A Time For Everything

Time to grow up:

Back ground on Paul writing Ephesians: 

He was most likely in prison in Rome. 

He made the most of situation by writing a letter to Jewish and Gentile believers to help encourage, strengthen and teach them while in a difficult situation. Could you imagine if he would have had a self-centered attitude about his situation. We would not have this biblical document to teach a proper understanding of the Church.  

Unlike many of Paul’s letters Ephesians, he did not have a specific issue he was trying to correct such as ethical issues, tensions between Jew and Gentiles, or overall heresy in these new churches growing. 

This letter for the most part is a positive exposition of teaching and encouragement to the ekklesia the community who have put their trust in Jesus. 

There is more about the “Church” community in Ephesians than any other of Paul’s writings. That’s saying a lot. 

Eccl. 3:1-8

A Time for Everything

3 There is a time for everything, 

and a season for every activity under heaven: 

2 a time to be born and a time to die, 

a time to plant and a time to uproot, 

3 a time to kill and a time to heal, 

a time to tear down and a time to build, 

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, 

a time to mourn and a time to dance, 

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 

a time to embrace and a time to refrain, 

6 a time to search and a time to give up, 

a time to keep and a time to throw away, 

7 a time to tear and a time to mend, 

a time to be silent and a time to speak, 

8 a time to love and a time to hate, 

a time for war and a time for peace. 

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

1 Cor 13:11 

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles (Everyone not Jewish) do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

Eph. 4:11-17 

Time to grow up: 

We know people that are 40 year old’s still acting like kids! And its not the 40 year dad who’s willing to play with his children at the park and act like a kid. Its the 40 year person who thinks the world revolves around him and his way, not realizing his or her behavior is selfish and self-centered. 

Paul defines an infant believer as someone who is still being tossed around by every kind of “teaching.” the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.

Various teachings include: Circumcision for salvation, gentiles following the law of Moses for salvation. 

2. Paul also describes infant believers as still living “worldly.” 

What does this look like to Paul? 

For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? 

Are you not acting like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men? 

Big question to think about? 

Who is in your life who can tell you what you need to hear not what you want to hear? 

Who is in your life that when your behaving like a spiritual infant can disciple you into maturity without you throwing your sucker in the dirt an walking away from church saying, “Those people don’t love me?!” 

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Heb 5:12-14

So just because you physically grow up does not automatically mean you mature up! 

Infants cant not feed or care for themselves: 

On Divisions in the Church

3 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men? 

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Key Scriptures:

2 Peter 3:18: "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forevermore. Amen." 

Colossians 1:9-10: "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. We pray that you will walk a life worthy of the Lord, always pleasing him as you produce fruit in every good work, growing in your knowledge of God." 

1 Peter 2:2: "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up into salvation." 

Hebrews 5:12-14: "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the ways of God, for he is a baby. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant practice have trained themselves to distinguish between good and evil." 

Romans 12:2: "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by renewing your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." 

Philippians 3:12-14: "Not that I have already attained or that I am already perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me in Christ Jesus."