PIG PIG GROWS UP-
Merry Monday by Parris Bailey
“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” Eph.4:13
When my children were little, I used to read a book to them about a Pig that loved to have his mother do everything for him. That is fine if your a baby, but this full grown PIG still sat in a high chair to be fed, and had his poor mother push him around in a baby stroller. Then the great day came when PIG PIG jumped out of his baby stroller to save a baby that was getting ready to be hit by his very own stroller. The book ends with him pushing his mom around in the stroller and taking care of her. PIG PIG GREW UP.
It might take us humans awhile to grow up. Some do better than others but sooner or later we have to put on our “big girl pants” and begin to press onto perfection. I can look back on my life and see the times I have had to “press onto perfection”. Jesus said in Matt.5:48; “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” He never aimed low in His life did he? The meaning of the word perfect in this verse includes the ideas of full-growth, maturity, workability, soundness, and completeness. When applied to a Christian, the word refers to one that is spiritually mature, complete, well-rounded in his Christian character. Perfect can also mean, according to Wuest, “to repair, to restore to a former good condition, to prepare, to fit out, to equip.” It was used of reconciling factions, setting broken bones, putting a dislocated limb into place, mending nets. The fundamental idea in this word is the bringing of a person or thing to the goal fixed by God. Jesus was even perfected through sufferings.
A.B. Simpson says; “We are perfect but not perfected. We are complete but not completed. “Ye are complete in him,” says the Apostle to the Colossians, and yet in the same epistle he adds, “that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” There is a sense, a true sense in which we may accept the righteousness and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and count it real and sufficient. As far as our faith goes, as far as our light goes, we are fully saved. We are all there in Christ just as fully as the newborn babe is complete in all its parts. But it is not yet full-grown. It has all the organs its father has, but they are yet immature. It is complete but not completed. It is perfect but not perfected. And so the consecrated soul that has taken Christ in His fullness has Him in His fullness, but yet there is to be a deeper revelation and larger fullness step by step and day by day, until at last He shall reach the “measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”
Perfect, that is a huge word in our vocabulary. In fact I think the majority of us say- “Well, excuse me, I am not perfect!” But Andrew Murray says it in this way; “There is our perfection in Christ as imparted to us by the Holy Spirit in uniting us to Him. The life which is implanted in us at the new birth, planted into the midst of a mass of sin and flesh, is a perfect life. As the seed contains in itself the whole life of the tree, so the seed of God within us is the perfect life of Christ, with its power to grow and fill our life and bring forth fruit to perfection.”
Maybe you too can relate to PIG PIG- that’s where the power of the Holy Spirit comes in to reconcile us, fix our brokenness and bring us back to the Father. Let’s crawl out of the high chair, and the baby stroller and let Him perfect that which concerns you!
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