Unity Through Maturity

  • Jake Chambers
  • Jul 18, 2010
  • Series: Ephesians

Ephesians 4:13-16 Where are we at in Ephesians? What has been going on in chapter 4? We have been given to each other so we can attain something – maturity! We are to mature to manhood – glorified adolescence is not the goal.

Three types of immaturity:

v 14 Immaturity in the gospel: If you are not mature in the gospel and are not believing in the sound truths of who Jesus is and all that he has done, then you will be tossed to and fro. Immaturity perpetuates this by complaining instead of serving, criticizing and tearing down instead of speaking truth in love. Immaturity ignores truth, believing instead that it’s too perfect for it.

Immaturity in community: Many struggle with being in community because they want everyone to be perfect. This physical "attain" lets us know we are at different maturity levels. We have not attained it yet so we are progressing towards maturity. It is very immature and selfish to want everyone to be at same level of maturity.

Immaturity in Mission: Spiritual children do not stand firm in the truth of the gospel. They do not stand firm in being the church, being God’s people on mission, but instead will hop around to different causes, fad books, etc. and can be easily deceived. Instead of believing in the need for community, they believe lies and never commit to anything. They won’t commit, serve, give, grow and they shirk all responsibility – remaining in spiritual adolescence.

This leads to an unstable, isolated individual who believes the cheesy poster lie that it is "not about the destination but about the journey," so they end up in the middle of the sea, all alone on a raft without a rudder, captain, crew or destination. They are immature enough to think that they can trust in only themselves - and it doesn’t go well.

Where have we seen this in the story? This twisting? What happens when we rely on ourselves and believe the lie? What have humans found happens for them?

Throughout scripture we see that not trusting God has always led to humanity's destruction. They mistrust the captain and head off on their own life boat, in their own direction, and they find themselves vulnerable to being capsized, drowned or shipwrecked at any moment. Or, they find that being captain-less is useless and they make a captain out of anything or anyone. No anchor of security, no rudder for direction and no crew to sail with. If anything or anyone is Captain of your world besides Christ, you are at risk of utter shipwreck, drowning and loss at any moment.

The book/movie, Into the Wild, romanticizes this loner journey without a destination. In the end the main character ends up starving, freezing and dying alone, longing for community. Near the end, he shares the thought, "HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED."

None of us wants this ending so how do we avoid it? What does maturity look like?

Maturity in the gospel: 15,16 "speaks truth in love." Maturity knows who we are because of the gospel. The gospel has made us part of God’s family so we don’t have to earn it or avoid it. We don’t have to believe every lie of human cunning and deceitfulness that says "earn God, earn righteousness, earn approval," because we know the gospel. The truth of who God is and what he has done and what he's given us is our rock solid foundation for life. We have an anchor in the word that can bring security. We have a captain in Jesus who we can follow, trust and keep our eyes on. Christ is the head. Christ leads, directs and guides the body.

We don’t have to settle for lesser truths or lesser promises because we have the gospel. If Christ is the captain then we are his servants. Maturity in the gospel takes the position of the humble deck-mate that has much to learn from the Captain!

 

Maturity in community: 15,16 "joined and held together." Maturity knows the gospel has made them a family and so they are a part of something larger. We are a crew, not individuals. We are the church. If we know that Christ's body is made up of many parts then we will not be fooled into thinking that we are the only part and we only need ourselves. No, we are part of the body and we need the body. We are part of a crew sailing a ship not a loner on a raft! Maturity knows they have a part, and is eager to play that part. Maturity knows they need the crew, so they have patience with the crew, they respect authority on the crew, and they love the captain.

Maturity in mission: "grow, build itself up." Maturity knows that the Captain has a mission and a destination. If the Captain has a mission and is a missionary then his crew is made up of missionaries on his mission. Maturity knows it is not about my mission on my ship but it is about the Captain's mission on the Captain's ship. Maturity identifies itself with the Captain's mission and lives around that mission.

