A Long, Hard Look in the Mirror

Ephesians 4:14-19

There are three things I want to comment on from this passage:
1) The goal of the Christian life is not just personal, individual maturity. The goal is the maturity of the Body of Christ. Paul's view is not of a bunch of loosely affiliated Christians but of one body made up of different parts vitally linked to each other. The Body becomes mature through Christ (the source of life and the Head) and as each part of the Body contributes to the maturity of the whole. Obviously this means that the individual parts must mature in order to have something to contribute to the maturity of the whole, but I think that we've over emphasized individual maturity in the recent history of the Church to the detriment of the Body itself. Faith has become all about what it offers to me and what I need to do for my own self-improvement rather than about what I can give to the Body of Christ and what I can do for the community's maturation process.
2) After all of Paul's talk about the mystery of the union between Jew and Gentile and the grace of God that brought Gentiles into the promises of God, he then uses the word Gentile in a derogatory sense (which would get the liberal human rights people all tied up in knots if they were around today!). In v. 17, a Gentile is someone who is not a Jew and is separated from the light of the gospel of Christ. This makes me wonder if Paul, and maybe the rest of the early Christians, saw three categories of people: Jews, Gentiles and Christians. In other words, did they understand that when they submitted to Jesus' right to rule their lives that they were completely called out from and separated from the culture they once were part of. No matter what their cultural background was, their primary identification was now in Christ - they had a new heritage, a new identity and a new citizenship. I'm not talking about creating our own Christian sub-culture with it's own music, trinkets and cheesy rip off t-shirts (don't get me started) but a completely new way of looking at the world and at life. Maybe I'm reading too much into Paul's use of "Gentile" in this context.
3) "Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more." Does this sound like anything that is going on today? The other day I was shocked as I was flipping through channels and came across a report on MuchMusic about the evolution of the female in the music industry. They were exploring the role that women play by using their sexuality in music (both as background dancers and as lead singers). What shocked me was that they were asking the questions about what effect this has on young girls and teens of both genders. I didn't see the whole thing partly because it was late and partly because they continued to show examples of what they were talking about and I didn't think I needed to see half naked women simulating sex acts. But the small part that I did see talked about the "continual lust for more" (obviously not in those words). The problem is that I don't think this is just confined to the "Gentiles" anymore but also to those who would identify themselves as Christians. In Sunday School last week a student made the statement that it was ok for a Christian to enter a bet to see if he could get a random girl on the ski lift to make out with him. That sounds like someone who has given himself over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity.
If we are to take point #1 seriously then we have a huge responsibility to those who would identify themselves as part of the Body of Christ to help them reach maturity in the faith which includes this student from Sunday School. We have a huge responsibility to build vital, loving relationships so that we can hold the mirror of Scripture up before their lives to confront them with the truth. I have a huge responsibility to remain humble enought to look in the mirror myself. It's not about me - it's about us (the Body) and it's about Christ.