6. Maturity…
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful schemes. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Ephesians 4:14-16
I remember the pen marks behind the door as I was growing up that showed my progress in growing upwards. I was very proud to see when I have grown a little taller. Growth is a sign of health and of maturity and it is something we all aspire to.
So it is with Christ’s church, his people. Our health as his body depends on growth. So how does the body of Christ grow?
We grow as each of us does our part, our work towards the maturing body. If we compare this to the physical body we see that as each part develops – the heart, the liver, the brain, etc. – then, and only then, can the body grow to maturity. It takes action on behalf of each part of the body to enable that growth. no amount of rhetoric can achieve growth. We can talk about growing, do courses on growing but only through the action of our heart pumping blood, our brain thinking, etc. that the growth can be realised. When something goes wrong with our physical body – the liver fails, there is brain damage – then its growth and maturity is threatened.
God has ordained a work for each of us to do. Paul speaks often of this in 1 Corinthians 12 – some teach, some perform miracles, some heal, etc. When each of us does what we are called to then the Church (capital C) can grow towards maturity as the body of Christ.
But there is something else that is needed for a body to function well, its ligaments holding it all together. So too there is something that holds together the body of Christ. This something is God’s love for people both within the body and those not yet part of it. Paul exhorts us, through God’s love for us, to love, to speak the truth in love, so that we can be a healthy church. Numbers don’t count, size of worship band doesn’t count. Not even deeds count without love – we are called to grow and build the church in love.
Prayer: Lord, I may, as an adult, be physically full grown, but there will always be room for me to grow into maturity as part of the body of Christ. I pray that each day I will be able to look at the etchings on your heavenly wall behind the door and see that I have grown more like your precious Son. This, Lord, is my desire. To be who I am truly meant to be, held together with my brothers and sisters in Christ, by strong ligaments of love.
Amen
Action: Today, thank God that because he first loved us, we can love each other (read 1 John 4)
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