JUST LIKE THE OTHER ONE

This is how we know when something is mature: It can reproduce itself. Paul describes this growing as “until we all attain unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to a measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Christ is the perfected one. But if we are ever to be mature in Christ we must be capable of reproducing Christ. This is where the whole thing gets sorted out. Christ is not reproduced in us simply by ‘telling of Him’ and giving a history of Him from the gospels, from the letters and from prophecy. It is not enough to teach, and to be taught, and taught, and taught, the things of Christ. Studies in Biblical customs, languages, politics, economy and geography do not produce Jesus; it produces information. That which is mature carries within it the seed of itself. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit to mature us and make us seed producers. Information and history bear seeds after their kind: information and history. Jesus bears seeds after His kind: Jesus.

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” Jesus