Christian Maturity

I wonder how you would sum up the condition of the world Christian scene today.

My own answer to my own question consists of the paradox of only three words. The situation is one of 'growth without depth'. There is no doubt of the growth of the Christian community in our own day and generation. You may know that 75% of all the Christians throughout the world today are from the non-Western, non-white communities. The church is growing rapidly in some parts of the so-called third world - in Africa, Asia and Latin America - but alongside this numerical growth there is much superficiality and immaturity. So it's with this in mind that I bring you my text, Colossians 1:28 – the words of the apostle Paul:

We proclaim him – [that is, we proclaim Christ], warning everybody and teaching everybody in all wisdom in order that we may present everybody perfect in Christ

I haven't time to stay to argue this, but it seems more likely that the Greek word teleios means not perfect but mature (which is another of its meanings):

that we may present everybody mature in Christ.

Now in order to grasp the full significance of any biblical text it is often a good idea to ply it with probing questions and that's what I intend to do tonight.


First, QUESTION 1: WHAT IS CHRISTIAN MATURITY?

If Paul wants to present everyone mature in Christ, what is this maturity he has in mind? - because the fact is, maturity is a very elusive quality and most of us if we are honest suffer still from lingering immaturities. Even in the grown adult the little child is often lurking somewhere. Besides, there are different types of maturity, for example there is physical maturity – having a grown, developed and healthy body. There is intellectual maturity – having a trained mind and a coherent world view, as Paul writes elsewhere, "In understanding grow up." Thirdly, there is moral maturity, referring to people who have trained themselves to distinguish between good and evil as we read in the letter to the Hebrews. Fourthly, there is emotional maturity, being able that is, to establish strong and lasting relationships and assuming responsibilities. But it is to none of those that the apostle is referring – the other maturity that we would want to call spiritual maturity, and we have to ask immediately, "What is that?"

Well, he calls it maturity in Christ, that is, in our relationship to Jesus Christ. You'll know I'm sure that the commonest definition given anywhere in the writings of the apostle Paul is that a Christian is a man or woman in Christ - not inside Christ, as our tools are in a box or our clothes are in a wardrobe, but united to Christ as the branches are in the vine and the vine is in the branches, or as the limbs are in the body, organically, vitally united to the body, Jesus Christ. So if a Christian is a man or woman in Christ, united to Christ, related to Christ organically, then to be a mature Christian is to have a mature relationship to Jesus Christ in which we know him, believe in him, love him, worship him and obey him. So we cannot possibly claim to be mature disciples if we're living in disbelief or disobedience. No, mature disciples are so closely related to the Lord Jesus Christ that they trust his promises, they obey his commands and they acknowledge him as Lord. So that's my answer to the first question, indeed it is the apostle Paul's answer: Christian maturity is maturity in Christ, in our relationship to Christ.


Secondly, QUESTION 2: HOW DO CHRISTIANS BECOME MATURE?

Well our text gives us a plain answer and I'd like you to consider the basic skeleton of the text

We proclaim Christ that we may present everybody mature in Christ

You notice the repetition of his name. We present Christ that people may grow into maturity in Christ. It's only logical that if our Christian maturity is maturity in our relationship to Jesus Christ, in which we worship, trust and obey him, then the clearer our vision of Christ, the more convinced we are that he is worthy of our faith, love and loyalty and these things will be naturally drawn out from us when we see him as he is. Dr JI Packer, whose name I'm sure is known to most of you, perhaps our leading evangelical theologian today, in his classic little book 'Knowing God' which I warmly recommend if you haven't read it, writes in the preface, "We are pigmy Christians because we have a pigmy god." I want to change it slightly and say we are pigmy Christians because we have a pigmy Christ. Our maturity, the level of our maturity, depends on the clarity of our vision of Jesus Christ.

So the truth is that there are many Jesuses on offer in the world's religious supermarkets today. And most of these are false Christs, defective or distorted Christs, caricatures of the authentic Jesus. For example: there is Jesus the ascetic monk, not unlike John the Baptist, walking barefoot or in sandals with a simple homespun cloak, munching locusts with evident relish as you know John the Baptist seems to have done – the ascetic. But Jesus was not an ascetic. Then there's Jesus the messianic prophet, Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus the clown of Godspell, Jesus the capitalist and Jesus the socialist, and there's even Jesus the founder of modern business. Have you ever come across him? Well, there was a book written in 1929 by a man called Bruce Barton who was an ad-man in Madison Avenue, New York, called 'The Man Nobody Knows' and the last chapter is titled, 'The Founder of Modern Business', and he writes in it (for I've read the book though I didn't altogether appreciate it), "Why, don't you know, that when he was a boy of only 12, he said, 'Didn't you know that I must be about my Father's business?'" So you'll agree that's not the authentic Jesus. Then there's the first century Ché Guevara, the urban or rural guerrilla, with flashing eyes and flowing beard. That again is not the authentic Jesus. There are many more but all of them are defective – none of them is calculated to elicit our faith and our love and our worship, and our obedience as they should. Each one is what Paul called 'another Jesus', different from the Jesus that the apostles preached.

So if we want to grow into maturity in Christ, we need a vision of the authentic Jesus, not least of his unchallengeable supremacy as it is described in Colossians chapter 1. Glance with me at v15-20, one of the most sublime Christological passages in the whole of the New Testament:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

We are told here that he is the visible image of the invisible God, so that whoever has seen him, as he said, has seen the Father. He also is the firstborn over all creation, not that he himself was created but he was the author of the creation, its Lord and its heir, for by him the universe was created and all things through him. He's also the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything he might have the pre-eminence.

