Mature in Christ

If you have your Bible with you this morning, I hope you do, we're going to be back in Ephesians
chapter 4 as we continue our work through the book of Ephesians. And I want us as we start this
morning to kind of step back from our passage and just do some imagining with me. I want you to
imagine that you are the Apostle Paul, okay?
Imagine that. It is 52 AD. It's about 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus.
and you are preparing to head out on your third missionary journey. It's the spring of 52.
You and your companions are beginning what will ultimately be a 2,700-mile journey,
most of it by foot. I mean, just think about what's involved in that.
traveling 2,700 miles mostly by foot. Eventually on this trip, you will arrive in Ephesus,
which is a major city. You have been there before, briefly, the last time you were there. You left
Aquila and Priscilla there and asked that they would look after a fledgling church that had begun.
You promised that you would be back, and so you and the team have arrived, and you've determined
that you will stay here for a while in 52 AD. Period ends up being 27 months,
the longest you stay anywhere on any of your missionary journeys. So Paul lands here with his team
for a long time, and things are hopping in Ephesus.
You begin your regular practice. Paul's regular practice was to go to the synagogue and take the
gospel there, to go into reason with his fellow Jews about how Jesus is the fulfillment of the
Messianic prophecies in the Old Covenant. And so you go to the synagogue and you make your case
over a series of weeks, and the Jews reject the idea that Jesus is the Messiah,
and they decide they don't want to hear it anymore. So you take your message to a secular arena,
to the Hall of Tyrannus, which is a place where anyone can come. It's kind of a free speech.
symposium, anyone, philosophers, political actors can come and make their case.
And so you go daily to the hall of Tyrannus and you reason with the Gentiles who are there about
the fact that there is a God. He is the Hebrew God. He's the one true God. And that he has come and
visited himself in the person of Jesus Christ, not just to visit us, but to come.
You are arguing for the fact that God came near, that he offered himself for us,
he died in our place for our sin, and that he rose again and that he's coming back. And there in
Ephesus, there are people who hear you and believe the gospel. And so you begin to establish the
local church that is there. You begin to develop elders who are appointed to serve in this local
church. And the Bible says the word of the Lord continues to increase and prevail mightily.
In fact, it's a big enough deal that the community starts to notice there is a decline in idolatry
sales. The silversmiths in town are not happy because their business is bad because the Christians
are not buying idols like they used to. And so they protest.
Demetrius comes forward, one of the silversmiths, and he says, these people are troublemakers. We
need them out of our town. They bring some of your group before the crowd, and they are beaten,
and they're flogged, and peace is eventually made.
You eventually leave after 27 months and go on to the next city, but the church in Ephesus
continues to grow and to thrive. All right, that's 52 AD. Now jump ahead 10 years.
Paul has completed his third missionary journey. He is now on his fourth missionary journey,
and he's in prison in Rome awaiting trial under charges that he is an insurrectionist.
that he wants to overthrow Rome and install a new king. And while Paul,
while you are, you're Paul, you're awaiting trial and you decide to write to a number of the
churches that you helped to plant. Ephesus is one of those churches. And so you sit down to write
to the Ephesians. And now if you're thinking about it and thinking about these churches that you
planted 10 years ago, what is it that you would hope would be true 10 years after you planted the
church about that church you planted? As you think about what has gone on there,
what is it that you hope God would have done in the 10 years since you've been gone? I was thinking
about that question this week as I was reading through Ephesians, and it got me thinking about
2036. Can you even imagine such a year? That's 10 years from now,
2036. And I started thinking, What would I be hoping that 10 years from now would be true about
Redeemer?
What would be on my heart as I start thinking about what our church will be in 2036?
And I put a list together. What is it that I would want to be true?
I just started writing down a list. It's not exhaustive. These are just the first things that came
to mind. Top of my list is that this would be a church filled with men and women who are standing
firm in the faith. Believing the Bible, not wavering, not compromising, not bending to cultural
pressure, but people who have not softened in any way on their commitment to the authority of God's
word. That'd be the first thing I'd hope for because that's foundational. Next thing,
I thought I would want the love of Jesus to be evident in this place among one another and within
the community. How you express your devotion to him. in worship, in sacrifice,
in giving, in serving one another. I would want that to be vibrant and rich and noticeable.
I would want people who see this church to notice that that's true of us.
I would want this to be a church filled with men and women and boys and girls who are growing
deeper in their understanding and their knowledge of who Jesus is, what his plan and purpose for
our lives is, that they are meeting with him regularly, drawing near to him,
learning from him and from his word. I would not want this to be a church where people continue to
walk joyfully in obedience to God's call on their lives, in holiness, godliness.
They would seek to honor Christ through the choices they make and the lives they live.
