We do not need to look very far in our culture and indeed the world to see that stability is as rare as hen’s teeth. People yelling for change and many do not even know anything about the change issues they are supporting. They just support them. Give them the quotes of Conservatives and tell them a Liberal said it they will agree with them. Give then the quotes of a Liberal and say a Conservative and they will disagree with them. Put the Left’s platform on the right side of the page and the Right on the Left and people will choose the Right’s platform because it is on the left side because they are Leftist and assume that the Left’s position is always placed on the Left. Even if they actually read the points they will agree because they believe they are looking at the Leftist agenda.
Even in medicine or nutrition we see this as coffee is bad and then it is good. Eggs are bad and eggs are good. Eat chocolate. Don’t eat chocolate. This medicine is a lifesaver or this medicine blows up your liver, cause suicidal thoughts or cause you to die of an MI. Indeed, a doctor is said to be practicing medicine and he practices on us while someone is making millions selling our herbs. Aromatics, essential oils and the like.
Unfortunately, you can find too much of the same instability and chaos in Church life. So many different theologies and practices. Many views on salvation, baptism, the gifts and many other issues. Understandably, it is confusing to the unbeliever, but there should not be so much confusion in the family of God. Indeed, we should not have Christians that are like those at Mars Hill seeking every new thing or as I call them Bar Hopper Christians. How can you have seeker churches when the Word says that there are none that seek after God? Why do you need so many programs or fads like Purpose Driven, Missional, Emerging and a new thing all the time? Why did we develop a Consumer Christianity for people to find the Church that fits their perceived wants instead of seeking what they really need from God. We no longer have to deal with conflict and be responsible. We just run to another church or find someone who will start one for us and cause division in the Body. It is a travesty as we should be the most stable people on the planet as we belong to a very stable God.
Eph 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Is it a Fivefold or Fourfold ministry? Notice how he used the word some before each gift, but not before teacher. If teacher was a separate gift he should have inserted some in their. He did not because pastor and teacher are part of the same gift. Kai between nouns can be translated as even/or making it pastor even teacher or pastor or teacher and some use pastor-teacher. This does match up better with 1 Tim 3 where one of the requirements of a pastor is that he has to be apt/or able to teach. Paul says in 1 Tim 5:17 that elders who rule well are worthy of double honor/pay and especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. Here kai is between word and doctrine and could be accurately translated word or doctrine tying them together. After all, he is laboring in the word to be able to teach the doctrine so they are tied together as the Word is God’s doctrine for man expressed in poetry, proverbs, signs, prophecy, history and so on. So an office of pastor-teacher seems fitting. Sadly, many preachers are not doing their job for they are preaching to please the members and the culture. What they are supposed to be doing is the following verses.
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
And what are these gifts for? The perfecting or the complete furnishing of the saints. To take you from an apprentice into a skilled laborer may be easier to understand. To take you from Pre-K through post-graduate in the work of the ministry. That has many facets. Building a house requires many skills and a person who did not know what a screw was can be trained to be a general contractor overseeing the whole job or specializing in framing, drywall, flooring, plumbing, etc. There are so many areas to serve our brethren, the unbelievers, the community, county, state, nation and the world that no one should be able to say that they have nothing to offer when God has clearly said every believer has at least one gift and some have more than one.
The saints are to do the work of the ministry not just the ones with the four callings. The folks with the gifts mentioned are to perfect the saints so they can edify or build up the Body of Christ. Most of us are not bodybuilders in the concept of lifting weights. I am a weightlifter as I lift 265 pounds every time I stand up, but pumping iron is not a thrill for me. We are supposed to be body builders in the church. We are to exercise our gifts for others. Doing that in the right spirit helps us as well, but if we are doing them to puff ourselves up they will not benefit us even if they do benefit someone else. They will not get the full benefit because our pride or self-love inhibits our potential and destiny.
Peter says we are also lively stones.
1Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
So when we are fit bodies we are also stones being used to build up a spiritual house. We are all believer priests with gifts and roles in the house. As we do the work of the ministry thus building up the Body we are offering up spiritual sacrifices because we are in the will of God empowered by the Spirit and these are acceptable to God because of Christ. That is some blessing and also some responsibility.
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
This is process that will not be completed until at least we are in the Millennium. We will then have our resurrected bodies. Yet, we may still be learning more and more throughout eternity as it may take an eternity for us to come into a complete knowledge of God for us to measure up to Him as much as a creation is able to measure up to the Creator and Savior. It is also a group effort. We are not to retire or rest on our laurels until we ALL come into the unity of faith. You come to minister and are ministered to by your ministry to others. There is no retirement here. How we do it may change, but it is not over until the death angel sings or the trumpet blows.
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
To be tossed to and fro or to fluctuate is pandemic in the culture, but sadly it is also in the Church. Too many Christians are not grounded in Christ or even fundamental doctrines. People jump from church to church with no real regard to doctrine. They can jump from Baptist to Catholic to Mormon to Presbyterian to Pentecostal apparently according to their mood swings or what friend or co-worker invites them. That should not be possible if they are truly saved because Jesus said that His sheep would hear His voice and would not follow another.
They are blown about by every wind of doctrine and there are many winds out there, but only one wind is of God and that is the Holy Spirit who inspired or breathed into the prophets and Apostles. Anything else is an ill wind or spiritual hurricane that will destroy you.
The sleight of hand is the word cube in the Greek and is a reference to dice or gambling. By following any of those ill winds you are gambling with your soul and they are showing you what appears to be a more prosperous way, but you will lose. These false doctrines may come close to the truth and sound good just as loaded dice look fine from the outside but it is what is inside them that cause you to loose your money and the loaded dice of false doctrine will do the same for your soul.
