November 9, 2021 GROW UP
Ephesians 4:11-13 “And HE gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as some as evangelist, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”
We must not become stagnant spiritually. We are called to maturity in Christ; we are to be becoming like Christ! This coming to maturity is not a personal matter or something we do on our own. Because we in the western world tend to be individualistic, we may think it is up to us to mature in Christ. However, we are members of the body of Christ, and as members of His body, each member gives and receives from the other members; the body of Christ is connected. If we think we have no need of the body, then we are in error. God places various members in the body just as He pleases, and each member has a part. It is God’s desire, and His plan, that each member grows and matures to the ‘fullness of Christ;’ in other words, we are to become like Him. To help us in the process of maturing in Christ, God places within the body of Christ apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors and teachers. (These are particular gifting’s to the body but, everyone in the body has certain spiritual gifts that are designed to bless the body.) God uses these particular gifting’s to equip the saints for the work of service and to build up the body of Christ. In light of this, it is crucial that we find our place in the body of Christ and be about maturing in the faith. (There is one problem: there are ‘churches’ out there that are not functioning according to the plans and designs God has for the church; so, you need to find a church-big or small-that is desiring to be the church as depicted in the New Testament. There are no perfect churches because imperfect people make up the church-but that is the beauty of it-believers with various back grounds and all sorts of temperaments, come together with the common desire to grow up in Christ.) Let us desire to gain a greater knowledge of God and let us be mature believers who resemble Christ. The beauty of the body of Christ is that every member has a place and a role in the body where each one contributes to the health of the body as a whole.
Ephesians 4:14-16 “As 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 men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which 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.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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