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Fully Mature?

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Colossians 1:28–29

He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom,so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

CONSIDER THIS

For Paul the church was not an organization but a group of people. Therefore, growing the church, for Paul, was never about growing an organization but about growing people. He says it again so clearly in today’s text:

He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching every with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. (v. 28)

Paul’s goal was not to get as many people as he possibly could to accept Christ. Sure, he wanted people to come to grips with their sin problem and to enter into a saving relationship with Jesus, but that was only the beginning. Paul’s goal was to get as many people as he possibly could to the place of full maturity “in Christ.” He did not have a starting line mindset but a finish-line mentality.

 . . . so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. (v. 1:28b)

So often these days, our approach centers around trying to get people to come to church, where we hope they will decide to keep coming back and through the process we hope they will hear the gospel and become a Christian somewhere along the way. Sure, we want people to mature in their faith, and to that end we try to get them involved in all manner of church activity, much of it in the name of discipleship, but we have no way to know what’s really happening along those lines, so in the meantime we do our best to take care of them and be there for them through life’s ups and downs.

I don’t mean this as a cynical criticism but as an honest observation. Most leaders of church I know, lay and clergy, feel the same way. It’s no one’s fault. It is what it is at this point in the game. Tweaking the model will not get it done. We need a new model—really, we need an old way.

What if we approached the starting line with a finish-line mentality, “so that we may present everyone fully mature to Christ” (v. 28b)? How would that change the way we thought about life and faith and church?

Domino #1/28, though we call it Finish Line, must tip well before we get there if we hope to arrive. 

THE PRAYER

Abba Father, we thank you for your Son, Jesus, who is our picture of what a mature human being looks like and who, through the person of the Holy Spirit, brings us to maturity in him. Awaken me to the ways I must mature, and fill me with your Spirit to this end. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

1. Describe in detail the picture or image of a mature follower of Jesus. What are the top three or four qualities?
2. Who in your life and past strike you as a mature Christian? What stands out to you about him or her?
3. How might we find ways to measure maturity in appropriate fashion? Everything we care about in life, we find ways to measure. How about this?

For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

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WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

Comments and Discussion

2 Responses

  1. JD, our end goal really does determine how we go about to achieve it, doesn’t it? If making a mature replicas of the image of Christ isn’t the end goal, then the making of true disciples is nothing more than a game of chance.
    #1) Qualities of a true disciple: Spirit filled, full of grace, full of truth, a reflection of the Fathers love.
    #2) From what I’ve read, Mother Teresa or some of the early martyrs would be prime examples of mature Christians. All these folks displayed a living sacrificial life for Christ.
    #3) Our only true way to evaluate Christ-like maturity is to examine the fruit. A tree can be known by its fruit.

  2. A full follower of Jesus can boldly testify along with Paul, “the energy (of) Christ so powerfully works in me.” A mature Christ-followers pays attention to and quickly obeys the inner promptings of Jesus and thus vividly demonstrates the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit in day-to-day life. Fully mature Christians continually let the living Jesus melt their will and mold it into His. They align their lifestyle and beliefs to the living Jesus, not to the world or to their own desires.

    I search the living and the dead for mature Christians. I find many mature Christians in writings from the past–from Watchman Nee to Augustine, From Mother Teresa to John Wesley, from the Catholic mystics to the Orthodox writers in the Philokalia, from the Quakers to the Anabaptists. I’ve also been blessed to know many mature Christ-followers in the flesh–people sold out to the living resurrected Jesus. Throughout the week my wife and I connect with many mature disciples of Jesus who come from various backgrounds and traditions.

    The measure of Christian maturity is not in “enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstrations” of the living resurrected Jesus in and through humble, surrendered lives. If you want a measurement, how about: How well does a person live out the teachings of Jesus in their daily lives and “consider others better than” themselves? How “poor in spirit,” “mournful,” “meek,” “hungry for God,” “merciful,” “pure in heart,” “peacemaking,” and “persecuted” are people?

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