“INTIMACY PRODUCES MATURITY”
Do you remember how Groucho Marx used to say, "Say the secret word and win a hundred dollars?" The secret word for winning in our day of fracture and confused priorities is a word that we have given a shallow definition ...INTIMATE a word that Webster defines as "innermost - very personal - intrinsic'.
Let me make a very homely but descriptive illustration. If we prepared the "makings" for a cake and put together the ingredients of eggs, flour, baking powder, etc. ... those ingredients become "intrinsic" ... a very real part of one another ... intrinsically of the same essence ... constitutionally a part of each other.
That's the kind of relationship Jesus Christ had with God. It was not just "sonship" ... sons and fathers are not always alike. Jesus was in such close contact-touch with God that He could say "He who has seen me has seen the Father." He was "intimate" with God.
When WE have that kind of relationship with God in that we, too, love unconditionally, are interested in for real-justice, and genuinely care for others well-being ... we will be ready to meet the world ... head on! For we are then mature! Mature, meaning complete, full development, fully grown, ready for use!
Paul tells the folk in the church at Ephesus (read chapter 4) "And, you shall be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Perfect, meaning that we are ready and capable of the job for which we were intended.
Just as we grow up physically so we must grow up spiritually.
Paul tells us that we are no longer children but are to grow up in all aspects like unto Him, who is the Head, even Christ." Remember how he said to the people in Corinth "when I was a child I did childish things... but when I became a mature person… I put away childish things" (paraphrase of I Cor. 13:11)
How do we do this? We say to our children ... do your studying, listen to your teacher, do your homework, be obedient, etc.
How do WE develop spiritual maturity? Keep a steady and consistent look at Christ in all His love, majesty, glory, truth, holiness, justice and obedience to God as revealed in the Bible.
Remember the song "Keep your hand upon the throttle and your eye upon the rail?"
Keep a rein on earthly passions and your eye on Christ. Imitate Him! It's like ingestion and digestion of food. We eat and forget all about it. Bodily functions take over and the food becomes flesh and bone and blood and hair and energy. Without any conscious effort on our part.
When we spend time beholding God in Christ - His virtues, manner of love, forgiveness, patience, etc. the Holy Spirit takes over and reproduces Him in us. He incorporates into the fabric of our spiritual lives the virtues and values we see in Christ - healing fractures and solving problems. -LJS
