two levels of maturity

Ephesians 4:¹¹ Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. ¹² Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. ¹³ This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

 ¹⁴ Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. ¹⁵ Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. ¹⁶ He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

We often consider the importance of our personal spiritual growth.  We know that we need to spend time in the Word and in prayer and we are aware that God has given us new life that we might grow as "new creatures".  I think we may think less often about God's plan for the whole church, that it would mature as well.  From the passage above it is clear that God has gifted us in different ways to help in that growth process.  It seems that there are two purposes: that we would grow in unity and that we would become more like Christ, as an entire church.  If we are His body in the church then that body is intended to progress toward maturity, just as the individual members are.  I suspect that as we use the gifts God has given us to help others grow....we will find ourselves growing in our personal lives as well.  We are saved individually that we might grow corporately that the world would see the living Christ in His body on earth.

 

blessings,

Rob Smith