The Vineyard Church

Maturity is one of the most elusive things in our walk with Christ. There is, on the one hand, the fact that our God is perfect, holy, and blameless. In this we recognize that grace is there for us precisely because we do not measure up with God, nor will we. We are wholly dependent rather than dependably holy. Because of this, there is often a struggle in the minds of Christians about the role of maturity and our efforts to attain it. In our reading today we are challenged in Ephesians 4 to become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, and to no longer live as the Gentiles do in futility of thinking, being made new in the attitude of our minds, putting on the new self, and being like God in true righteousness and holiness.

The key is to understand that we are called to be mature rather than having it all together. The effort we put forth cannot earn us our salvation, this is the free gift of God. But growing in Christ is our responsibility. As it has been said, we cannot go with God and stay the same. When we go with God we are called to live a life that includes doing a good days work, controlling our anger, making peace with others, and not letting unwholesome talk come out of our mouths, but instead speaking only what is useful for building others up. Sometimes when we call people to this lifestyle it is viewed as legalistic or rule driven, but in fact the Bible calls it being imitators of God.

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then maturity is the process by which we set out to flatter God by treating others just like he would, and by thinking like he thinks, without the fear of legalism.

Hal Hester