Friday
Friday
The Goal of Maturity
It is he [Christ] whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
Colossians 1:28 NRSV
We tend to think of Paul as a pioneer missionary who won converts, planted churches, and moved on. But the goal of his ministry, he tells us, was to go beyond conversion to discipleship, namely to “present everyone mature in Christ” (NRSV), enjoying a relationship with Christ in which we worship, love, trust, and obey him.
How, then, do Christians mature? Our text gives us a plain answer. It is through the proclamation of Christ. If Christian maturity is maturity in our relation to Christ, then the clearer our vision of Christ, the more convinced we are that he is worthy of our commitment. As Dr. J. I. Packer has written in his classic book Knowing God, “We are pygmy Christians because we have a pygmy God,” or indeed, “a pygmy Christ.” The truth is that there are many Jesuses on offer in the world’s religious supermarkets, caricatures of the authentic Jesus. There is Jesus the ascetic, Jesus the clown of Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus the capitalist and Jesus the socialist, Jesus the founder of modern business, and Jesus the urban guerrilla. All these images are defective; none of them is calculated to win our wholehearted allegiance.
Instead, we need to see Jesus as Paul presents him in verses 15–21. This is one of the most sublime Christological passages in the New Testament. It portrays Jesus as the visible image of the invisible God, the agent and heir of creation. He is also the firstborn from the dead so that in everything he might have the preeminence. Indeed, the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ and has reconciled all things through Christ. Thus Jesus Christ has a double supremacy as head of the universe and head of the church. He is the Lord of both creations. When we see him thus, our place is on our faces, prostrate before him. Away, then, with our petty, puny, pygmy Jesuses! Away with our Jesus clowns and Jesus pop stars, our political messiahs and revolutionaries. If this is how we think of Christ, no wonder our immaturities persist. If only the veil could be taken from our eyes and we could see Jesus as he is in the fullness of his divine-human person and saving work. Then we would give him the honor that is due to his name, and we would grow into a mature relationship with him.
For further reading: Colossians 1:15–29