The Living Bible paraphrase of v.9 is excellent: 'Our greatest prayer and wish is that you will become mature Christians. That was Paul's constant desire for all believers everywhere. The word 'perfection' in v.9 means to be made complete. It is used in Matthew 4:21 where the men were mending their fishing nets by the Sea of Galilee. Paul's prayer was for the Corinthian Christians to be restored to the place where they had once been and even more to grow and go on in Christ. He said it again in v.11, 'Aim for perfection.' The most urgent need for the unsaved is to be born again. The most urgent need for believers is to grow in Christ. Too many of us are still like spiritual babies. If our spiritual life and growth could be seen as obviously as our physical condition, it might be humiliating. In the natural world, no other creature has a childhood as long as the child of human parents. Perhaps the only one who takes longer is the believer who has never grown in Christ. We will never reach perfection until we arrive in heaven but there is a lot of growing that can be done between now and then. How can we grow? Briefly we need the right diet of the Word of God, the right attitude to the indwelling Spirit of God, and the right environment among the family of God. Paul's last words in v.14 could be seen as the result of growing in Christ - you will know the blessing of God. That is what we want and need most of all, isn't that? 'Aim for perfection - Aim to grow.' It is never too late to start growing. Ask the Lord to help you start - or re-start today. |