The false prophets who teach these doctrines are slick and they can weave some great tales and twist the Scriptures to make what they are selling look too good to pass up. Remember that the Anti-Christ will come with signs so awesome that IF it were possible he would deceive the elect. Remember Matt 7:21-25. Those lads did miracles and preached in Jesus’ name and Jesus said He NEVER knew them and that is why they were workers of iniquity..
They even cast out devils or so they thought. Jesus asked the Pharisees if satan cast out satan how could his kingdom stand. He doesn’t cast out his troops, but he can make it look like he did. If the devil has created a condition in a person all he has to do is change that position. If a demon drives a person in some particular sin and then a false prophet “calls” the demon out all the demon has to do is no longer drive that person into that sin but rather now drive him into religion so now instead of the person being a lost sinner he is now a lost religious person. If the devil can cause an illness like the woman with an issue as Jesus said satan did for 18 years he can unbind them so it looks like a faith healer healed her. So now they are an unsaved person without an infirmity instead of one with an infirmity. The demon has not left. He has only changed actions. Satan can come as an angel of light and Paul said that it is no wonder that satan’s angels can appear as ministers of righteousness.
It is all about deception. The false prophet is often a person deceived into thinking they are of God and doing His work. The recipients of the “healing or miracle” are deceived into thinking they are following a “man of God” and become religious, but not righteous. Unless God works a miracles in both their lives they will go to Hell thinking they were going to Heaven. This why we must be careful of who we glad hand as a brother/sister. It is dangerous to jump from one fad to another and church to church without asking for discernment.
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
There are many church groups that are big on love and slack on truth. Others are strong on truth but lack love. Grace, truth and love are a kind of trinity. You must have all three together or else you have lies, false love and twisted grace. You must have that balance to stay away from dangerous liberalism and extreme Pharisaical tyrants and just plain crazies like Jim Jones. Some people will not speak truth because they are afraid of being called judgmental or unloving. Those words are cast at you normally by the people doing something the Bible calls sin and those who support the people in sin.
If I tell you truth and in love considering my own flaws and downfalls I am not judging you. Indeed, if I use the Word it is not me that is judging because I did not write it. I am only called to live it and preach it even if I am not in some sort of pastoral ministry because we are all believer priests called to be ambassadors of the kingdom. If I must tell you about sin or heresy I also must tell you of the grace of God that calls you out of the sin or error and brings you into the family of God or restores fellowship. If I do not do all three of these I am not being loving or gracious to you and allowing you to be damned without showing you the truth. That makes me a horrible person. If you would run to grab a baby playing in cow manure why should I not seek to drag someone out of the manure of sin and heresy. You would do all you could to get a person out of a burning building. Jude tells me to pull people from the fire even though I may hate what they are doing.
Jude 1:22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:
23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
In the Body we are to speak the truth in love so we will increase our growing up in Him or being like Him because He always spoke the truth in love even if it meant telling a woman he knew she had five husbands and the one she was with was not her husband. He exercised grace with the woman taken in adultery and still told her to go and sin no more. He did not lambaste the impotent man at the pool even though his illness was caused by sin. He healed him and then said to go and sin no more lest a worse thing happens. As we grow in all things by first learning the truth and then speaking it in love we become more like our head, Christ.
Ignoring issues out of fear is as bad as speaking the truth without love and grace. Truth can be very uncomfortable to the speaker as well as the hearer, but f you love and have known the love and grace of Christ then you have to take that risk. John Wesley told his preacher boys that if no one was saved or no one got mad when they preached they should go home as they are not called to preach. It is better to lose a friend, family, jobs including a pastorate for speaking the truth in love with grace than to be silent and watch people die and go to Hell or allow heresy to run rampant without censure.
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Just as our physical body is wonderfully put together in a marvelously organized and compacted way so is the Body of Christ. Having worked on loading docks for a couple of truck companies I learned how to stack high and tight. You do not know what size or shape cargo you may get. It is kind of like playing Tetris, Our bodies look like a perfectly packed truck. When you think about how many organs are placed in the core and all the muscles and ligaments that support all of that and a well designed bone structure you have to wonder how in the world someone can be an evolutionist. Indeed, in the 19th century an atheist converted to Christ just by seeing a skeleton. Imagine how seeing everything packed together would have affected him.
God meant for His Body to be the same. Many parts doing various ministries with varied gifts, or effectually working in the measure of every part, but all in the same Body. Jesus prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one. Yet, in essence, we have dropped a grenade in the middle of His Body and rejoice over the exploded parts still calling it one body. With 81 churches and growing in town we can hardly say we are one or striving to see Jesus get His prayer answered.
By exercising our gifts and talents we are to increase the Body. We are edifying or building ourselves in love if we are doing it right. That we have so much division it is obvious that love is lacking in the Body except for self-love which is in over abundance. Too many do not use their gifts and others are too busy seeking what they like instead of looking to what He likes.
It is time for the Body to be stable and fit to do what we are called to do. We must put away childish things and unite to stand as one in a world of chaos. They need to see the Church as the pillar and ground of truth. Hard for them to see that when we constantly divide the Body and fail to speak truth with love and grace. We must seek out our wandering or hurt brethren. Friends do not let friends stay in dead churches so we must reach out and bring them into our fold. Merger is a word we need to learn and forget the word split. Barna has said that most people surveyed said they do not go to church because no one has invited them. We need to take away that excuse.
Let us build a stable and growing together. If we love Him then it should not a problem. If we love ourselves more than we need to return to our first love. Maranatha!
