Ephesians: The Church United (Pt.4)

We tend to think that one must be totally mature to serve in the church, and while we must be careful not to appoint leaders too quickly, we need to recognize that spiritual growth is not merely cerebral. Service is a means of growth in maturity.

Paul mentions four traits of a spiritually mature body.

I. Maturity Includes Change

i.e Development

v.13a

Paul speaks of reaching “unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God.”

This unity is something to be attained.

It does not yet exist but is an expression of the full maturity to which the church and its members should aspire.

It has two parts: “Unity in the faith” and “unity … in the knowledge of the Son of God.”

“Faith”

This means an individual’s subjective response to the Word of God and the gospel,

and “knowledge” usually refers to the content of what a child of God is to believe.

But in this expression—“Unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God”—it is actually the other way around.

“The faith”

refers to the theological content of Christianity; it is “the faith that was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).

“Knowledge of the Son of God”

refers to experiential knowledge of Jesus attained through day-by-day discipleship;

it is what Paul refers to in Philippians 3 10

Philippians 3:10 KJV 1900

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

. Paul means knowledge that goes beyond what can be packed into the head, knowledge that also trickles down into the heart and flows out into the life in obedient and loving service to the Lord.

This twofold knowledge—of the head and of the heart—is what Paul says the mature church should attain.

Where possible we should have an outward, visible unity.

Jesus prayed that his church might have a unity on the basis of which unbelievers might be stimulated to faith (John 17:23).

But far more important than any outward show of unity is that deep, inward, motivational unity that comes from believers growing in a knowledge of the truth, as we find it in the Bible, and living that truth out experientially in day-by-day fellowship with Jesus Christ.

This reality transcends denominational and all other barriers.

If we dont get to this and understand this, we will fail at the other areas of our christian maturity.

We must develop.

If a child is born and they never develop into an adult mentally or physically, we know that there is something wrong

If you have been saved for any length of time, you should be developing. If not there may be something wrong.

II. Maturity Includes Character

v.13b

i.e resemble

The more mature we become in our physical life, the more we look like one or both of our parents.

(Thank God the girls are looking more and more like their mother)

As a Born again believer we are to resemble Christ, are we not?

The ultimate picture of maturity is Christ: “a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.” “Christ’s fullness” is an expression of completion or perfection.

This makes obvious sense.

The goal for us is to be like Jesus.

Luke 2:52 KJV 1900

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

We should long for the character qualities Paul mentions in verses 2–3 to be present in our lives.

He tells the church at Corinth that their fruits of righteousness are to increase

2 Corinthians 9:10 KJV 1900

Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)

Paul increased (developed) as he confounded the Jews in Damascus Acts 9:22.

Acts 9:22 KJV 1900

But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

Paul tells the church at Colossi that his prayer for them is that they would be fruitful and increase (develop, progress) in the knowledge of God.

Colossians 1:10 KJV 1900

That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

We should long for maturity individually and corporately.

1 Peter 2:2 KJV 1900

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

2 Peter 3:18 KJV 1900

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

We will never be the spitting image of Christ, we are sinners and He is not. But we are told and we should strive for perfection.

I am not a spitting image of my dad, but I do carry a lot of his features. I resemble my earthly father, why shouldnt I resemble my heavenly father?

III. Maturity Includes Concentration

v.14

The third specific of maturity for the church is concentration on the truth; without truth there is no real maturity.

The contrast here is with the nature and conduct of infants,

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

Children are delightful little creatures to have around, but they do have their limitations.

Two of these are instability and naïveté.

Children are notoriously fickle.

They will be interested in one thing for five minutes;

then they change their minds and focus on something else entirely,

and five minutes later they move on to a third concern.

children can also be easily fooled.

It is easy to deceive them.

“like taking candy from a baby”

Because of this is why parents have a special responsibility for the sound education and careful guidance of children;

it is part of what it means to be a child.

However, it is an unfortunate thing when those same characteristics hang on into adult life, weakening a person’s character and limiting his or her usefulness.

It is particularly unfortunate when the same marks of immaturity mar a Christian’s development.

the Bible tells us that “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways”

Being unstable means to be weak

Neither individual Christians nor the church as a whole are to be weak. If the church is not going to be weakened, it must grow in the truth of God.

I believe this is why Paul began by speaking of gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

It is not that these are the only gifts; they are not. Paul lists others elsewhere.

But he lists these since they are the ways the church is to grow out of spiritual infancy to maturity. One of the tragedies of our day is that the church is so immature in this area.

Consequently, it is always being carried along by the world’s fads or being led astray by false theology. The only real cure is teaching followed by teaching and then still more teaching.

IV. Maturity Includes Compassion

vs. 15-16

I think other than the previous point, this is missing from a lot of Churches today.

To many Baptist think they have to be hard and rigged in their communication.

They think in order to remain strong in the faith, you must be forceful and heavy handed.

Well, I believe that kind of approach goes againt Pauls teachings, but most importantly it goes against Christ’s.

Truth is important!

But we also need to speak the “truth in love.”

Love is the fourth specific expressions of maturity.

Indeed, Paul emphasizes love. This is not so evident in our English translations, but in the original text the word “truth” is actually a participle.

So a more literal translation than “speaking the truth in love” would be “truthing [it] in love.” The combination means both speaking and living the truth in a loving manner. In the combination of these goals, love (the noun) is emphasized.

studying the seventeenth chapter of John in which Jesus prays for his church, Jesus highlights six marks by which the church is to be recognized: joy, holiness, truth, mission, unity, and love (John 17:13–26).

Each of these is important. But what sticks out to me is that love is the most important, which can be seen either by subtracting it from the other marks or by expressing it in every way possible.

Subtract love from joy. What do you have?

You have the kind of hedonistic reveling found in the secular world, the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake. Joy is distorted.

Take love from sanctification.

The result is self-righteousness, the kind of thing that distinguished the scribes and Pharisees of Christ’s day but allowed them to be filled with hatred, so that they crucified the Lord Jesus Christ when he came. Sanctification is destroyed.

Take love from truth.

The result is bitter orthodoxy. Truth remains, but it is proclaimed in such an unpleasant, harsh manner that it fails to win anybody.

Take love from mission and you have colonialism.

In colonialism we work to win people for our denomination or organization, but not for Christ.

Take love from unity and you have ecclesiastical tyranny, in which a church imposes human standards on those within it.

But if instead of subtracting love, you express love—for God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible, one another, and the world—what do you have?

You have all the other marks of the church, because they naturally follow.

Love for God leads to joy; nothing is more joyful than knowing and loving him.

Love for the Lord Jesus Christ leads to holiness; as he said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

Love for the Word of God leads to truth; if we love the Bible, we will read it and grow in a knowledge of what the Word contains.

Love for the lost souls leads to mission.

Love for other believers leads to unity.

When Paul speaks of the church’s maturity, as he does in these verses, he does so in terms of bodily growth. And the point of that is that growth is a process. Growth takes time.

The church does not become mature overnight any more than we as individuals become mature overnight.

But if God is nevertheless working to accomplish this in us, we must trust him to do it and be patient as he works.

While studying for this message I came across not really a acrostic but I would say maybe acronym.

It contains just a string of letters (PBPWMGIFWMY), and it is meant to provoke curiosity. The letters stand for “Please be patient with me; God isn’t finished with me yet.”

We want everyone to be patient with us. Let us learn to be patient with them, and with the church—as God works in each believer, in all places and at all times to build and perfect Christ’s earthly body, of which we are a part of.

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