young men/ neaniskos because
you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the
evil one.”

This level of maturity also sees visions Acts 2; 17. Could this level of maturity
be the one living and walking in the reality of the new creature? 2 Corinthians
5: 17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have
passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Colossians 3: 8 – 11 “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger,
wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one
another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on
the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him
who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor
uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.”
 19

The final stage of maturity is the HUIOS SON; this is the fully matured son who
represents the Father in His fullness.

Helps word studies defines huios like this “hyiós – properly, a son (by birth or
adoption); (figuratively) anyone sharing the same nature as their Father. For
the believer, becoming a son of God begins with being reborn (adopted) by the
heavenly Father – through Christ (the work of the eternal Son). It
emphasizes likeness of the believer to the heavenly Father, i.e. resembling His
character more and more by living in faith and highlights the (legal) right to
the Father's inheritance, i.e. as the believer lives in conformity with the
Father's nature (purpose).” This level of maturity reflects the pattern, the
demuth of the Father.

God said in the beginning that he wanted a man in His likeness and image, in
other words, a perfect and complete representation of Himself. Genesis 1: 26
Adam was only made in God’s image. The likeness was something that had to
develop over time, through trials and refinement. A man so developed and
refined to the point where all the dross is removed so that he is transparent
enough to reflect his Father, is the huios son. Hebrews 1; 3 “The Son is the
radiance of God’s glory, and the exact representation of His being.”

We can understand from this definition that this is the ultimate level of
maturity and why then, it is always used as a reference to Jesus and Christ.

Matthew 3; 17 “and a voice came down from heaven saying; this is my

beloved son/huios in whom I am well pleased.” Remember, up to this point,
Jesus had not yet preached any sermon or performed any miracles. This
means that these things are NOT a sign of maturity. Rather maturity is
evidenced by the heart condition having developed into a complete
representation of the Father.

Jesus said to Phillip in John 14; 7-10 ““If you had known Me, you would have
known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known
Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say,
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‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the
Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own
authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.”

God said in the beginning that he wanted a man in His likeness and image, in
other words, a perfect and complete representation of Himself. Yet Adam
was only made in God’s image. The likeness was something that had to
develop over time, through trials and refinement. This man so developed and
refined to the point where all the dross is removed so that he is transparent
enough to reflect his Father, is the huios son. Hebrews 1; 3 “The Son is the
radiance of God’s glory, and the exact representation of His being.”

The huios prophesy. Acts 2; 17 “Your sons/huios and your daughters shall
prophesy”

They are peacemakers. Matthew 5; 9 “Blessed are the peace makers, they
shall be called sons/huios of God.”

Luke 6; 35, 36 “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for
nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the sons/huios
of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye
therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. “

Matthew 9; 6 “But that you may know that the Son/huios of Man has power
on earth to forgive sins”

Matthew 11; 27 “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no

one knows the Son/huios except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father
except the Son/huios, and the one to whom the Son/huios wills to reveal Him”
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CONCLUSION

When we become born again, or as Paul puts it “begotten by the Gospel” we

all start as nepios. We can stay there if we are unaware that we can push
forward to becoming more, or if we are complacent and comfortable just being
born again. But if we chose to learn, and research, and read and understand
and seek answers and hear and obey, we will progress to higher levels of
maturity.

Hebrews 5; 13, 14 “For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the
word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who
are mature, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil.” If you are unskilled in the word of righteousness,
you are still a babe in Christ and unable to process meat. Maturity comes to
those who through habit or practice, exercise their judgement and perception
in discerning between good and evil. Is it necessary for me to draw the parallel
between this passage and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Was the
tree there for the purpose of training Adam and Eve in discernment? Their
failure was a sign of their immaturity, not rebellion. Doesn’t the scripture tell
us that Eve was deceived? If you are deceived, you are not rebellious. Her
senses had not yet been exercised enough to have discerned and that was a
sign of her immaturity

We have been predestined to be conformed to this level of maturity. Romans

8; 29 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the
image of HIS HUIOS/Matured Son.” This is God’s will for our lives. The
predestination is for the position as son, it’s not a list of names of people that
God has chosen to make it or not. This is the end goal we should reach for;
maturity as the huios.

Philippians 3; 12- 15 “I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ
Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have
apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and
reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for
the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as
are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will
 22

reveal even this to you. ” This word ‘mature’ in Greek is the word ‘teleios’ and
is explained in Helps word studies like this; “mature (consummated) from
going through the necessary stages to reach the end-goal, i.e. developed into
a consummating completion by fulfilling the necessary process (spiritual
journey). This root (tel-) means "reaching the end (aim)." It is well-illustrated
with the old pirate's telescope, unfolding (extending out) one stage at a time
to function at full-strength (capacity effectiveness).” Maturity brings us to the
end - stage where we are complete (teleios) and lack nothing. James 1; 2

Why is it necessary for us to strive for maturity? Why can’t we just stay as we
are in the zone of comfort and complacency? Romans 8; 19 explains it; “For
the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the
sons/huios of God.” Creation is eagerly and intensely expecting these mature,
huios sons to be revealed. The implication is an intense expectation, an
earnest longing, a straining forward with head outstretched. This is a very
graphic picture. The question is why? Why is creation in such a state of
earnest longing for the revealing of the sons/huios of God? Romans 8; 20- 22
explains it; “Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But
with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s
sons in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation
has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”

Creation wants to be free from the burden of death and decay, and it will
respond to the huios as this is what it was designed to do. You can see this in
all the stories of the miracles of Jesus. Jesus was not just waving a ‘magic
wand’ of spiritual power to perform any of the miracles he did. What was
actually happening was that the creation, whether it was a person’s body, or
loaves of bread and fish were responding to the huios.

