Ephesians 4:7-16
The key words and ideas in this passage are: growing up, maturing, and building up. Paul uses a whole bunch of images: a body made up of members whose whole role is the maturing of the other members of the body, an infant who has no power to carry out his will, a stormy sea that invokes its will on a powerless object.
The main point is that Christ has given each one of his followers gifts and the purpose of those gifts is to build up the rest of the body of Christ until it reaches unity and maturity. This will prevent the Church from being overly affected by every new method, philosophy, doctrine or teaching that comes along. There will be a maturity and a depth to what the Church teaches and does as it speaks the truth in love. It will reflect the character of Jesus who is the head of the Body.
Paul returns to an idea that keeps popping up through the whole letter: the church attains the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Again, my imagination is captured by that phrase and yet it plays just beyond the horizon of my comprehension. I can't grasp this except that I think it is the same idea as at the end of chapter 2 where the Church is the dwelling of God. As God dwells in us and fills us and as the Church reflects the character of Christ, it radiates with the fullness of Christ. I still can't quite picture it because I haven't really seen anything close to it before.
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Blevos is the name we came up with for web-logging-devotions. It all started with a discussion about the role of community and the role of "private" devotions. It was decided this was a great mix.
1 comment:
I am in the same boat, it is hard to picture what it would look like if we were unified and mature, serving each other and knowing the fullness of Christ.
I also love what you said about not jumping at every new idea nad philosophy that come our way. I think to often I am tempted to look at all these different ideas, and see if they will work better, but I think as long as we are teaching truth and love like it says, God will to the work in us and through us, it's not the program anyway, it;s the Holy Spirit, He just enables us to serve, and that is what we are called to do.
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