Outcomes of Maturing Christians!

“Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God's revelation again. You need milk not solid food.”.  Hebrews 5:12

In my previous article, I picked up a serious concern of Paul against his contemporaries who were leaders and Missionary workers engaging in Christ's mission with selfish motives and personal gain (You can click HERE in case you have missed the article)

This week's article discusses yet another serious concern against believers raised by Apostle Paul. The actual concern starts in Verse 11 of Hebrews Chapter 5 where the author thinks the people have become too lazy to understand some hard theology and the concern takes shape when he narrates in Verse 12, "although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God's revelation again. You need milk not solid food.".  The concerns here are more to do with spiritual maturity. I am sure you will agree with me that the case is not very different even today. Do we realize, the way we define spiritual maturity is so different, at times humorous? Today, definition of spiritual maturity is flawed into thinking that it is about hectic schedules of spiritual activities, regular visits to Church and paying tithes. To define spiritual maturity, one should seriously understand what the Bible talks about the primary goals and the secondary goals.

Jesus expresses His deep desire in His prayer in John 17:3, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.". Knowing Christ should be the primary and the fundamental goal of every human being. Apostle Paul resonates this deep desire of Jesus and echoes in Philippians 3:10, "My goal is to know him and the power of resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death.". The journey begins when someone begins to know God and keeps growing in His fellowship and the relationship is developed. It is an amazing experience. But the questions are what about the "must do's" and the "should do's"? Do we even give some serious thought to it?  A.W. Tozer points out “In the world missions today there is the growing tendency to major in social 'holism,' reducing Good News proclamation to a secondary place.". Every other activity including social interventions are there but maturing in the capacity to proclaim the good news is missing. There are few serious questions each Church going individual needs to contemplate, which are given below:

• Why aren't we serious when it comes to the Great Commission?
• Whose responsibility is it, anyway?
• Didn't Jesus commission all to preach the Gospel and make disciples?
• How come most of the good Church going Christians seem to miss this?
• Aren't the Church Pastors and leaders emphasizing on this?

 If our goal is to be holy and blameless then by default it is in the direction of obeying the Great Commission (Mark 16:15-16) and also obeying the supplementary commandment, to be His witness (Acts1:8). Let me quote the parable of talents in Matthew 25. Every one of them had their share of talents. But the one person who received the one talent thought he did a brilliant job. In Matthew 25:18 It says, "But the man who received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.". There is an important lesson in terms of missions we learn here. Many are like this person who assume it is good to keep themselves safe, holy, preserved and just be faithful to the Church. Probably he might have even be like the Pharisee as described by Jesus in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector which we find in Luke 18:10-14. In verse 12 it describes the Pharisee fulfilling the Spiritual assignment to his own satisfaction when he says, "I fast twice a week, I give tenth of everything I get.".

Are we getting the concern? We cannot love the Lord which is the first and foremost commandment of Jesus summarized in Mark 12: 29-30 and not love our neighbors by saving their souls from Hell. Our Church membership, fasting, intercessory prayers and giving tithes can still hold us a defaulter if we are not following the Great Commandment and Great Commission.

Can we be serious friends, to submit our obedience to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment and impact our city?

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