Ephesians 4:15 – The solution to the church’s stunted growth.

Class Outline:

Thursday January 13, 2022

 

Last time we read Paul’s disclosure of the malady that arrests the church’s growth, which was spiritual immature Christians who believe false doctrines and lies from teachers who with trickery spread propaganda for the wrong path. These tricksters and hacks have a method from which to dupe the unknowing and infantile.

 

At the beginning of the church, the lie that prevailed was a kind of Christianity that contained a legalistic Judaism under the law of Moses. When that debate was settled, the Gnostic heresy arose. There was also false doctrines about resurrection and the rapture that frightened many Christians. Today, there are many lies, and one of the most influential is agnosticism, which hasn’t denied the existence of God, but has removed God far away from man. The world, and sadly, even the church (pastors and clergy are being trained in seminaries and colleges all over) has been told that the supernatural is an illusion. Popular is the teaching that Jesus was not a master of miracles or even resurrection, but a man who only showed us the right way to live. Also popular is the teaching that the Bible is not fully inspired and not inerrant, but only contains some truth. It’s a partial truth that robs the truth of all its power.

 

The warning to us is clear. We must be mature in our thinking, spiritually mature. We are exposed and very vulnerable when we are spiritual infants. Paul is going to entreat us to grow up.

 

He next uses the conjunction de which means “but” in contrast to the spiritual infant being tossed to and fro in their hearts and succumbing to the deceitful and scheming peddlers of false doctrines and philosophies.

 

As the contrast between maturity and childhood links vv. 13 and 14, so it is by the contrast of error and craftiness with truth as we pass from vv. 14-15.

 

EPH 4:15-16

but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, 16 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.

 

“speaking the truth” - aletheuo (difficult to translate) = to live, walk, and speak by the truth.

 

“speaking the truth” is one verb, aletheuo, which is the verb of the noun aletheia - truth. Aletheuo is difficult to translate into English because it is the broader and deeper than speaking the truth. Anyone can speak the truth, but do they live it, love it, and walk by it? This verb is the action of truth. Expositors translates it “truthing it.” Stott has it “truthing in love.” Vincent translates it “being or walking in truth.” Findlay has it, “dealing truly as in deed and life.” It has the widest sense of being true.

 

“but living and being truth in love (agape)” not being or speaking the truth at all hazards, but governed by love.

 

The truth is for building up and not hurting or destroying. As Stott writes concerning this passage, “Thank God there are those in the contemporary church who are determined at all costs to defend and uphold God’s revealed truth. But sometimes they are conspicuously lacking in love. When they think they smell heresy, their nose begins to twitch, their muscles ripple, and the light of battle enters their eye. They seem to enjoy nothing more than a fight. Others make the opposite mistake. They are determined at all costs to maintain and exhibit brotherly love, but in order to do so are prepared even to sacrifice the central truths of revelation. Both these tendencies are unbalanced and unbiblical. Truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love; love becomes soft if it is not strengthened by truth. The apostle calls us to hold the two together, which should not be difficult for Spirit-filled believers, since the Holy Spirit is Himself ‘the Spirit of truth’, and His first fruit is love. There is no other route than this to a fully mature Christian unity.” [John Stott, The Message of Ephesians]

 

So we are to live the truth and speak the truth governed by agape love and all the while we are go grow up in all aspects into Him.

 

We are to grow up (good translation - to increase) into Him in “all things” (panta). The neuter plural panta means that everything in our lives that can grow up into His image, must grow. We must leave no part of ourselves behind.

 

“All things” is, in my opinion, a better translation than all aspects, only because some might limit the word “aspects” to certain parts of life, whereas “all things” means everything from a mission trip in a distant land to washing the dishes.

 

We are to grow up spiritually (“in all things into Him”) of which Christ is always the object or goal in every stage of growth and in every area of our lives.

 

A healthy life instinctively repels disease. The same is true of the spiritual life. Believers devoted to Christ and to God’s word (one and the same) do not fall into fatal error.

 

The growing believer will find that temptation and the assaults of error stimulate rather than arrest their growth. These in turn build up the body of Christ. As we learn to live for others, as we merge our own aims in the life of the church and of humanity we feel, even more deeply than our personal needs had made us do, our dependence upon Him. We find that the forces that heal and save mankind all come from the living Christ. Nothing comes from ourselves alone.

 

EPH 4:15-16

but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, 16 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.

 

Paul uses the head and body analogy as he does elsewhere. We grow up in all things into Him who is the Head of the body, and from Him the whole body is knit together. Both words are participles in the present tense which means that this intimate joining is always ongoing.

 

Christ (the Head) is at work fitting and joining the body, providing it sustenance through every contact according to the needs of each single part.

 

The translation is good: Christ is forever the Head from whom the entire body is fitly joined together and knit together. NAS has “being fitted and held together” and they are two words (participles) that are similar in meaning. Fitly joined and knit together are their meaning and they show us how perfectly, intimately, and intricately that the Lord Jesus has and is constructing His body. Both participles are in the present tense, showing that the body is in the process of incorporation, being perfectly put where Christ wants them, and whoever is growing more complete or mature, they are supplying the needs of others more fully, building the body and drawing it closer.

 

The perfect church with every perfect member is forming itself. It will be complete in eternity. In time, we have the opportunity to bring it as close as possible to its final form.

 

The Lord fitly joins and knits together the body, but He uses believers as secondary agents who supply the others with their gifts.

 

Two words, “fitly joined” and “knitted (held) together,” are very similar and therefore emphasize that the Lord has tightly and perfectly formed His body. Paul used “fitted” (same Greek word) in EPH 2:21.

 

EPH 2:19-22

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, 20 having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

 

Since He has done so, we are not to work against His fine design by wanting to be some other part than we are, or wanting someone else to be a part that they were not called to, or by causing division through sins of unforgiveness or anger or bitterness or jealousy or rivalry. The Lord has knit and fitted His body in His own right way, which is the only right way, and if anyone stands against that way, they will suffer, and to an extent, the body will suffer.

 

EPH 4:15-16

but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, 16 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.

 

“joint” is Paul keeping the body analogy going. The joints of the body fits the imagery of being fitly joined and knit together.

 

The joints therefore refer to the points of contact that the Lord has knit together - each believer in contact with another in the body.

 

The one believer supplies the next believer to whom he is in contact and their ministries furnish and build up the body’s inward life through a communion wherein each single part shares, creating a tie that binds one Christian soul to another and serves to nourish the common life of grace.

 

Each believer has a ministry in which they have works that serve, or equip others, and in this sentence, Paul uses a word that means to fully supply. “Every joint fully supplies, according to the energy or power of each individual part.”

 

We are each to fully supply the other members of the body of Christ that we happen to be in contact with. We don’t supply everything that they want. We supply what work or service is in our power to do, and we do so in love. If there is something another thinks they need, but that we cannot give, both parties are to agree to leave the need, if it is legitimate, in the hands of God. If another thinks they have a need, but we deem it sinful, we serve them by not fulfilling it. We have to grow up in all aspects unto Christ so that in the many scenarios that we will face with others, we will possess wisdom which will give us a knack or insight into what is good and right to do, or in some cases, not do.