All Grown Up

August 16, 2019

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 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.

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. 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. 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. Ephesians 4:11-16 NLT

Jesus gave spiritual gifts to the church, His body of believers. An entire group of giftings is given to pastors, apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers. As they use their gifts to share with us, they equip us, God’s people, to build up the church: the body of Christ. We are growing for a purpose. We are not spiritual bodybuilders, continual contestants to see who looks the best, has the biggest muscles, or can lift the most weight. We are being built to build, to be workers in the kingdom—to develop ourselves and others to maturity in the Lord. We will “measure up to the full standard of Christ.”

Paul says that immaturity is recognizable:

  • Immature Christians are childish. Think about that. How do children think and behave? How do they handle their emotions? They struggle with sharing. They whine and complain. They are moody. You know the things children do in their immaturity that are most troublesome? Those things also show up in us when we are spiritually immature.
  • Immature Christians are fickle. They chase after everything that is new and don’t put down roots and grow.
  • Immature Christians are naive and foolish. They easily believe things that are not true because they sound good or feed their own opinions. They are unable to discern truth.
  • Immature Christians are unable to speak the truth in love. They either run from the courageous, necessary conversations, talk behind people’s backs instead of healthily relating with them in struggle, or they blurt out the truth in ways that maim and destroy.

But when we grow up, community becomes our great joy and our sweet spot. We flip all those issues. We are grown adults. We are stable and secure and offer that to others. We can discern truth from error, and we are not deceived. We can give and receive the truth, spoken in love. We are all part of His body, our lives filled with joy as we are healthy and growing together!

  • How old are you spiritually? In true maturity where are you? Talk to God.