Articles
Becoming Mature
I have a brother-in-law who was driving a tractor by the time he was 8 years old. I don't mean he knew how, I mean his dad took him to the field, and put him on one and left him to plow. I'm told that's not unusual at all, that many farmer's kids are plowing by about that age. Just shows us what can happen with proper motivation, training, and education.
In our daily world, it seems often times like we don't hold people accountable much anymore regardless of age, but particularly our kids. We have the extremes of 8 year old's being able to operate a massive machine for their size and age, and the opposite end of that spectrum where regardless of age, it seems people are really lacking when it comes to responsibility in general.
But what does God expect from His children?
God expects us to grow, spiritually, so that we can do the things He has prepared for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
In addition to Jesus's and His Apostle's personal teachings recorded in scripture, Christ gives us teachers, preachers and overseers "to equip [us] for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Eph 4:11-13)
Have we matured enough to attain His fullness, and are we busy doing His good works?