So Paul goes on in this magnificent passage indicating that Christ has a double lordship – he's Lord of the creation, of the universe and he's also Lord of the church. Because of who he is - the image and the fullness of God - and because of what he's done – as the agent of creation and of reconciliation. Friends, when you begin to glimpse this Jesus, the Head of the universe and the head of the church, our place is on our faces prostrate in worship before him. Away then with our petty, puny, pigmy Jesuses – away with our Jesus clowns and our Jesus pop stars. Away with our Jesus political messiahs, Jesus revolutionaries, Jesus reactionaries. All of them are caricatures of the authentic Jesus, and if that is the only Christ we know then no wonder our immaturities persist.

So, you naturally ask, as the next question, Where can I find this authentic Jesus who will draw out from me my faith and love and obedience and worship? Of course the answer is 'in the scriptures'. Have you ever considered that scripture is the Father's portrait of the Son painted by the Holy Spirit? The great purpose of Scripture is to bear witness to Christ. That's what Jesus himself said in John 5:

the scriptures bear witness to me.

And Jerome the great church father of the 4-5th century said, "Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ."

Whereas we could add, 'Knowledge of scripture is knowledge of Christ.' If only the veil could be taken from our eyes, if only we could see Jesus as he is in the fullness of his divine human person and of his saving work, then we would see how worthy he is of our total allegiance and we would grow into maturity in Christ. I venture to say that nothing is more important today for mature Christian discipleship than a fresh, clear, true vision of the authentic Jesus Christ.

So question 1 'What is it, this Christian maturity?', question 2 'How do disciples become mature?' and


Thirdly, QUESTION 3: WHO CAN BECOME MATURE IN CHRIST?

I think you will have noticed, even if you were not familiar with my text beforehand, the three-fold repetition of the word 'everybody'. Paul writes in Col 1:28:

We proclaim him, warning everybody and teaching everyone … so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

The background to this repetition is doubtless the so-called Colossian heresy, a heresy that was disturbing the Colossian church at the time. Scholars are still debating exactly what form that heresy took, but almost certainly it was a kind of incipient gnosticism that did not become full-grown till the middle of the 2nd century AD. These proto-gnostics seem to have taught that there were two classes, two categories of Christians. On the one hand there were the ïß ðïëëïé (hoi polloi), the common herd who are united by faith, but on the other hand there were the ïß ôåëåéïé (hoi teleioi), the elite, who are united by gnosis or knowledge. Paul was absolutely horrified by this Christian elitism and he set himself rigorously and resolutely against it. So in his proclamation of Christ he borrowed the Gnostic word 'teleios' to apply it not to the elite but to everybody:

that we may present everybody – teleios – mature in Christ.

So maturity in Christ is emphatically not open only to an esoteric minority. It's open to everybody – it's open to each of us here and none of us need fail to attain to it.


Let me conclude.

It's a very interesting hermeneutical question as to whether when we study a biblical text we sit down alongside the recipients if it is an epistle or whether we stand beside the author of the epistle (in this case Paul). Sometimes it is legitimate to sit alongside both, one after the other, which is what I propose we should do now.

On the one hand it's certainly right to sit alongside the Colossian Christians, and as we do so we listen to the apostle Paul. We read carefully his letter. We seek the illumination of the Holy Spirit to understand what he is writing to the Colossians. We let him address us and exhort and encourage us and then as we listen attentively to what the apostle writes we receive his admonition about growing into maturity and we determine to respond to his exhortation. There grows within us, as no doubt there did within the Colossians, a deepening desire to grow into maturity in Jesus Christ, to leave behind us the old immaturities, the disobediences, the lack of love and worship of Christ, and determine by his grace that we will grow into maturity in Christ. The principle – the discipleship principle - is clear: the poorer our vision of Christ, the poorer our discipleship will be; the richer our vision of Christ the richer our maturity will be. So that's on the one hand, we sit down humbly alongside the Colossian Christians to listen to the apostle's description of maturity.

But on the other hand it is also legitimate in a sense to stand alongside the apostle Paul who is penning, writing, this particular letter in which he addresses the Colossian church. True, Paul was an apostle and we are not. Nevertheless I guess that all of us have some pastoral responsibilities. I don't have the pleasure of knowing you personally but I feel sure many of you are parents with a responsibility to teach your children, others here are church wardens or members of the church council or you may be leaders of a fellowship group or a home group or the teacher of a Bible class or a teacher in the Sunday School. Almost all of us in one way or another have pastoral responsibilities, so we can learn from the pastoral ideals of the apostle Paul. Note what his goal in ministry is: it is to present everybody mature in Christ. In other words, Paul was not satisfied with being an evangelist. Most people think of the apostle Paul as being an evangelist, a missionary, a church-planter, a pioneer, and he was all of those things but that's only one side of the story. In his vision for the church, the body of Christ, Paul looks beyond evangelism to nurture, beyond evangelism to discipleship. He wasn't content to win people for Christ and then abandon them. He stayed with them. He wanted to bring everyone of them into maturity in Christ. To that goal he said that he bent his energies.

To this end I labour, struggling with all the energy that he mightily inspires within me. (v29)

Both these metaphors, labouring and struggling, emphasise physical exertion. The first one is used of farm labourers and the second of competitors in the Greek games. And both of them conjure up visions of rippling muscles and pouring sweat. Energy struggling and labouring for this purpose. What he exactly meant he doesn't tell us, but I guess that the energy of Christ within him led him to pray, to study, to teach and so on. He laboured and struggled with all the energy that Christ mightily inspired within him. Well, my prayer tonight for myself, for you, for all of us, is that we may learn these two lessons and that God will give us a vision of Jesus Christ, not only in order that we may grow into maturity in Christ ourselves but also that we may proclaim Christ in his fullness to all those for whom we are pastorally responsible. Purity in Christ is the goal both for ourselves and for others for whom we are responsible. God grant it.