We need a constant reminder that we are part of the body - that Christ is the head and we his people are the body. If we are to grow up in maturity in the gospel, community and mission we need to speak truth in love to one another. We are a community that grows up by speaking truth in love. Truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love, and love becomes soft if not strengthened by truth. It is hateful to allow someone to believe lies about the gospel, community and mission. It is hateful to comfort or enable someone in their sin. It is immature and selfish.

We can also break down and push people away if we give truth without love. If we think just truth statements without context, we fool ourselves. It is just bullying and we lose the opportunity to speak truth.

It is like cancer. A good surgeon finds, plans and strategizes for cutting out a tumor. A knife hurts, just as truth can hurt, but a good surgeon stays the hand and carves out and cuts out the tumor to kill it. A poor surgeon will go in to make the cut, and when the patient cries out, he will pull the knife out and sew up the wound, apologize, and put on all the balming and let the tumor flourish. And the tumor lives and kills the body. Some of you do this. You go to speak truth and the slightest whimper, or the slightest bit of pain, and you apologize and dump out the Neosporin. Or you compromise, and say a living tumor is just a beauty mark. If you do this, you hate that person. Truth will hurt, but we must stay the hand to cut out the sin.

However, a surgeon also does prepare and plan and knows what he is cutting out ahead of time. The surgeon doesn’t cut open the body and just start slicing everything, guessing and chopping at everything that may be a bit off. And the surgeon doesn’t leave the knife in there and just take off. Some of you love to speak truth, but you are harsh and you don’t comfort and help the rehabilitation problem, but instead just stick the knife in and run. And guess what, that knife will leave an infection, which will bleed out, and this patient will die as well. You may have taken out the tumor but you left vital wounds. We need to repent of leaving tumors and we need to repent of leaving in the knife!

How do we do this? Not on our own but with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit leads us into all truth and is the first-fruit of love. This is impossible without the Spirit. We must speak the truth in love so we can attain maturity. This is not "I have something to say" but "I have to say something." We need to speak what the Spirit leads us to speak and often it is pride that keeps us from this. The word of God is from the Spirit so our speech should align with or be directly from the word of God. The more time spent in God’s true love letter, the more equipped you will be to speak truth in love. This does not mean memorizing it is a prerequisite to speaking. You may have one thing you know is true from here, and you need to speak it a ton.

Types of Pride:

Long-winded pride: "I need to talk. I need to fill space. I, I , I. "

Quiet pride: "If I say this I will be embarrassed, I will mess up, I, I, I.

Pride is not about how great you think of your self or how poorly you think of your self but it is about how much you think of your self.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit wants the akward silence, but long-winded people won’t let it last long enough for the quiet people to speak what the Spirit would have him/her say. Sometimes the Holy Spirit wants you to stumble and struggle to explain something, so that the truth will get the glory, and not the eloquence of speech. The big idea is to listen to, heed, trust and rely on the Spirit. We will not love well or give truth well if we just say, or don’t say, whatever we want. We will only love well and give truth well when we speak what the Spirit would have us to say.The Spirit encourages and builds up! The enemy discourages and tears down.

Jesus is the mature man that we are to emulate. Jesus did not complain to his Father or criticize his brothers and sisters, but spoke truth, and he came to bring the gospel- the good news! Jesus is full of truth and grace did not live a life of selfishness, but was selfless to the point of death. He did not have trouble committing, but gave everything for his Father’s mission and accomplished all he was sent to do! And it was Jesus’ death on the cross where truth and love most fully united. There, God was most truthful about sin and most loving because of what he gave!

Kaleo this is our Captain, Jesus. This is our model and our head. This is the one who sent His Spirit to enable us to attain the fullness of Him and mature to manhood by speaking the truth in love to each other. Kaleo, may our hearts be soft and our ears attentive to truth. May we be a people eager to serve, love and build one another up. May we be connected to Jesus, the head, and to each other, as his body for eternity. Amen.

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