Growing Up

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

GROWING UP 

Eph 4:7-13

7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."9 (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's 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.

NIV

There is one more concept or truth that we need to examine before we leave this passage. We understand that we have been given a measure of grace through Christ, in fact that He is the grace of God, and all things in this whole universe are filled in Christ and he gave the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, and they are still active today fulfilling the purpose Christ intended for them. They are in the church for the expressed reason to prepare the people of God for works of service. The whole purpose for our works of ministry is to build up each other so that we reach the unity of the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature. This is where we need to look deeper. What does a mature believer look like? We are told that a mature believer is in the process of attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ. What does that mean? How do we attain this whole measure of the fulness of Christ? Looking ahead the infant becoming an adult gives us this clue that we are to become more and more like Jesus. Does becoming mature mean we have to put away childish things? Paul talks about that in his letter to the Corinthains. However, this is not about what we do in our daily living, such as our recreation time or hobbies. Adults can still play, so to speak, but this has to do with our spiritual life, putting aside those childish ways of thinking, which include but are not limited to selfishness, or self-centeredness, being a tattle-tail, or gossiping. Small children live in a fantasy world, without the capacity to reason like adults are supposed to. There is no fantasy in being a believer, just the facts, all we need is the facts and we find them in the word of God. So we are to grow in our faith and become more like Jesus in our moral thinking or attitude. We are to attain the likeness of Jesus. If we are honest with ourselves, we think we have a lot more attaining to do. Of course, we cannot blame our flesh or give that, “I am only human” excuse, as true as that might be. Yet, we must continue to grow, continue to become more like Jesus in the way we think and behave. This is why we have the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and especially the pastors and teachers, to assist us in growing so that we can grow in our faith, grow in our ministry, grow in our attitudes and behavers until that day we see our Jesus face to face. Let us continue growing into the fulness of the whole measure of Christ.