What Does It Mean for a Christian to Grow Up?

Growing up is no little deal. As children make the transition to adolescence, as adolescents make the transition to adults, and as graduations send kids out of the home to colleges, universities, training programs, and places of work, the question of what it means to grow up becomes a pressing one. Particularly, we might ask: What would it mean to grow up as a Christian? Paul offers us an answer to this question in Ephesians 4:11–16. If we are not merely to grow into physical, emotional, and social maturity but also into spiritual maturity, there are resources to take hold of, a model to follow, and responsibilities to take up. The Resources to Take Hold Of Maturity means, in one sense, that we no longer act like children. Children wobble. They totter around the place, setting their parents’ hair on end: “Don’t go there! Hang on! Don’t do that!” They are easily distracted, always responding to what is most immediately appealing. Paul says that God gives preachers and teachers to His people “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” (v. 14). In other words, a...