Ephesians 4.13c-A Mature Believer
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday March 18, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:13c-A Mature Believer
Lesson # 236
Ephesians 4:7 Now, however, to each one of us grace was given corresponding to the incomparable Christ’s proportionate gracious giving. 8 Therefore, it says, “When he ascended to the highest place, he captured captives. He generously gave gifts to certain members of the human race.” 9 In other words, what is the meaning of the statement, “he ascended?” Namely that, he also descended into the lower regions, which are part of the earth? 10 He, the very one who has descended is the one who also has ascended above each and every one of the heavens in order that He would enter into the state of bringing to completion each and every animate and inanimate object. 11 Therefore, on the one hand, He Himself generously gave some to be apostles but on other hand, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors, specifically, teachers 12 for the purpose of equipping the saints for performing the work of service in order to ultimately build up the members of Christ’s body 13 until each and every one of us as a corporate unit attains to experiencing the unity produced by obedience to the one and only Christian faith. Correspondingly, until all of us without exception attains to the unity produced by an experiential knowledge of God’s Son. Until each and every one of us as a corporate unit attains to experiencing a mature man. Until all of us without exception attains to experiencing proportionately to the full stature of the one and only Christ’s character. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:13 is composed of four indefinite temporal clauses with the first being explicit and the last three being elliptical and thus implied.
The first of these clauses is composed of the expression mechri katantēsōmen hoi pantes eis tēn henotēta tēs pisteōs (μέχρι καταντήσωμεν οἱ πάντες εἰς τὴν ἑνότητα τῆς πίστεως), “until each one of us as a corporate unit attains to experiencing the unity produced by the one and only Christian faith.”
The second is elliptical because the expression mechri katantēsōmen hoi pantes eis tēn henotēta (μέχρι καταντήσωμεν οἱ πάντες εἰς τὴν ἑνότητα), “until all of us without exception attains to experiencing the unity” is omitted but implied.
It would go before the expression tēs epignōseōs tou huiou tou theou (τῆς ἐπιγνώσεως τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ), “produced by an experiential knowledge of God’s Son.”
The third is also elliptical because it omits the expression mechri katantēsōmen hoi pantes (μέχρι καταντήσωμεν οἱ πάντες), “until each one of us as a corporate unit attains” though it is implied and it would go before the prepositional phrase eis andra teleion (εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον), “to experiencing a mature man.”
The fourth is also elliptical because it too omits the expression mechri katantēsōmen hoi pantes (μέχρι καταντήσωμεν οἱ πάντες), “until all of us without exception attains to” though it is implied.
It would go before the prepositional phrase eis metron hēlikias tou plērōmatos tou Christou (εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας τοῦ πληρώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ), “experiencing proportionately to the full stature of the one and only Christ’s character.”
As we noted in our study of Ephesians 4:11 and 12, only the gifts of apostleship, prophecy and teaching are in view with the contents of Ephesians 4:12-13 because the function of these gifts is to benefit the church while on other hand, the gift of evangelism is to benefit the unregenerate.
The gifts of apostleship and prophecy are no longer extant because the last apostle John died at the end of the first century and the New Testament canon closed at the end of the first century.
Thus, since the end of the first century A.D. the gift of teaching alone has been and continued to be used by the Lord to produce this unity experientially among the members of the body of Christ.
Therefore, the first indefinite temporal clause asserts that the Lord Jesus Christ gave the gifts of apostleship, prophecy and teaching for equipping the saints for performing the work of service in order to build up the members of Christ’s body “until each and every member of that body attains to the unity produced by obedience to the one and only Christian faith.”
The second asserts that the Lord Jesus Christ gave the gifts of apostleship, prophecy and teaching for equipping the saints for performing the work of service in order to build up the members of Christ’s body “until each member attains to the unity produced by an experiential knowledge of God’s Son.”
It corresponds to the first because not only is unity experienced between believers by obedience to the Christian faith but also an experiential knowledge of God’s Son is accomplished by the same means.
The third asserts that the Lord Jesus Christ gave the gifts of apostleship, prophecy and teaching for equipping the saints for performing the work of service in order to build up the members of Christ’s body “until each member attains to a mature man.”
In the third indefinite temporal clause, the noun anēr (ἀνήρ) is a gender and age specific term and is deliberately used here rather than anthropos (ἄνθρωπος), which is not gender and age specific, because the referent of this word is Christ-likeness and Christ was a man.
The adjective teleios (τέλειος) pertains to being at an advanced stage of spiritual development and speaks of a Christian being spiritually mature as a result of making it their habit of adhering to authoritative instruction of the gospel or sound doctrine.
The word speaks of a Christian who has arrived at spiritual adulthood and thus speaks of a Christian who has become like Jesus Christ in their thoughts, words and actions.
The noun anēr (ἀνήρ), “man” is the object of the preposition eis (εἰς), which functions as a marker of experiencing a particular state or condition.
Therefore, this would express the idea of each member of the Christian community “experiencing the state or condition of” spiritual maturity.
The fourth and final indefinite temporal clause is also elliptical and speaks of each member of the Christian community attainting to experiencing proportionately to the full stature of the one and only Christ’s character.
As was the case in Ephesians 4:7, I interpret the noun metron (μέτρον) here in Ephesians 4:13 as meaning “proportion, proportional, proportionate” since the word in both verses pertains to making the parts of something harmonious or symmetrical.
In Ephesians 4:13 it is used in relation to the person of Jesus Christ and is describing the character of members of the Christian community as “in proportion to” or “proportional to” or “proportionate to” the Lord Jesus Christ in the sense that the character of members of this community are made harmonious or symmetrical with the character of Jesus Christ.
In other words, this noun metron (μέτρον) expresses the idea of the character of members of the Christian community being marked by due proportion to Christ, that is, they are marked by harmonious relation to Christ.
Therefore, this word emphasizes that the character of each member of the Christian community being marked by harmonious or symmetrical with the character of Jesus Christ.
The noun hēlikia (ἡλικία) means “stature” since the word pertains to the quality or status gained by growth, development or achievement.
Therefore, it is used the stature of Jesus Christ’s character, which is gained by the church age believer growth spiritually or developmentally or achievement by obedience to the Christian faith.
This word functions as an epexegetical genitive, which indicates that when Paul speaks of the character of the members of the Christian community being in proportion to the character of Christ, he means that their character has achieved the stature of Christ’s character.
The noun plērōma (πλήρωμα) pertains to the totality of something with emphasis upon completeness.
It pertains to the state of possessing every necessary or normal part or component and is used in relation to the character of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, this word speaks of the church age believer possessing the character of Christ in its totality and completeness.
This word functions as an attributed genitive which means that it ascribes the attribute of fullness to this stature of the one and only Christ’s character.
The articular construction of this noun plērōma (πλήρωμα) is monadic, which expresses the uniqueness of Jesus Christ’s character.
The proper name Christos (Χριστός) contains the figure of metonymy which means that the person of Christ is put for His holy character.
The articular construction of this word indicates that the referent of this word is in a class by himself and the only one deserving of the name since there were many individuals in the first century A.D. who claimed to be the Christ or were proclaimed to be the Christ.
Thus, the articular construction of this word means that He is “the one and only Christ” or “the incomparable Christ” and speaks of “the incomparability” of Jesus of Nazareth in that He is true Messiah and contrast to those who claim they are but are not.
The noun metron (μέτρον) is the object of the preposition eis (εἰς), which expresses the idea of each member of the Christian community “experiencing the state or condition” of possessing the full stature of the character of Jesus Christ.
