Day 23: Ephesians 4: 11-16: Growing Up Into Christ

Spiritual maturity is measured by becoming more like Christ, not simply knowing more about Him.

Christ has given different gifts to His church- not so a few people can do all the ministry, but so the whole body can grow together into maturity. Every believer has a a role to play. As we grow in truth and love, we become more like Christ, who is the head of the church.

Reflection: What has helped you grow spiritually the most- a person, a season, or a challenge?

Challenge: Starting today, end your devotional time by praying for someone specifically in your life. Then, call or message them to let them know. We will circle back to this next week!

Transcript

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back and happy hump day. We're in day 23 of Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 through 16. And our topic today is growing up into Christ. Let's jump right into the text. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part. Amen. That is the word of God. Before digging deeper today, I'm gonna start something new and just go over some vocabulary words that were in the text. First is equip. In this context, it means to prepare, restore, or make someone ready for the work God has called them to. We also found the word saints. When we say saints, we're referring to every believer in Christ, not just exceptionally holy Christians. The other word is maturity, becoming increasingly like Jesus in character, wisdom, love, and faithfulness. Let's look at this text a little closer. Paul had just explained that Christ, the victorious king, gives gifts to his people. In this passage, he explains why. The gifts are not the destination, they're the means. The goal is a mature church. Paul lists several leadership gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These are often called the five-fold ministry, though Christians differ on whether every one of these offices continues in the same way today. Regardless of those differences, Paul's point is clear. Christ intentionally provides leaders to equip his people. Notice the wording. It is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. In the time that this was written, it would have been revolutionary. In their world, religion was often centered around priests or specialists who stood between people and the divine. Worshippers came, participated, and left. Christianity introduced something radically different. Every believer has a role, every believer has gifts, and every believer participates. The word equip was used in the first century for setting a broken bone, repairing fishing nets, or preparing something for its intended purpose. The image is beautiful. God isn't simply calling people to serve, he's restoring people so they can become what he created them to be. Then Paul says the goal is that we would no longer be children tossed to and fro. Let's think again about Ephesus. This city was overflowing with ideas, Greek philosophy, Roman religion, magic, astrology, mystery religions, and imperial worship. Travelers from all over the Mediterranean brought new beliefs into the city every day. False teachers weren't hard to find. Paul wants believers to become spiritually stable, not cynical, not suspicious, but rooted. Maturity isn't measured by how much Bible trivia someone knows. It's measured by discernment, steadiness, humility, love. Then comes one of the most quoted phrases in Ephesians speaking the truth in love. Truth without love becomes harsh, and love without truth becomes shallow. Jesus embodied both perfectly. Paul isn't asking believers to choose one or the other. Finally, Paul returns to one of his favorite images. The church is a body. Christ is the head. Every part matters. Ligaments, joints, muscles. Nothing exists for itself. Everything works together so the body grows. That's an important correction for our individualistic culture. We often ask, what church meets my needs? But Paul asks, how is Christ growing his body through me? Christian maturity is never meant to be a private achievement. It always contributes to the health of the whole church. And it is measured by becoming more like Christ, not simply knowing more about him. Today I'm actually going to end a little differently. I have both your reflection question and a question and a challenge for you. A person, a season, or a challenge. And now I have a different kind of challenge, hopefully a positive one for you. And I'll just give you a little testimony here. Way before this group started as a daily devotional chat together, before this started as even just a chat between me and a friend, maybe even a year before that. A friend of mine posted on Instagram, hey, I'm doing a 40-day holy challenge. It's like mind, body, spirit. I was trying to get back in routine. So I was like, let's do it. I joined, he had a little WhatsApp group of different people, and they would post if they did their things every day. Um, it was kind of like uh, what is it, seven, ninety days hard or whatever that is. Um, but from a Christian perspective. And so, yes, it included activity in terms of physical workouts and nutrition, but every day we had to spend 10 minutes reading a chapter a day of the Bible, spending time in prayer. And I wanted to make sure I did it all. So I'll be honest with you, before then, what I realized is I wasn't actually taking the time to sit down and read my Bible every day. And it had severely been something that was lacking in my life, and I didn't know it until I started doing it. Um, and one of the challenges every day was not just the prayer and the reading of a chapter, but also to specifically pray for someone else and then text them and tell them, hey, I just want you to know I prayed for you today. Here's what I prayed for. I love you, and I, you know, you were on my heart. And let me know if you have any other prayer requests or anything. Um, and I'll tell you that at first it was like, okay, I'm doing this. And you start kind of with your close inner circle where you're comfortable with. But as the days go by and you start realizing you have to start reaching out a little outside of that circle, you can find yourself outside of your comfort zone a bit. Or maybe reaching out to someone that you're like, you know, I know they know I'm a Christian. I don't know if they're a Christian. Are they gonna think I'm weird? But what I found is when I was faithful to that, when I did it, I had some of the biggest blessings from those conversations. Responses were anywhere from like, hey, actually, it's been a really long time since I prayed. And I prayed for the first time this morning, and then I just got this text from you, which I mean, that's just cool to be a part of. It opened the doorway for questions from friends about my belief beliefs. And for others, I think it just deepened our relationship. And on honestly, when I pray for other people, God changes my heart in such bigger ways than anything else. And so that's my challenge. We've been talking so much about unity, and I want to challenge you. I'm sorry, to add a little bit to your daily devotional time every day. Start your day out in prayer. God, reveal to me in this passage today what I need to hear from you, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. Get into the text. You can even go back to that prayer and say, okay, God, I'm feeling this conviction here. I have this confession here. Lord, I see where I need your help in this area of my life. Have honest conversations. This is a hard thing for me, God. I don't want to give this up. And then end it by saying, Today I'm gonna pray for this specific person and lift them up, lift up their physical health, their spiritual health, their hearts. If you know things that are going on about them, pray for those things specifically. If you don't, you know, still pray over everything that you can think of over their life. And it doesn't end there. You do have to text them and say, I just prayed for you. You can make it simple. Here's what I prayed for. I think it'll help us practice what we're preaching here and learning. And honestly, it was such a blessing. I wanted to do it myself. So I'm gonna do it. Let me know if you'll join me. Love you guys. We'll talk to tomorrow.