LAST WEEK we examined Ephesians 2:21-22 “in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
The theme of this passage and last Sunday’s sermon was Spiritual Unity. Today we will study Ephesians 4:15-16 as we see this theme of unity continuing through Ephesians.
Eph 4:15-16 “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15–16, ESV)
Growing closer to Christ does not happen alone.
We need one another. In his book on the importance of relationships, Paul Tripp emphasizes this importance:
“What happens in the messiness of relationships is that our hearts are revealed, our weaknesses are exposed, and we start coming to the end ourselves. Only when this happens do we reach out for the help God alone can provide.” (Paul Tripp, Relationships, a Mess Worth Making, 12).
For CENTURIES, the early church practiced ASCETICISM, the idea that you draw closer to GOD through isolation, fasting, and poverty.
This movement was bringing great harm to the church, and would have ruined true Christianity if it had not changed.
Marshall Shelley writes.....
Pachomius was an Egyptian soldier won to Christ by the kindness of Christians in Thebes. After his release from the military around A.D. 315, he was baptized. Serious about his new faith and determined to grow, Pachomius became a disciple of Palamon, an ascetic who taught him the self-denial and solitary life of a religious hermit.
In early Christianity, the model of devotion was the recluse, dedicated to resisting the corruption of society. These hermits wandered the desert alone-fasting, praying, and having visions. Many went to extremes: eating nothing but grass, living in trees, or refusing to wash.
But Pachimoius began to question the methods and lifestyle of his mentors.
How can you learn to love if no one else is around?
How can you learn humility living alone?
How can you learn kindness or gentleness or goodness in isolation?
How can you learn patience unless someone puts yours to the test?
In short, he concluded, developing spiritual fruit requires being around people-ordinary, ornery people. "To save souls," he said, "you must bring them together."
So Pachomius began an ascetic koinonia, where holiness was developed not in isolation but in community. Instead of each person seeking God in his own way, with the dangers of idleness and eccentricity, Pachomius established a common life based on worship, work, and discipline.
In community with flawed, demanding, sometimes disagreeable people, followers of Pachomius learned to take hurt rather than give it. They discovered that disagreements and opposition provide the opportunity to redeem life situations and experience God's grace. Thus began genuine monastic life.
Pachomius, while largely forgotten in church history, demonstrates that as attractive as solitary sanctification may seem, it is life amid people, busyness, and interruptions that develop many of the qualities God requires.
Marshall Shelley, “Developing spiritual fruit requires being around people--ordinary, ornery people, “Leadership Journal, Spring, 1993
Let’s pursue this theme of spiritual unity and connecting with one another.
First, we must consider the context of
Ephesians 4:15-16
The theme of this chapter (and the entire book), is Spiritual Unity
But in this particular passage, I believe that there is a Chiastic structure in these two verses pointing to the importance of spiritual unity.
Notice the repeating, inverted patter of the words LOVE and GROWTH
4:15 “Speaking the truth in LOVE ”
4:15 “GROW up in every way”
“Into Him who is the head, Christ”
4:16 “Each part, working properly makes the body GROW”
4:16 “Builds itself up on LOVE
If this is an intentional chiasm, Paul is demonstrating that LOVE is both the MEANS and the END. A description of love marks the beginning and the end of these two verses. Inside of this emphasis on love, we find growth. Love produces growth! LOVE governs Christian relationships
A WORD about SPEAKING the TRUTH in LOVE: Both TRUTH and LOVE are required. We fail when we omit either.
When we DON’T SPEAK the TRUTH (lies, gossip, running away from conflict, failing to discipline our children, allowing sin to continue)
When we DON’T HAVE LOVE: (anger, jealousy, criticism, critical spirit, complaining, divisive)
ADDING a DISCLAIMER does not give you permission to speak in anger. Here are some common disclaimers we use today:
“I’m just sayin.”
“With all due respect”
“I probably should say this, but”
Each of these demonstrates that our intention is to hurt the other person while trying to avoid responsibility for our actions.
Notice that in the middle of the emphasis on LOVE and GROWTH, we find a single line emphasizing CHRIST. This is the apex of these two verses and demonstrate that Christ is the FOCUS of Christian relationships.
“And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,” (Colossians 1:18–19, ESV)
So, in the church, we are to be connected to one another.
We are to love one another, and this love will produce growth.
One important area of connecting with others is that we connect among differing generations.
Admonition to the Generations:
YOUNG PEOPLE: Honor your elders. “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. Honor widows who are truly widows.” (1 Timothy 5:1–3, ESV)
OLDER CHRISTIANS: Encourage young people. Teach by example. “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” (Titus 2:1–5, ESV)
Put your preferences aside. LOVE is more than a good feeling about others. It is made evident in selflessness.
Distinguish between preferences and biblical principle. The church should not maintain preferences that are only relevant to those on the inside. We must remain OUTWARD in focus.
Here are five factors that help us know if the issue at hand is truly a Biblical Principle
1. BIBLICAL. Is there a clear, unambiguous biblical command.
““Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”” (2 Corinthians 6:17, NIV84)
In the past, this verse have been taken out of context and used to argue against going to movies, dancing, listening to secular music, playing cards and a host of other activities deemed wrong by one Christian and innocent by another. But for the issue to be biblical principle, there must be a clear passage from Scripture, and not a passage that we take apply for our own convenient.
2. SPIRITUAL. Before condemning a questionable activity, we should ask, “Do I see Christ-like behavior in the lives of those who practice this questionable thing?” Many times we object to things that other godly Christians find acceptable. This is not the primary way in which we determine whether something is a principle or preference, but it should cause us carefully consider why we remain opposed to a particular activity.
3. HISTORICAL. We should also discover if the activity has been consistently wrong throughout church history.
4. MISSIONAL. It is also helpful to ask whether Christians in other parts of the world universally reject this activity.
5. HUMBLE. We should evaluate whether we have Christian friends who see this matter differently.
There are many practices that Christians today differ on. Many of these debates are very important to members who have been in the church for generations. But we must be careful because new Christians who are mature in the Lord often do not hold the same convictions. In fact, they are often surprised to discover that some Christians regard these activities as sinful. Among them are things like Dressing in your “Sunday Best,” dancing at a wedding or party (not sexually provocative dancing, but celebratory dancing like you would find at a wedding or special occasion).
We must be careful to recognize that there are differences of opinion on matters such as this. We should strive to keep our focus on the gospel, and not the rules and regulations from our past.
GEORGE BARNA writes. [In the church today, there is a] “McChristian” mentality — which picks and chooses here and there to fill one’s ecclesiastical shopping list. There are hitchhikers who attend one church for the preaching, send their children to a second church for its dynamic youth program, and go to a third church’s small group. Church hitchhikers have a telling vocabulary: “I go to” or “I attend,” but never “I belong to” or “I am a member.” .... T]he average adult thinks that belonging to a church is good for other people, but represents unnecessary bondage and baggage for himself.”2 So today, ...we have a phenomenon unthinkable in any other century: churchless Christians. There is a vast herd of professed Christians who exist as nomadic hitchhikers without accountability, without discipline, without discipleship, living apart from the regular benefits of the ordinances.
Let’s not be churchless Christians! We need the church. We need to be connected to one another.
