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Speaking Christ unto Maturity
"The church is both heavenly and on the ground. The church has been given the privilege of speaking forth the wisdom and the mystery of God, which is Christ, but this very Christ has c​ome to be manifested in reality, not just talked about or even “worshiped” under a religious practice. That’s why we need a practical, physical church life — one that shines on us and speaks forth Christ as our salvation — to touch who we are in our real, daily living. This is the way for us to grow together in the church unto the maturity of our salvation.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul was dealing with many problems in the church, seemingly related to their practices — how they aligned themselves, how they broke bread together, how they prayed. But behind the practical arrangements, Paul’s true help was helping them to mature the fruits of their salvation. Specifically in chapter 12, Paul helped the church to grow through exercising spiritual gifts:

“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.”

Paul’s help here was not just what gifts are “better” or how to “better” practice them. Actually, he was dealing with the immaturity of the exercise of these gifts among the saints. Although the church seemingly had many gifts, such as speaking in tongues, they lacked a true speaking of Christ as the deeper things of God to touch their real situation. They were “dumb,” needing to be reminded of the lifeless idols they once were led away by. As believers in the church, they should have had no lack of speaking Christ — the deeper things of God — and yet they had such little Christ and thus such little growth in life. What Paul desired more than any practice or method was a true and mature fruit of life. This maturity should be the organic outcome of our churching together.

Our maturing today — and our capacity to speak forth Christ in reality — only happens in the Spirit. Paul says in verse 3 that “no one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.” Brothers and sisters, today, making such a bold declaration of faith requires that we have a living in the Spirit — one that speaks forth a maturity in life. We can choose to compromise and remain weak in front of the world, or we can mature this very declaration of the Spirit in us. Paul’s serving to the Corinthians was to bring them out of their stunted growth in life and unto the reality of the Spirit; today, his speaking remains a powerful and living exhortation for us to bear mature fruits of a practical churching together. This organic church life lets the light of God’s wisdom penetrate every aspect of who we are so that the Body can be built up in life — not by empty talking or religious doing, but by a true exercise."

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