Ephesians 4:13 (ESV) … “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...”
What is your life goal? Many people have either written down or created some mental picture of what their life goal should look like. For some that may be an entirely a career thing. For others, it may look more like a family thing. Whether it is what type of job you will have or what your family will possibly look like or what kind of house you will one day have, life goals are important because they represent the things that mean a lot to us.
You may not know this, but God has a life goal for each of us. Not only does God have a life goal in mind for us, but God has also sent the Holy Spirit into our lives as believers to help achieve His personal desire. What is God’s life goal for you? Scripturally, it is to look like the Lord Jesus Christ.
In his work on this passage, John Philips puts it this way:
The Holy Spirit wants us to achieve the stature of Christ in our lives. What a goal! The same Greek word translated “stature” here is used to describe Zacchaeus, who was “little of stature” (Luke 19:3). It can also be translated “age,” as in the account of the man born blind whom Jesus healed and whose parents were interrogated by the authorities. His parents answered, “He is of age; ask him” (John 9:21). In effect, they said, “He has grown up.” The Holy Spirit wants us to grow up until we display, here on earth, something of Christ’s stature and maturity.
This ultimate goal will not be realized until the rapture when all the individual members of the body of Christ will be glorified together with the head. In the meantime, we should not expect the church universal to display this glorious unity and maturity. Denominational differences, doctrinal conflicts, dispositional clashes, and other issues continuously divide the church. However, the goal is certainly achievable within the fellowship of any local church.
If an individual believer is to mature fully, he needs the fellowship of other believers. The idea of an arm or a leg developing in isolation from other members of the body is ludicrous. No one can attain full spiritual maturity apart from the give-and-take of a local church fellowship. The New Testament does not mention freelance evangelists, independent missionaries, itinerant Bible teachers, or other Christians who have no local fellowship and are responsible to no one but themselves. [1]
What will matter most at the end of our lives isn’t did we achieve what we wanted for ourselves, instead it will be, did we obtain what God wanted for our lives? We best get there when we give God complete control by staying connected. Connected to His Word, His Fellowship, and His Work. Connected by living as Kingdom of God citizens. Are you in a bible believing church? Are you connected to a Christ-honoring fellowship? Are you engaged in doing the things that bring glory to His Son Jesus?
[1] Phillips, J. (2009). Exploring Ephesians & Philippians: An Expository Commentary (Eph 4:13). Kregel Publications; WORDsearch Corp.
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