Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

Babies are so cute (says he who never carried one inside his body for nine months)!

Not so cute when a twenty-, thirty- or seventy-year-old is still an infant.

Throughout this week’s passage, Paul returns to the theme of growing up, maturing, becoming full and complete.  As he gets to the end of the passage, he contrasts maturity with infancy.  Paul had nothing against babies, so what he’s getting at is the various ways that Christian communities remain in infancy, resisting or refusing the work of maturing.  

As Paul describes them, “infants” are unstable and ungrounded, self-seeking and self-referential.  They are easily tossed back and forth, quickly blown here and there, readily taken in, deceived and derailed.  They are upset by anything that is difficult or painful, enamored of every supposedly shiny new thing, easily bored and distracted, constantly seeking to be “fed” rather than be used by God.  

“Infants” are unwilling to take part in the necessary, ongoing and long-term work of building a community that is living worthily of the calling we have received in Christ.  

Paul’s counsel, the necessary “growth hormone” he offers?  “Speaking the truth in love, we will grow up in every way into Christ…”

Before Paul gets to “speaking the truth in love,” he’s already laid a solid foundation: be humble; be gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  Receive the gifts that Christ gives in the form of persons, people who are apostles, prophets, pastors and so on.  Work on maintaining the unity that is already yours in Christ.  Welcome diversity of gifts and expressions and personalities and cultures within that unity so that Christ’s body is built up and strengthened. 

When these kinds of Christ-focused love-dynamics are in place within a community of Christ-followers, it becomes easier for us to speak, and to hear, the truth.  And therefore easier to grow towards maturity together in Christ.  Because no healthy Christian community ever outgrows the need for speaking (and hearing) the truth in love.

Lord Jesus, you yourself are our goal: becoming more like you, more at home in your ways, more committed to your purposes.  Please help our church to grow towards maturity, to practice the Good News as brother Paul has outlined it here.  Give us hearing ears and faithful mouths.  You are worthy!  Help us to live worthily.  Amen.