Today, we are going back to Ephesians – first with a reminder of the gifts God gives us, and then moving on to what Paul continues with.
Ephesians 4: 11 – 15 NLT
“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
What does a healthy church look like? It will be unified in its faith. The people will agree with the doctrine and principles the church stands on. The people in the church will become “mature in the Lord”. They are individually wanting to have a closer relationship with God. It’s not just a Sunday morning thing. They want to talk with God every day. They read their Bibles often. They attend church on a fairly regular basis.
The church is not “tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching”. We need to be careful we don’t get sidelined by our 2024 culture. In some ways our culture wants to be very accepting; it wants people to feel valued. And that’s a Christian belief too. God loves every single one of us. And we should love everyone no matter what they are like – just as God does. But it doesn’t mean we accept every belief ; we stand by the Word of God. We “speak the truth in love”. Did you let that sink in? We “speak the truth in love“.
We are a loving group of people. People who come into our church looking for God, wondering about this faith thing, should feel welcomed and loved. Doesn’t that bring us back to remembering 1 Corinthians 13:
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. … Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”
Someone might disagree with us, might tell us that we misinterpret the Bible, tell us we are too bigoted. But, our response is done in love. We “speak the truth in love”. We don’t argue in a pushy way. We don’t avoid them now, or in the future.
These verses in Ephesians today end by saying we are “growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
What a challenge! Am I growing more like Christ? I know I still have a long way to go. I know I’m better than I used to be because God made sure I learned some lessons when he sent me to Kenya completely unaware of how to live in a 3rd world country. And then gave me a teaching job with students who were struggling with huge problems. But I still tend to avoid people who make me uneasy, people I disagree with. There is still a long ways to go, but I suspect if you are honest, you’d say the same thing about yourself.
Think what a church would be like if everyone was growing more like Christ. Everyone got along with each other well. Everyone had their own special part in the church. We all were helping each other. What kind of an impact would we have on our community? Would we be bringing others to find Christ? Could this be our logo?
“The whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
Our song for today is Hold Us Together by Matt Maher.