And I would want this to be a church that is having an impact on our city and our world.
In the same way that the people in Ephesus, the church in Ephesus was having an impact on their
community, that the message of the gospel would be going forward through this church. In short,
I would want this to be a church where you are worshiping passionately,
following faithfully, serving joyfully, and telling others boldly about Jesus.
Now, that may sound familiar because we've got these flags up here. Worship, follow, serve, tell.
Those are not just decorations that we put up as banners. They are here to remind us every week of
what it is we should be pursuing as we seek to grow and mature in our relationship with Christ.
And that is what's at the heart of the passage we're going to be looking at this morning, this idea
of maturity. Paul's burden is that the Ephesian church would be a mature church,
mature in Christ. As he's writing this letter to the Ephesians 10 years after having planted the
church, this is what he points them to. maturity God's design for his people to be spiritually
mature men and women we'll see that as we read through the passage we're going to read chapter 4
verses 7 through 16 this morning we're looking specifically at verses 3 or excuse me 13 through 16
so let me read it but before we do that again let's pray and ask God to speak to our hearts Lord we
do ask that you would be our teacher this morning, that you would speak through me,
that your spirit would be at work softening hearts, preparing the soil of our hearts so that we
might hear your word clearly, that it would be implanted deep in us, that you would form and
fashion us in your likeness, that the light of Christ might be seen in us. We ask it in Jesus'
name. Amen. And I ask you to stand as we read. This passage together,
this is the word of God for the people of God, Ephesians 4 beginning at verse 7. The Bible says,
but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says,
when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended,
what does that mean? But that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth. He who
descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds,
and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until
we all attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood,
to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. so that we may no longer be children
tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,
by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. 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.
Amen. May God bless this reading of the word. The grass withers and the flower fades. The word of
our God will stand forever. You can be seated.
All right, let me reset the context for these verses that we're looking at this morning. As you
know, chapter four is a turning point in the book of Ephesians. The first three chapters are about
what God has done for us in Christ. There's only one imperative in the first three chapters,
and that is remember these things. And then when you get to chapter four, we begin the imperatives.
Because of what God has done for us in Christ, this is how you should respond. This is what your
life should look like. You're to walk in a manner worthy of your calling. You're to cultivate godly
character, things like humility and patience and gentleness and forbearance.
And you are to live lives that prioritize the worth and value of Jesus in your life.
You're to be eager to maintain unity with one another and to come together as the body, serving one
another and functioning together in a common commitment to Jesus. You're to use the spiritual gifts
you've been given to serve the body and to strengthen the body. Last week, Cole talked about...
of the gifts, the list that is given here of leadership gifts in the church,
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers who are to equip the saints,
that's you, for the work of ministry. These leadership gifts are given so leaders will equip the
saints, the members of the body, and so that the members of the body will then minister to one
another. Let me just make sure you understand. what verse 12 is saying here. The work of ministry,
serving, by the way, ministry and service, same word. If you are ministering,
you're serving. If you're serving, you're ministering. They're just synonyms. The work of ministry
is for all of us to do.
It's not for the staff to do, the staff to minister to the congregation. I mean,
we're to do that, but then the congregation is to minister to one another. We're all to minister to
each other. We're to serve one another. The leadership gifts are there to equip you to be able to
more effectively serve and minister. So our goal as church leaders is for our church to be a
strong, healthy, vibrant church, a God-honoring, God-exalting, God-glorifying church. And the
key for that to happen is for all of us to be doing the work of ministry. If we're all not doing
the work of ministry, we can't be the kind of church God wants us to be. This is how the body is
built up according to this passage. And I want us to see here in verses 12 through 16 that God's
goal for His body is a mature church, a strong,
built-up, healthy church. And we're going to take some time to look at what is pointed out in this
passage as the characteristics of an immature church. and then we'll see the characteristics of a
mature church because they're listed in this passage. But let's start with the goal. The goal is
maturity. Verse 13, it's described as mature manhood, which according to this verse is the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Verse 15, it's called growing up every way into Christ.
Here's a simple equation for you. Spiritual maturity equals Christ-likeness.
You want to know what it looks like to be spiritually mature?
People see you, you remind them of Jesus.
You're evidencing the kind of love and grace. You're walking in righteousness and holiness.
That's spiritual maturity. When you are Christ-like, you are spiritually mature. When you're
spiritually immature, you're not Christ-like. Yeah, I'll take some water. Thank you. That's a
great idea.
Not even used, he says.
He's a deacon. He is serving the body right there.
Thank you. So the theological word for spiritual maturity is sanctification.
It's the work of God's Spirit in our lives with which we cooperate and participate to conform us to
the image of Christ. And the Spirit does that in us on an individual basis.
