The Goal

All discipleship aims at a goal.

Paul wrote, "Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ" (Colossians 1:28).

Mature. That is the goal.

Not people who have had an experience and moved on. Not converts who have mentally assented to doctrine and stopped there. Mature believers. Fully formed in Christ. Equipped to think, speak, act, and live as He does.

What is maturity?

Paul describes it in Ephesians.

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. (Ephesians 4:13)

Maturity is unity in the faith. Knowledge of the Son of God. Fullness of Christ. A mature disciple is one who is increasingly united with others in the body of Christ, who knows Christ deeply, and who reflects His character.

This maturity is not static. The language of discipleship is always movement, growth, transformation. Paul writes, "We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another" (2 Corinthians 3:18). The word translated "transformed" is the Greek metamorphoo. It is the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. It is fundamental change. And it is ongoing.

You are being transformed. Not "were transformed in the past." Are being transformed right now.

The goal is conformity to Christ.

God's purpose from the beginning is to make you like His Son. Paul writes, "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29). This is not an afterthought. This is the plan. Everything God does in your life, every trial, every success, every relationship, every season, is aimed at making you more like Jesus.

But notice. Maturity is never perfection in this life.

Paul writes in Philippians, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own" (Philippians 3:12). Paul. The apostle who wrote much of the New Testament. The one who met Christ on the Damascus road. Still says he has not attained. Still pressing on.

Maturity is not a destination you reach in this life. It is a direction you are headed. A mature disciple is one who is pressing toward Christ. Aware of how far he still has to go. Willing to let Christ continue to shape and correct him.

This humility is essential.

Pride kills growth. The moment you think you have arrived, you have stopped growing. A truly mature believer is marked by increasing awareness of his need for grace. Increasing dependence on God. Increasing awareness of his own fallibility and sinfulness. Spiritual maturity often looks to others like spiritual infancy, because the mature believer is constantly discovering how little he knows and how much more he needs to grow.

And yet there is confidence in this pursuit. The goal is not uncertain. Christ is working. The Spirit is working. God has promised to complete the work He began in you. One day, when you stand before Him, you will be made fully like Him.

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

Until that day, you press on. You learn. You imitate. You obey. You endure. You invest in others. And you look forward.

The greatest disciples are those who are not satisfied with where they are. Who recognize how far they have to go. Who are willing to be shaped and corrected by Scripture and by the Spirit. Who press toward the goal.

You are called to grow. Not because growth is easy or natural. Because the goal is glorious. To become fully, completely, eternally like Jesus Christ.

He is your Savior. Your Master. Your Model. Your Lord. Follow Him.