Infants and Adults

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

INFANTS AND ADULTS

Eph 4:14-16

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 men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into 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.

NIV

This is what happens when we build each other up until we reach the unity in the faith, and because we have been prepared for our ministry within the body or works of service as this translation puts it. This is also why we need the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers. Because we are attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, we are not infants. Although we have witnessed infants that have been tossed back and forth by all these so-called electronic social media purveyors of disinformation. There are many silver-tongued preachers who do nothing but enhance there own lives from the wallets of these infants who have been tossed around blown here and there by every wind of teaching by these cunning and crafty people with all their deceitful scheming. We are not subject to their craftiness, nor their cunning schemes, for we are attaining to the full measure of Christ. We search the scriptures and find the truth because the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. We are always in the process of growing, for if we are not growing, or being stagnant, we are in the process of withering away. If we think we have it all figured out, and that we have attained the full knowledge of all things, we deceive ourselves and become prideful and boastful. But the fact is we are still growing up into him who is our head, that is Christ. If we are all growing together into Christ, our head, then we will act or behave as we should, one whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament. That is each one of us is joined and held together by each other. Although we are individuals, we are also one body, held together by our love for each other, as we build ourselves up in this love, as each one of us does our part. This makes us think that everyone has a part, that we cannot just sit and soak in our self-designated pew, but that we must be engaged in the works of service we have been prepared for by those gifts to the church. It seems in the vernacular of this age, we cannot just be takers, but we must be givers. We cannot simply take from the truth, just listening to a sermon, but we must be fully engaged in doing the ministry we have been prepared to do, or our part in the body of Christ. What if our stomach just wanted to be a taker and demand the mouth feed it. The rest of our body would suffer. Although the mouth does feed the stomach, and then the stomach digests the food to feed the rest of the body, making the whole body heathy. This is a healthy Church as we all feed each other, building each other up in the love of Christ. No longer are we infants because we have become mature adults.