The Maturity of the Church

It’s been wonderful getting into the book of Ephesians, as we have seen it is a book which teaches us about the Church. How God creates the church by grace through the work of Jesus Christ. And then, especially from chapter four, how God grows the Church so that it becomes a reflection of the God it belongs to. Our passage today focuses on the theme of maturity—what does a mature church look like? And we’ll be looking at Ephesians 4:11-16. If you have a Bible, please open it up and turn there. Stef is going to do the reading for us.

The Goal of Maturity

God’s desire is for His church to be built up and become mature. Maturity is the goal; it’s God’s ambition for His church.

And because maturity is God’s goal for His church, it is actually the reason He has given the church the gifts He has. Take a look with me at verse 11 (read) ; God gives Word gifts (ministry gifts that use words to reveal, declare and teach the gospel) to His church. And the reason is given in verse 12: to equip the saints for ministry. Why do God’s people need to engage in works of service? Verse 12 again: so that the body of Christ is built up, strengthened, and grows.

So the flow is this: God gives Word gifts to leaders who can then equip all of His people for service. So these Word gifts function as ministry multipliers; and church leaders, in general, function as ministry multipliers. The job of the church leader is to train church members to do ministry. Because it is only when all of God’s people (both leaders and members) use their gifts that the church becomes mature, “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knolwedge of the Son of God and become mature.”

It’s really helpful for us to think of spiritual gifts and works of service in this way. Sadly, we often think of our gifts or acts of service in a selfish way. We often think of gifts and service as a way of developing our potential or receiving affirmation (and that might happen when we serve and that’s not inherently worng). This passage teaches us that God’s goal for His church is spiritual maturity and the giving of gifts and the works of service is how that goal is achieved. Ministry is not just something I do, it’s something we do.

The Message of Ephesians c. The Purpose of Spiritual Gifts Is Service

Here is incontrovertible evidence that the New Testament envisages ministry not as the prerogative of a clerical élite but as the privileged calling of all the people of God.

Apply

So let’s think in a personal way about this for a moment. How are you helping the church grow into maturity? What gifts has God given you to use, what works of service has God called you to? He has given each of us spiritual abilities and ways in which we can contribute, and we’re only going to reach maturity if we roll up our sleeves and get working. And so of course we’ll have to move from being a consumer at church to a contributor. I can’t just come to receive, I have to come to give.

Consumer or contributor? Consumers are spectators, but contributors are participants.

We’ll think about that a bit more later on, and I want to quickly make another application.

Apply

If the goal of the church is maturity, then it means that right now, we’re not as mature as we can be. In other words, at the moment, we are immature in various ways. And it’s worth reflecting on this because often, when we encounter immaturity in the church, we are shocked. We think people should be beyond all that. We become overly frustrated or judgemental or discouraged. But of course you will find immaturity in the church.

The church is not like a monastary; it’s more like a creche.

Apply

One final application: maturity is something we reach together. Notice verse 13: until we “all” reach unity in the faith and become mature. I can’t really separate my growth towards maturity from yours. I don’t become mature without you, and vice versa. We’re in this together, for better or worse!

Getting fit: in groups, it happens together! And church is much more like a running club than a solo sport.

The Threat to Maturity

Spiritual Infancy (an internal threat)

The first threat to our spiritual maturity is what we see in verse 14: our spiritual infancy. Initially, we are like spiritual babies or toddlers. Now, if you’ve spent any time around babies or toddlers, you’ll especially appreciate this metaphor. Toddlers are, to put it nicely, wobbly. And the younger they are, the wobblier they tend to be. In other words, they lack stability.

And so the hallmark of spiritual infancy is a lack of stability, and here the emphasis seems to be on doctrinal stability. Spiritual infants are, to use the language of verse 14, “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching”. To be a spiritual infant is to always be running after the latest and greatest fad, it’s to be a victim of theological fashion, to be running after this one week and something else the next week.

Apply?

Spiritual maturity, by contrast, means standing firm in true doctrine. Being immovable, unshakable, in what you believe. It means being consistent; the things that believe today are the things that you will believe in 5 years time, and 10 years time, and 30 years time. Now, of course, we all want to grow in our theological knowledge. But growth requires a good foundation, and the person who is moving from infancy to maturity is getting hold of the Bibel and good classic Christian doctirne, and allowing it to shape and mold them.

I still remember quite vividly the first couple of years I was a Christian, and how vulnerable I felt. I’m so grateful that from an early spiritual age I was directed towards some wonderful books, and mainly to getting a handle on reading the Bible. I remember, when I was a first year student, being paired up with a second year student and we read Bible passages together. And it was that combination of going to church, reading Christian books, and reading with this friend that I started making progress. And I still have a long way to go so I still value getting into groups with other Christians and reading the Bible together.

When we are spiritual young we are vulnerable, like a boat in a storm, and we need to get strong and stable as soon as possible.

False Teachers (an external threat)

Well, if the first threat to our maturity was the internal problem of spiritual inancy, the second threat is the external problem of false teachers. Notice how Paul describes them: cunning, crafty, and deceitful scheming. False teachers are people who go around pretending to teach God’s Word but are actually teaching an imitation of it. And it’s not always easy to spot because they are skilled at hiding it—they are crafty, they are cunning and they are deceitful.

And it’s hard to talk about false teachers because, on the one hand, we don’t want to become overly suspicious and paranoid. But on the other hand, we would be naive to think that false teaching is not a problem in the church today. And their presence poses a threat to the maturity of the church, because they not only hold people back, but they lead them astray.

The Blueprint for Maturity

Truth and Love (v 15)

The phrase is literally: “truthing in love” and includes the idea of speech but it’s wider than that. It refers to living out the truth, maintaining the truth in your life and conduct. It’s the very opposite of the false teacher—their characteristic is error and deceit. Well, instead of error and deceit< God desires truth and love. It is this combination of truth and love; God’s truth, lovingly taught and authentically modelled, that will lead us into Christian maturity.

If we want to become mature, we need to be committed to truth and love.

Apply

Some of us might be more inclined to the one than the other—perhaps we’re truth tellers! Willing to strain or even destroy relationships as long as the truth is defended. Others amongst us are the opposite—prepared to be fuzzy on the truth if it preserves relationships. Of, what we need is both.

The Message of Ephesians 4. Christian Unity Demands the Maturity of Our Growth (Verses 13–16)

Truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love; love becomes soft if it is not strengthened by truth. The apostle calls us to hold the two together, which should not be difficult for Spirit-filled believers, since the Holy Spirit is himself ‘the Spirit of truth’, and his firstfruit is ‘love’.1

Apply

It’s worth reflecting on which of these two extremes you tend to find yourself on. Perhaps it changes, depending on which context you’re in—but our goal is to consistently keep these twin values together. Truth and love.

Christ enabling every-member ministry (v 16)

Every Christian is responsible to live a productive life of service; every Christian is responsible to serve others; every Christian has received a gift that they must use to serve. It’s when each part is working properly that we will grow.

Apply

But,finally, and importantly, notice the source of power: Christ. Christ, the Head, empowers the body (us), to function. Jesus provides us with the strength and power and wisdom we need to serve him.

And that’s a good note for us to end on—becaause the Lord who created His Church is the One who will grow it and build it. He’s the One who set it all in motion, and we only serve Him because He first served us. All of the things that this passage calls us to were first true of Him—He combined truth and love, He served others, He confronted error and deceit. He’s done all of these things for us, and more: He died for us, taking our sins upon Himself, that we might be forgiven. Now, we are part of His body!

He is the Head, and from Him, the whole body is held together and when each part works properly, it builds itself up in love and grows to maturity.