This is what happened in the story of Jesus and the disciples in the boat in
Mark 4; 35 – 41. “On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them,
“Let us cross over to the other side.” Now when they had left the multitude,
they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also
with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so
that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And
they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are
 23

perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace,
be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to
them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they
feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the
wind and the sea obey Him?”

We have a prophecy that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the
glory of God. This cannot happen if the church remains immature.

Habakkuk 2; 14 “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of
the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” We have thought that this just meant
preaching Christ to every person in the earth. But this is not what it means.
Don’t you think that with all the thousands of years of preaching and
evangelising, with social media and technology as it is now, that all the earth
hasn’t been reached already? We have had massive crusades where
thousands of people have given their lives to Jesus, and then when the
crusaders have left, these people are left to fend for themselves and nothing
changes. We have years of people preaching a gospel of going to heaven to
their congregations and not teaching them mysteries of God and helping and
guiding them to maturity, and their congregations have not moved beyond
the nepios stage. Our churches are full of people still bound by addictions, by
bitterness and jealousy and doubt under preachers and spiritual leaders
whose lives are not a reflection of God, who are misrepresenting Him and
whose own lives exhibit the same addictions and bitterness and jealousy and
greed that is evident in their congregations. We have churches filled with
nepios and paidion sons who are not even aware of this because no one has
shown them that there is more.

There is a principle in Hebrew called Shama. It means to hear and obey.

There is a very big difference between listening and hearing. If you just listen
but do not hear, you will not be changed. In the same way, if you do hear but
don’t do what you have heard, you will similarly not be changed. This is why
James says we must not only be a hearer, but a doer and Jesus himself said in
John 8; 28 “ I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me” and John 10;
37 “If I am not doing the works of my Father, don’t believe me.”
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If we look at the times of Jesus. Whose lives were changed? Not the masses
of people who followed Jesus to observe his miracles and listen without
hearing or obeying what he was saying. They just followed him for the show
and the experience of feeling good, much like what many people do today
when there are these big tent or church crusades. The ones who did change
and impact the lives of people after Jesus death were the apostles, who
started to really hear what he said, who obeyed and who were in his
presence and saw the Father through him and were being changed by what
they saw and heard. The reality is that apart from the masses, even in the
group of the disciples, there was one, who even though he was in the
presence of one who manifested the Father, still did not mature and change.
Judas. His mind was still blinded by the god of this world, in the form of
greed. He remained the paidion because his life displayed no root and how
the cares of this world choked the good seed that had been planted by his
time in Jesus presence.

So maturity comes not only under the spiritual leadership of one who is
representing the Father but also with us making a decision to shama. Then
we will move from one level to another higher level of maturity.

Scripture tells us in 2 Corinthians 3;18 “But we all, with unveiled face,

beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the
same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

An ‘unveiled face’ is one that has had the covering removed. And the
preceding verses explain it “Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great
boldness of speech— unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the
children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.
But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted
in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.
But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.
Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away”

When we no longer have a mind and heart that is blinded and covered by
ignorance and immaturity, we are transformed from glory to glory and we
then represent the glory of God to the world around us. The scripture is very
clear when it says that the knowledge of the glory of God is displayed in the
 25

face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4;6; “For God, who said, "Let light shine out of
darkness," made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the
knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.”

Remember; the church is Christ. Therefore the church must not stay in the
state of immaturity because then it cannot display the knowledge of the glory
of God.

And when the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God this is the
result;

Isaiah 14; 6-9 ““The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie
down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling
together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the
ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall
put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy
mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.” You see – creation responds.

With this prophecy, we can then understand the millennium of peace

breaking upon the earth. Revelation 20; 2, 4, 6. And how we are nowhere
close to this happening anytime soon. But we have a role to play. We can
hasten it. 2 Peter 3;11, 12 “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved,
what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and
godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.”

In conclusion then, it is my prayer that these scriptures have truly spoken to

you. And that you have identified where you are in your level of maturity, and
that you make the decision to strive to reach forward and run the race of faith
with endurance to becoming a huios of God and in doing so, that you start to
discern and identify for yourself spiritual leaders who represent God to you
accurately, removing yourself from those who just speak words that tickle your
ears, and finally, that you make the decision to shama. In this way then we, as
the church of God, “will grow to become in every respect the mature body of
him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Ephesians 3; 15.