Present Everyone Mature in Christ: a Reflection on Christian Fellowship
Image sourced from: https://www.afa.net/the-stand/faith/2023/10/the-church-body-bride-and-child/
A few weeks ago, I attended the Veritas Conference in Boston with friends and colleagues from the Collegium Institute and other campus Christian organizations. The conference brought together Christian students from across America to focus on what cultural and personal witness looks like in the secular academy, in pursuit of truth and beauty.
During one of the sessions, we heard from a clinical psychologist, a quantum physicist, and an economist on how they each integrated their faith in both their research, and their broader calling to the academic vocation. Following the session, I watched as the thousands of attendees discussed ways they too could live out their faith on their campuses, in their respective disciplines. All of us, from so many different backgrounds and places, gathered together with the shared purpose of glorifying Christ in our vocational work; in a sense, this gathering resembled what the Church, what biblical community, ought to resemble. The Church, the body of Christ, is not an isolated building or campus fellowship, but rather an intertemporal community of Christians with a specific eternal purpose.
As the conference drew to a close, I began to reflect about my own calling into vocational pastoral ministry, and what exactly the purpose of the Church and ministry is. While what a minister does varies based on denominational or doctrinal differences, the fundamental mission of any minister ought to reflect Colossians 1:28: “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”[1] Everything a minister does ought to revolve around making everyone ‘mature in Christ’. This is the purpose of every Bible study, church retreat, meetup, or sermon. And although this is also quite a lofty goal, I contend that Colossians 1:28 is not merely for those in vocational ministry, but everyone. After all, the Great Commission is a universal calling for Christians.
The entire purpose of biblical community is so that we may, as Jude 3 put it, “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”[2] We do not become “mature in Christ” overnight, but rather it is part of the lifelong process of discipleship. We must bear fruit in sanctification within the context of biblical community. Christian fellowship must be incredibly intentional, considering every member of the body, particularly “the least of these.” It must also be inclusive, not in any political sense, but in equipping and empowering every member to exercise their spiritual gifts and live out their eternal calling to the glory of God. Indeed, we are truly one body with many parts. But returning to the idea of ‘contending for the faith’, we live in a world of affliction and toil that extends to our spiritual flourishing as well. As such, an additional function of a minister is not only to equip the body for spiritual battle, but also exercise oversight and admonish when necessary by the authority of the Word.
While the Christian walk definitely has its challenges (endured together in community), it also comes with immense joy. Indeed, there is an eschatological hope that one day, the generations of Christians will be regathered, presented “as a pure virgin to Christ,” our perfect marriage union with Him consummated at the Wedding Feast is prophesied in Isaiah 25:6-8. In our present age of lawlessness and unbelief, my prayer is that every Christian may cling tightly to this eschatological hope that we will in fact be presented to Christ mature and without blemish.
Citations:
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Col 1:28.
[2] Ibid, Jud 3.