Ephesians 4:15
“but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
The second part of this verse says we are to grow up in all aspects into Him. Romans 8:29, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." He's our model. God works maturity in us to be like Him.
What are some of these traits? Humility seems to shout out to me. God almighty sent His Son to earth as a poor child born in a barn. He came from a hick region, Nazareth. Isaiah 53:2b says, "He had no stately form or majesty to attract us, no beauty that we should desire Him." God chose for Him to be born that way. He wants us to be humble. Not to promote ourselves.
Another trait is love. It's not in the Ten Commandments, but it's implied. When Jesus summarized them He said we are to love God and love people. The first half deals with loving God the second half tells us to love others.
I Corinthians 13 tells us of the primacy of love. The first three verses speak of great spiritual accomplishments, but end with, "but done without love, I am nothing (or it profits me nothing)." This is shocking. Many wealthy and powerful people rely on this to make things right with God. But Paul says it's useless. In the context of today's verse, it isn't growing in maturity.
The rest of Corinthians 13 speaks of what love is. "Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails", (4-8a). This is how we are to behave. We will be a work in progress for the rest of our lives.
Our natures are fallen and are quite selfish. We aren't naturally patient or kind. We get envious, we want others to be impressed with us, so we may brag. Pride often drives us. We don't always behave well, we usually seek our own way. We can be provoked. When others wrong us, we sense they owe us. When our enemies fall, we rejoice. When we're born again, we get a new nature that has desire for godliness. Unfortunately, we retain our fleshly nature until we get to heaven.
When we are babes in Christ, the Spirit begins to work His ways in us. We get grieved when we behave they way we used to. By His Word, He works His love in us and seeks to weed out selfishness. That is the maturity that He seeks.
We are "to grow up in all aspects into Him". All the reference to love seem to be the soft traits. However, love also has strong ones. As we look at Jesus' life, He also demonstrated strength. When the pharisees opposed Him, He fought back. When they attacked Him and those He healed, He didn't let them get away with it. When He saw the injustice in the temple, He pointed it out. We are to have those traits also.
Lord, thank You for saving us and working Your ways in us. Thank You for making us more patient, more loving and so on. Help us to be strong when needed.