The church is called to a process of perfecting, focusing on personal overcoming and growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. This involves becoming more submitted to God, refining character and attitudes, and improving relationships within marriages, with children, and among brethren. Through a much closer relationship with God, the church seeks to apply every possible moral, spiritual, and ethical aspect of the gospel of the Kingdom of God. The main thrust of the church should shift toward preparing a people for the events of the end time and for marriage with the Bridegroom, emphasizing the urgency of this responsibility as Christ's return draws near.

The church is a living spiritual organism, portrayed as Christ's body and as a building of living stones, called out by God and prepared for a purpose planned before the foundation of the world. Its main responsibility is preparing those called, not mass conversion. It is God's training school for developing godly character and qualifying the firstfruits to rule and teach under Christ in the Kingdom, and to become the Bride who bears spiritual children from that union. Israel failed under the Old Covenant because God never gave it His Spirit and because of unbelief, and the church now has the opportunity because of that failure. The parallel with Exodus 19 shows the point. Israel sanctified itself for three days and washed its clothes, while the church must be sanctified for a lifetime, washed by Christ, the greater Moses, until it is arrayed in clean, bright linen, the righteous acts of the saints (Revelation 19). Cleansing from carnality and reflecting God's image is the work of this period. Once the church is finished and ready, Christ returns, and the church takes up its office of reconciling Israel first and then the whole world to God. Christ's return is tied to this readiness.

The growth of God's children into spiritual maturity stands as a central concern reflecting His love in calling us His own, not merely in name but in actual fact. Because we are truly God's children now, spiritual growth becomes as natural and expected as the physical and mental growth we witness in our own children. God views the absence of such growth with the same concern parents feel when a child fails to develop properly due to disease or poor nutrition; this concern led Him to establish spiritual maturity as a foundational doctrine of the church, exhorting believers to "go on to perfection" (Hebrews 6:1). Recognizing how vital this growth is, God designed human physical life so that we experience the process of growth twice, once as children and again as parents raising children, so that these physical realities might serve as instructive pictures of spiritual development. Several principles emerge from this comparison. Growth is orderly, occurring in predictable stages, meaning believers must first digest the "milk" of God's Word before handling its "meat" (Hebrews 5:12-14). Growth is also planned, with God calling believers to a vast potential, though attaining it depends on choices, avoiding the corrosive effects of sin, maintaining right attitudes during trials, and feeding on God's Word rather than the "junk food" of worldly philosophies (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4). Growth is characteristically slow but undeniable over time, and it often occurs in uneven spurts, with seasons of discouragement temporarily halting progress until God intervenes to renew growth in those who maintain a good attitude. Viewed retrospectively, however, growth that seemed painfully slow will likely appear to have happened swiftly, especially once believers share God's perspective in which a day is as a thousand years (II Peter 3:8). The pattern of Israel's gradual conquest of the Promised Land, driven out "little by little" so the land would not become desolate (Exodus 23:28-30), illustrates how believers will likewise grow into their inheritance in the Kingdom of God, progressively overcoming Satan, the world, and human nature. Christ's parable of the mustard seed, which starts small yet grows into something greater than all herbs (Mark 4:31-32), and the Parable of the Talents, where faithful growth receives commendation while stagnation is condemned as wicked and unprofitable (Matthew 25:14-30), reinforce how essential this ongoing perfecting process is to God. Ultimately, the vastness of the potential God has given us exceeds present understanding (I Corinthians 2:9), yet patient, steady growth will one day allow that inheritance to fit us perfectly, much like a child's oversized clothing eventually fits through the natural process of maturing.