maturity in community

The goal of community is not to create harmony but rather maturity - this is true both at the individual and community level. Maturity is increasing in the likeness of God, that is, in His attitudes, concerns, and activities. In Paul's Idea of Community, Robert Banks suggests Paul sees Christian maturity as:

A call to the imitation of Christ and as a following of His example; as a possession of the mind of Christ and bearing in one's person the marks of Jesus; as a clothing oneself with Christ, allowing Christ to be formed within; and as a transformation into his glory, i.e., the unique quality that characterized him.[1] It is essentially an attaining of all to the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature adulthood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4.13). Although this goal will be fully realized only in the age to come,[2] that is to say in God's perfected universe, we should now seek to attain it. Paul discusses this not only in passages that specifically mention the need for progress or growth but also, more obliquely, in metaphors drawn from athletic contests and military life. While he emphasizes throughout the importance of human effort, it is the activity of the Spirit of the Lord that alone makes this growth possible. Paul affirms this in a way that cannot be improved upon. Immediately following his statement that "the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom," he adds, "We all, with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."[3]

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