"One thing that I hope to get across is that God's purpose is not merely concerned with the destiny of individuals, but also with that of His whole Kingdom and His Body corporately. In a child's developing body it is important that every limb, appendage, an organ experiences individual growth to maturity, but this is only to accommodate the development of that member to the growth of the whole body together. God desires that every believer come to maturity in order that the Body as a whole may be healthy and well proportioned. The Body matures along with the maturing of every member. This is what Paul is speaking of when he writes: "the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does it share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love" (Ephesians 4:16).
Paul said that he was determined to "present every man perfect [that is, mature] in Christ" (Colossians 1:28). However, this objective was to serve the larger goal, namely, that "we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect [that is, mature] man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).
For unexplained reasons many modern translations render this last verse, "until we come to maturity," or " to mature manhood, " or some such unfortunate paraphrase of Paul's actual words. Such a paraphrase is regrettable because it obscures the meaning of what Paul was talking about. Such renderings give the impression that Paul is describing individual maturity that we all must reach. Indeed, he does mention the need for individual maturity in the following verse: "that we should no longer be children.. "
But Paul does not say, in our present passage, " until we are all adults," but "until we all (plural) are an adult (singular). As the ESV has it in the margin: "to a full grown man."
Paul, in this place is referring to the corporate growth of the whole Body of Christ- "we all"- becoming one mature Body - "a mature man." This may be difficult to grasp, but two chapters earlier (Ephesians 4:13), Paul had written of the Body of Christ as a "new man" (that is, a Body) which God created from Jewish and Gentile believers. As he puts it elsewhere, " there is neither Jew nor greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one [Body] in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). What God created as a new man must eventually become a mature man. As individual members mature, so does the whole Body. None of us is expected to reach the intended goal without the rest of us.
Thus, God's goal is larger than many Christians have ever realized. God does not simply want to bring many sons to heaven but, rather, "many sons to *glory" (Hebrews 2:10). These many sons comprise his Kingdom, the company of his faithful loyalist formed together into the corporate embodiment of the Son of God. We are already his hands and feet, but He deserves better than what we have yet attained. A perfected Head requires a perfected Body, and this is what He shall have.
Therefore, our destiny is not to be glorified alone as individuals but, as Paul puts it, "that we may also be glorified together" (Romans 8:17). The Kingdom of God is not so many isolated individuals, but a community, a population comprising a shining "city on a hill," a corporate bride which is destined to be the "holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. " As individuals, we are like " living stones... being built up as a spiritual house.. " (1 Peter 1:5 Ephesians 2:19-21). Collectively, the Body of Christ is that spiritual house under construction - the Holy Spirit's temple.
What is the standard by which individual maturity is measured? The answer must be the glory - or the likeness of Christ. In an individual, the likeness of Christ is seen in one's character being made up of the patience, humility, faithfulness, just dealing, and compassion of Christ. These are all summarized in in the term "agape, which is the bond of perfection" (Colossians 3:14).
" By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have a agape for one another" (John 13:35).
But what is the measure of the corporate maturity of the Body? Well, we know what corporate immaturity in carnality looks like, from Paul's harsh rebuke of the Corinthian church:
" And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ... for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, ' I am of Paul,' and another, 'I am of Apollos,' are you not carnal?" (Corinthians 3:1-2).
Unity birthed of mutual love is the measure of corporate maturity in the Church. According to Paul, loyalty to particular leaders and denominations instead of to Christ and His people is the mark of an infantile Church. Unfortunately, reaching corporate maturity in unity has not held the same priority to Christians as it does to Christ. Jesus's passionate prayer for the Church (which, we assume, must be ultimately answered) was that they would dwell in unity. He prayed:
"... that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me."
In Ephesians 4:13, we saw that the "mature man, " which the Church is to become, will be characterized by "unity of the faith" and "unity of the knowledge of the Son." This is what is good and acceptable to God for His people - that they act like one Body, one family, and one Kingdom. When all bodily members act in obedience to the same head, they act in harmony with each other as well.
We might conclude, from a surveying the present disunity of the churches, that we are still very far from the goal. However, the composition of the True Church has never been identical to that of the institutional churches. Many who regard themselves members of Christ will discover, to their chagrin, that they have never been such. The warning given by Jesus indicates that among the many who will be surprised will be ministers who had exhibited what appear to be impressive spiritual gifts (Matthew 7:21-23).
The True Church is the Body of Christ, comprised of all disciples the world over who possess the Spirit of the Head, and who are submitted to His authority (which is implied in the idea of "headship"). They are found worshiping in many kinds of assemblies amid others who have no sincere faith in Christ. God knows who they are. It is they who must be perfected in love and in unity among themselves. This consideration renders it impossible for us to calculate how far the corporate Body of Christ might be from its eventual maturity. All we can know with certainty is our own level of maturity or immaturity- which should be sufficiently obvious upon honest self-examination."
*Note- "glory" is used interchangeably with the concept of "likeness" or "image", as explained earlier in the chapter (Hebrews 1:3; 1 Corinthians 11:7; 1 John 3:2-3; 2 Corinthians 3:18).
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