[Steve Myers] Are you mature? You might say, well, of course. I'm grown up, I'm an adult. But think about it in the sense, am I emotionally mature? And, more importantly, am I spiritually mature? And what would be the bar? You know, sometimes people say, well, we need to raise the bar. Well, does that mean just humanly speaking we need to be a nicer person?

You know, when you look at the Bible, and the standard that we're to live by, there is a goal that we are given that we need to try to attain, and it's given to us over in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians 4:13. And here's our goal, here's the standard that we're to strive for. It says, and kind of jumping in the middle of a thought, the Apostle Paul writes this: "We're to come to the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

So, there's the goal. And the interesting part is, "to a perfect man." Well, we can't be perfect, but literally, that word in the Greek means to mature. To be mature, to come to spiritual maturity.

So the goal that Paul sets for us, and, really, God is setting for us, is that we're striving in every area of our life to be like Jesus Christ. Philippians 2 talks about putting on the mind of Christ: "Let this mind be in you."

So don't get taken in by the world's standards, don't try to raise the bar in the human sense. But, spiritually speaking, we need to strive to be more Christ-like. Which means I've got to learn. What was Christ like? You know, what is God like? How did He live his life? How did He treat people? How did He act in different situations? That's my goal, that's my standard, that's what I have to shoot for.

And, so, ultimately, how spiritually mature are we? Or, saying it a different way, how much are we like Christ? Well, let's all strive for the goal. To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

That's BT Daily. We'll see you next time.