January 16
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GROW UP IN ALL ASPECTS INTO CHRIST
14As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
-Ephesians 4:14-16
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Paul addresses the issue of immaturity in the church in this letter to the Ephesians. In verse 14, he challenges the believers to grow up and give up their childish ways of wavering back and forth with their faith and how easily they fall into the tactics of unregenerate or worldly people with their craftiness and deceitfulness. In verse 15, he speaks of the importance of speaking truth in a loving and gentle way. He also wants believers to be responsible for growing themselves up in all the aspects of their lives, ensuring that they are serving Christ, who is their head. In verse 16, he reminds them that each member of the body of Christ has their own responsibility to grow themselves into the building of each other up so that the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified.
Guzik comments on “speaking the truth in love as referring to not only how we are to relate to one another in God’s family, but also to how leaders and saints are to deal with deceivers. We should deal with them in love, but never budging from the truth. He also comments on maturity is described in this chapter. It is like growing up into Jesus, who is the head. Again, this defines the direction of maturity. We never grow “independent” of Jesus, we grow up into Him.
Spurgeon says that “A church that is only united in itself, but not united to Christ, is no living church at all. You may attain to the unity of the frost-bound earth in which men and women are frozen together with the cold proprieties of aristocracy, but it is not the unity of life.”
All Christians are all called to be accountable for their growth. So many believers rely on their pastors, leaders or others to grow in the knowledge of Christ, they do not do any work to get into deeper intimacy with the Lord or contribute to the edification of the body.
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REFLECTION
• What have you done to grow and mature as a disciple of Jesus?