Supporting The Work Of Your Pastor

Expect the Church To Grow

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Eph 4:14-16)

Things you never hear in church:

11. I couldn’t find space to park outside. Praise God!

10. Nothing inspires me and strengthens my commitment like our annual stewardship campaign!

9. Pastor, we’d like to send you to this Bible seminar in the Bahamas.

8. Since we’re all here, let’s start the service early.

7. I love it when we sing hymns I’ve never heard before!

6. Forget the denominational minimum salary, let’s pay our pastor so he/she can live like we do.

5. I volunteer to be the permanent teacher for the Junior High Sunday School class.

4. I’ve decided to give our church the $500 a month I used to send to TV evangelists.

3. Personally I find witnessing much more enjoyable than golf.

2. I was so enthralled, I never noticed your sermon went 25 minutes over time.

1. Hey! It’s my turn to sit in the front pew.

There are two purposes for God’s gift of pastors to the church (v 11), as indicated by the two subjunctives “in order that” in verses 14 and 15). The first, as indicated by the Greek “that” (translated as “then” in NIV), is that the members are no longer children. The word “children” (nepios) is made famous by Paul’s five-fold repetition of the word in 1 Corinthians 13:11 - “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” “Children” are not teenagers, youth, adolescent, minors or juveniles; they are merely babies, infants or toddlers, learning to stand, walk and speak. Children are used in the Bible in the context of having to “cherish” (thalpo), cuddle and coddle them, not merely care for them (1 Thess 2:7) and in the context of requiring milk, rejecting solid food (Heb 5:13).

The result of leaving babyhood is qualified by two Greek participles (“how”), the child is “tossing” back and forth and “blowing” here and there. Tossed back and forth refers to the raging sea; blown here and there refers to the howling wind. The winds sway you, but the waves sink you.

There are two “in” prepositions in the passage: Verse 14’s “and by” is “in” (en) in Greek, complemented by another “in” at the end of the verse. The first preposition – “cunning” (kubeia) - is fraud and scam, the second for “craftiness” is trickery or sophistry, the serpent’s tool on Eve, according to 2 Corinthians 11:3. Complementing the second “in” is “method of deception” in Greek, or deceitful scheming. “Method” (scheme), according to Ephesians 6:11, is the devil’s ways – he has method, not might! “Deception” (plane) is the word for Balaam's error (Jude 11), also translated as falsehood (1 John 4:6), lawless (2 Peter 3:17) and delusion (2 Thess 2:11). Balaam is famous for his vague yes, no and maybe answers in leading Israel to sin.