THIS MEANINGFUL PASSAGE: “Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ. For this I toil, striving with all the energy which he mightily inspires within me” (Col. 1:28–29). Here we come to the goal of being in Christ. The goal is not a reward in heaven—being in Him now in order to be with Him then. The goal is maturity in character and life—a maturity of a certain type—maturity in Christ. This is a goal which is the highest conceivable. Being in Christ means, not the mysticism which lets God do everything, nor the humanism, which makes man everything and God nothing; it means that you are in Christ. He is supreme; He is Lord. Yet it also means that the very being in Christ brings the person to maturity as a person. Both the Divine and the human are affirmed.
This maturity is far more than the usual psychological maturity—you are mature when you can function well in your environment. This might be a very immature maturity—making man a cog in a social and economic machine.
The center of being mature in Christ is being mature in love. That will make the person function well in his environment without being an echo of that environment. Love is creative.
“For this I toil” sounds strained and tense until we see the next portion: “striving with all the energy which he mightily inspires within me.” His toiling and striving was not in the energy of the flesh, but in the power of the Spirit. He lived by all the energy which Christ mightily inspired within him. Christ was breathing into (the meaning of “inspire”) him the energy which he expended. He worked with effortless activity—pouring out what was poured in—and this in no meager bits, but with all the energy which He mightily inspired. What a goal! What a means to that goal!
O Lord Jesus, to be mature in Thee is to be mature indeed. Make me this day mature in all my contacts with everybody. That means I will give out love and only love to everybody at all times. I yield my all to Thy maturity. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I strive with all the energy He inspires—this is effortless striving.
