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A Struggle for Maturity

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28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. Colossians 1:28-29
The apostle Paul worked his tail off.  Even a cursory reading of Acts and the epistles confirms this.  He did this not so people would see him or admire him, but so that they would see and worship Jesus.  He struggled and labored immensely so that the people around him would become mature in Christ.  You have a large portion of you New Testament because of Paul’s God wrought commitment to this end. Consider a few things with me as we are called to take up the same mantle that Paul had.

Him we proclaim:  Struggling for maturity means that we proclaim Jesus and him alone as our only hope. We do not proclaim politics, the latest Christian fad, how God can help us accomplish our goals, how he can live a great and happy life, how he can have us success in all that we do, a lifestyle, or a moral code to live up to. Him we proclaim.  Specifically we proclaim what Christ has done: His death on behalf of sinners and his resurrection securing righteousness and eternal life for all who would place their trust in Jesus apart from their own work. Only through trust in him will come all the things that we then would strive for in maturity.

Warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom:  This is setting right what is out of place. To warn is likened to resetting a broken bone, whether that be brokenness of action, mind attitude or feeling.  It is done out of love, care and concern.  Ideally if I warn you or challenge you it is because I love you and struggle for your spiritual health and maturity even when you do not want to. Similarly, why does the Bible put so much of an emphasis on teaching? The only way to become mature is to continually take the place of a humble learner.  When you stop being teachable, you cease being mature.  When you cease learning, when you cease listening to people, to wisdom you cease your pursuit of maturity. We all need wisdom, teaching and warning to resist the temptation to trust something else to provide what only Jesus has given. 

That we may present everyone mature in Christ.  Merely “getting into heaven” completely misses the point of Christ’s death.  Just doing a little better than the person sitting beside you is not maturity or striving for it. Coming to know Christ and then doing little to nothing with it is not going on to maturity.   If you are sitting idly by and not becoming more mature in your walk with Christ, you are in fact, becoming less mature.  You are either striving to become more mature, or you are getting less mature. One of the marks of a maturing person is that they know they need to become more mature.  We know the temptation to think we are mature enough, and because of it we stop learning and growing in our relationship with Christ. In our assuming we stagnate, stall and start dying spiritually.

Notice too that it is not just mature in general, but mature in Christ.  Not just getting older. We may have met older people who would be considered mature. They know how to hold their tongue and they resist outward sin, but they are not mature in Christ.  They may be mature in the way the world curbs, modifies and manipulates behavior, but that is a far cry from maturity in Christ.  There is a big difference between modifying my behavior outwardly and actually having my heart changed through growing in my relationship with Christ. 

For this I toil: Paul strenuously contended for their maturity.  This is what every pastor should be doing, what every Christian should be doing for their brothers and sisters in Christ. Fight for each other’s maturity in Christ.  Not to make ourselves look all nice and pretty, clean up our act a bit or shove disgusting sin into the closet unseen, but to actually have our hearts changed by God through our grateful submission to him.  Specifically, struggling with all His energy that so powerfully works in me. To struggle for our own maturity and other’s maturity is to do so not by tugging upon my own weak bootstraps, but by relying on the strength, grace and energy that comes directly from Jesus Christ and powerfully works in those who have trusted him. Maturity is work, struggle and effort for sure, but it is initiated by, paid for and enabled by our perfect, never tired Savior, Jesus Christ.







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