And according to Paul, this is part of the process, and he says that this will go on until, and I quote, “until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God to maturity, to the measure of the full stature or standard of Christ.” So, on the one hand, the fact that this could happen, that we could mature and grow into the stature or standard of Christ, that that could even happen is amazing. But what does it even mean to grow into the stature of Christ or the standard of Christ. The concept in the Greek language which this is written in, is to be made complete, to become a standard. Like this is the, we use this word still today, like that’s the gold standard. Like that’s the benchmark, to be a fully mature and respected person who, who exhibits the love of Christ and who have been and are being completed in Christ. He is the standard. And so, now that we can kind of grasp this, it should be something that we’re thinking of because it’s an intentional thing, growing up happens in different stages on many levels and it’s happening whether we’re paying attention or not. But when we are considering where our lives are going, they’re going wherever we’re going, and if were intentional about it, we end up where we wanted to go. And if we’re not intentional about it, we end up where we are. And ultimately, if we’re thinking spiritually about growing spiritually than what we’re talking about is our union or relationship with God. We want to be more aware of His presence. We want to be available to Him. We want to have our eyes and ears open to see and hear what He is doing, and to have an interpretation for what’s really going on in this crazy, chaotic, beautiful, messy story called life. And as we continue to come to our brothers and sisters, and as we continue to be in relationship with one another, and as we continue to be in this relationship with the rhythm of the Scriptures, and as we continue to cultivate a relationship with the Holy Spirit and understand His comfort and guidance, then we are growing. And Paul gives a picture of this and I quote, “we must no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” So, Paul is saying that this union that we want with God, the awareness of his presence, this is found in maturity and for the people of God who are, according to Paul, growing in every way more and more like Christ. So, people who are looking more and more like Jesus. So, on the one hand, we could say well I fall so far short of that I don’t even know where to start, or we could flip it over and go, wait a second, this is even possible. This is, like this is possible because that would be almost too good to be true, right. The whole trajectory of this thing is that we be, we end up looking like Jesus. Like when we grow up, we’re gonna be like Jesus. The answer according to Paul seems to be absolutely yes, that’s what’s going on here. So maybe, maybe it’s time to grow up. Maybe we take on the popular adage and embrace our destiny. This is what we were made for, to grow up and look like Jesus. Can you imagine just for, just a second, it’ll be hard to imagine but just imagine this, a world with two billion people who look like Jesus and act like Jesus and do what Jesus did, because there are 2 billion of us who claim this. Can you imagine? I mean we have the examples in the Gospels about what one Jesus did. If He is in us and among us and through us and in all of it, wow! He’s not the hold up, is He? We are, it’s time to grow up in Jesus.
Daily Readings and Commentary from the Daily Audio Bible