Towards Maturity
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Do you remember when you were in kindergarten or first grade what your answer was to that question? Mine was, “A cowboy.” As a kid growing up in the city, that was quite the dream! And most kids have no shortage of imagination on this topic. Every adult around me probably was thinking through the logistics of what it would take for me to realize that dream. Children are remarkable in this way. A dream that is so big to everyone else is perfectly normal to them. I also find it so interesting how much time children give to focusing on being and getting older. In their play, they play games about being older. In our questions, we ask them about what they want to be when they grow up. And even in their statements, they talk about how big they are. In the most positive sense, the goal of childhood is not to stay a child but to grow up. See, the Bible routinely talks about children. About how they are valuable to the kingdom and how we are to have faith like a child (Matt. 18:2-4). It talks about how we are to grow up and grow into maturity by putting away childish things (1 Cor. 13:11). Again, every child that we interact with does not have the goal of remaining a child. They want to grow up.
There is something in that for us to consider. … Do I want to grow up?
If someone asked you what you hoped to experience in your journey of following Jesus, what would your answer be? Experience and know that God loves you? That is a good and worthwhile thing. Do good things and love others around you? That is noble and God-honoring. Do what is right and honor God in the way you live? That is significant and at the heart of Scripture. But what about growing into a mature believer who resembles Jesus? See, God really has one goal for you and me, conformity with his Son, Jesus (Rom. 8:29). It doesn’t take long to scan the pages of the Bible to hear that God desires us to grow into maturity. Is maturity our goal?
We’ve heard from Paul in Ephesians that God is the one who has done the saving, sealing, redeeming, and adopting. In fact, it is God’s power at work within us and not our own power, Paul will tell us at the end of chapter three. Paul will continue in chapter four to emphasize the importance of growing up. He’ll say, “11And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Eph. 4:11-16)
When we grow up into maturity, we know and experience God’s love, serve and love another, and walk in righteousness through word and deed. Maturity is not a secondary thought for Paul or in the Bible. It is primary and essential, and it is what following Jesus in a life-defining way is all about. Just as children want to grow up, so should we.
So, let us ask again, is growing up into maturity our goal?
Paul thinks it should be.