In Eph 4:12-15, we are “perfected” until conformed to the full image of Christ. Perfected here means equipped and the conformity to Christ is maturity. It is a growth in the knowledge of Christ and His finished work. It is His knowledge, granted by His Spirit, which brings us to a mature walk.
Maturity is getting back to the knowledge of how we began, through the simplicity of faith, the simplicity of Christ. We have this when we are born again, but teachings from human method, philosophy and religion complicate the issue and we lose it. This was Paul’s lesson in Galatians.
Maturity is learning to walk in Christ in the same way that we receive Him, as a gift of faith:
As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein in with thanksgiving.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power. (Col 2:6-10).
We are to press on by holding fast to what is given, until the end of the race. We do not allow false teaching to draw us away from our completeness in Christ, but remain steadfast in it. This is maturity, when we are not tossed to and fro by doctrines that teach us to do it ourselves (Eph 4:14).
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