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To Be Mature in Christ is Basic

October 26, 2011

As a father of 3 kids under 5 years old, it's amazing to watch the progression of growth that happens as children mature. Each is a unique creation but somehow seems to go through the exact same stages. Crawling, toddling, those first precious words and then my strong desire that they'd just stop talking for 5 seconds so I could actually ask my wife a question!

There is, however, one word I have come to learn as the hallmark of very small children. Namely "self-centered". Psychologists tell me that it means the process of living a "me" centered existence. It's a key hallmark of young children until they develop maturity. Everything revolves around "me" and its not that I don't care about anyone else - it's that as far as I am concerned, everyone else should revolve around me too! And being self centered like that is a primary indicator of the maturity - or in this case immaturity - of a person. Its not just my kids, even their friends at these young ages are chiefly concerned with themselves to the near exclusion of all else. And we all laugh it off as "immaturity" knowing that some day "they'll grow out of it"

Case in point my 5 year old just barged in asking:

"Daddy, do you want to wrestle".

When I said "I can't hunny" he said "why".

"Well Daddy, has to work".

His reply "Sooooooo... why can't you wrestle?".

That's just a 5 year old. Nothing really matters beyond his little world. And it shouldn't. I'm so glad that he's protected from all the mental ravages of this world. His ego-centrism is a protection mechanism at this age.

But what's cute and mildly amusing at age 5 would be a definite annoyance at age 10 and probably a full blown frustration at age 15. Imagine a 30 year old who was so self consumed they couldn't focus beyond their own nose if they had to. We'd pity that person and probably keep our distance. They really never "grew up" and what a shame their parents tolerated such behavior without calling them on it.

That maturing process is applicable to a lot more then just childhood. It applies to just about all pursuits in business, in sports and it applies absolutely in our walk with Christ. At the very early stages of our relationship with Christ, it's all about what He did for me. Namely, came to earth, died on a cross paying for MY sins and then was raised to life for MY justification (Romans 4:25). And as we grow in Christ, we realize that we have obligations to others (the Golden Rule, the 10 commandments, the Persecuted Church, tithing, intercession, etc). As part of the body of Christ, we are called to certain "corporate" pursuits. But then, as we mature further, we come to the realization that Paul writes about through his epistles. Namely that all that really matters is Christ. That we're to live a Christ centered existence. That the only response to what Christ did is to give Him everything in return. That's also the point of Jesus' parables in the last part of Mathew 13 and the lynch pin of Paul's famous statement that he considers everything but Christ to be "rubbish" (Phil 3:8 NIV1984). When we mature, we realize that instead of an immature "me" dominated existence, we now live a Christ dominated existence and everything is weighed in that balance of Christ being the center. We recognize that instead of it all revolving around me; "it" all really revolves around Him!

In Colossians Paul writes:

For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels-everything got started in [Jesus] and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body...(Col 1: 16-18 MSG)

So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe-people and things, animals and atoms-get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross...(Col 1:19-20 MSG)

My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! (Col 2:6-7a MSG)

At the end of Colossians 1, Paul makes this statement that I double underlined in my Bible, again in the Message Translation:

...To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less.

In 1615 Galileo postulated that instead of the commonly held notion of everything revolving around the earth, the solar system instead revolved around the Sun. For this he was branded a heretic and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. The people of that day could not imagine a world in which the God-created earth was not the center of existence. Similarly today, we have generations of American Christians who seem to hold that they are the center of existence, forgetting that in relating, just like in Galileo's time, it really all does revolve around the Son.

Christ is in fact what this world, our lives and everything revolves around. It is not, as so many seem to act, that Christ is one facet of our life in competition with work, school, family, play, etc. It is that Christ is our life and all else is peripheral to Him. That's a mature Christianity.

Instead of being egocentric, we need to be Christ-centered. One of the key tests for our maturity level as Christians is to gauge whether we're centered on Christ or something else. Is our overriding concern is me and my needs or, as it should be, the needs and desires of Jesus? Anything less is to still be in kindergarten!

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Posted by: Dan at November 15, 2011 02:12 PM

Posted by: Grant DiCianni at November 16, 2011 09:31 AM

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