Growing Up Into Christ

Ephesians 4:11-16 (WEBBE): ¹¹He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; ¹²for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ, ¹³until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; ¹⁵but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, ¹⁶from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.

The ideal is that we should grow up into Christ, with help from the five fold ministry. This is meant for every believer, so that we will all live in the fullness of Christ, in this life. This doesn’t happen automatically though – it takes effort on our part to grow. We see that the Hebrews struggled with this for example.

Hebrews 5:12-13 (WEBBE): ¹²For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the revelations of God. You have come to need milk, and not solid food. ¹³For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby.

Verse 13 gives a vital piece of information. A person that is a spiritual baby is somebody that is “not experienced in the word of righteousness”. The King James Bible translates it as unskillful. How do you gain experience with anything in life? You DO it. Want to become a good pianist? Play the piano! Want to become a mature Christian? Do the Word!

James 1:22 (WEBBE): ²²But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.

Right now you might think that you don’t know enough yet to be able to do the Word. “I need to do that ministry training first. And read this book. And…” But the truth is that if you have one verse in your heart, you already have something to act on. A pianist that has hands-on learned to play only “Happy Birthday” is a 100% more experienced pianist than somebody who has only read the sheet music for all of Bach’s works and never touched a piano! So get started today!