![]() ![]() apart from abiding in Christ and meditating on the benefits of our relationship with him, we will be hamstrung in every attempt to handle life on our own. Wendy Alsup in Practical Theology for Women: How Knowing God Makes all the Difference in our Lives puts it this way: The challenge we all face is to learn to live on the limitless resources that are in Christ, to move forward in him. This is the foundation on which to live out of the principles of Christian living found in Colossians 3 and 4. I am God’s chosen one, holy and beloved (3:12), privileged beyond all imagination! ![]() I am part of God’s new kingdom, begun in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and my new life is part of the restoration of all things he set in motion. If I have died and risen again (in Jesus), then I am no longer my former self, but reborn. The question is: how do we do this? How do we mature? We’ve already established in these articles on Colossians that Jesus is central in answering this question: in him we are already complete, with nothing to add from within ourselves (2:10). ![]() Christian women, whether younger, married, single, mums of little ones when home is so important and the daily round of caring for needy children can be all-consuming, or mothers of the “middle years” when bumper stickers about the car being “mum’s taxi” sound all too real, those in fulltime employment outside the home, leaders of Bible studies or once-in-a-while-attendees, or of aging years, all have the same call: to mature in the Lord – to grow in spiritual wisdom and understanding, to know what pleases the Lord and then to do it. That, in a nutshell, is what maturity looked like in followers of the Lord Jesus in the first century after Christ. (pleasing) him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (1:10). He wants this so that, as they mature, the Colossians would “live a life worthy of the Lord. ![]() He writes that his wish for the Colossians is that they are filled with the “knowledge of God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (1:9). Earlier, he had stated his vision about this maturity. That is: keep growing, continue maturing. So, says Paul to the Colossian readers (and also to us in the twenty-first century), just as you received Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him. 1 These are key indicators that they are in Christ, and demonstrate that they have died, been buried, and have now been raised with him, receiving a new life (2:12). Two defining characteristics of Christians are that they have faith in the Lord Jesus and that they love all other believers (1:4). A key sentence of this book is in Colossians 2:6: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him.” Paul tells his readers that they need to develop deep roots in the gospel of Jesus, to keep growing, becoming more and more mature. Maturity is one of the big themes of Colossians. More generally, we may use words like grown-up or adult, developed and fully grown, in our definition of maturity. Or, if you’re a mother you may long for the day when your child acts responsibly and thinks about oncoming traffic before crossing the road. What do you think of when you hear the word “mature”? Especially at this time of the year, gardeners might envision ripening fruit or vegetables. ![]()
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