God's goal for each of His children is for us to look more like Jesus.
We see that in Romans 8, 29. It says, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be
conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
When God saves us, that's when the remodeling project begins. That's the spiritual makeover that he
begins in us. And he who begins a good work in us will be what? faithful to complete it.
He starts it, he'll finish it. 1 Corinthians 15, after Paul has talked about the resurrection for a
whole chapter in the Bible, he says, just as we have borne the image of the man of dust,
we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. You were created in Adam,
you're recreated, born again. be like Jesus.
Paul describes it to the Galatians this way. He says, my little children for whom I am again in the
anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.
And John in 1 John 3 says that while this process of sanctification continues in all of us
throughout our lives, it won't be finally complete until we see Jesus. Beloved,
we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he
appears, then we shall be like him. We're in the process of being made like him. When he appears,
we'll be fully like him. Our sanctification will be complete. We will be glorified in that moment.
We will see him as he is. You can't be more mature than Jesus,
right?
When people see in you the image of Christ, You are living then as God intends for you to live.
That's what walking worthy looks like.
And when that's true for all of us, then what we have is a spiritually mature body,
which is what Paul was longing for for the church at Ephesus, that it would be true throughout the
body, that what's happening, the body would be doing the work, the visible body of Christ on earth.
would be demonstrating that spiritual maturity. And that's why God gives the leadership gifts to
the church because it is the responsibility of the church leaders to equip the saints to grow in
spiritual maturity.
That's their assignment. That's our assignment. And the goal for each of us individually is to
respond to that and to make it the purpose of our lives to grow in Christlikeness.
Just stop here. Is that the purpose of your life? To grow in Christlikeness? And what are you doing
toward that purpose? What steps do you take with that purpose in mind?
There may be people who say, yeah, that's my goal. I want to be like Christ. Okay, what are you
doing? Well,
not much. It's like me saying, I want to be fit. What are you doing for that?
Well, not much. You're not going to get fit if you're not doing much. You're not going to get
spiritually fit if you're not participating in the kind of spiritual disciplines and practices that
will help you grow in maturity. You're all here on a Sunday morning. That's one of the good things.
This is one of those practices that will help you grow in maturity. But there are other spiritual
disciplines that are a part of the process. And we have to be committed to those disciplines if we
want. The goal of spiritual maturity in our lives, it's not just going to magically happen.
I mean, at one point when we see Christ, I guess it will kind of magically happen. But in the
meantime, are you growing in grace? Are you pursuing maturity?
That's Paul's burden. That's God's burden. That's why he gave gifts to the church.
That's why there are leaders in the church to help us all get there. Now this passage offers
guidance about what that spiritual maturity looks like. I want to start with what spiritual
immaturity looks like because that's in this passage. And I found five characteristics in this
passage of spiritual immaturity. They're all in verse 14 and it's where you're described as a
child. Now the Bible says we should be childlike, right? Childlike in our faith.
That means that we should be innocent and trusting. But it doesn't mean that we should be childish.
There's a difference between being childlike and childish. It's a good thing to have simple trust
and the faith of a child, but children can be easily influenced.
John Stott says we are to resemble children in their humility and innocence, but not in their
ignorance or their instability. So the first thing about immature faith is that it is naive and
gullible.
When you are naive and gullible, that's what children are. They are naive and they're gullible.
When it comes to spiritual matters, they are ignorant because they have not spent time coming to
know God's Word. And for grownups, for people like us,
when we are ignoring God's Word, when we are neglecting God's Word, we are saying,
I don't need to bother with all of that. That's an ignorance that can be taken advantage of. That's
an immaturity.
Back when I was in college, I took a bus trip with a group of high school students.
We were going to a camp up in Canada. So we drove from Tulsa,
Oklahoma to Vancouver, British Columbia, 48 hours nonstop on a bus. When you're in high school and
college, that seems like nothing. So you get on the bus and you drive all night and you drive all
day and you drive all night. So we're driving through Montana in the daytime, in the morning,
and out in the fields along the highway, there's some crop that is growing.
I don't know what it was. It was green with a white flower at the top. And I looked out and one of
the girls on the trip said, I wonder what that is. And I said to her, that is wild dental floss.
And she looked at me like, no. And I said, well, where do you think dental floss comes from?
Has to come from somewhere.
Montana is known for its wild dental floss. And she looked at me and I just straight faced,
didn't break. And she said, are you serious? I said, yeah. Have you not heard of Montana,
the dental floss that grows here? No, I've never heard of such a thing. I just kept it straight for
an hour talking to her about the wild dental floss that was growing. And it was fun.
And finally, I forget where it was or how it broke. She was mad at me. You fool.
It was because she was naive. She was gullible. Now, there's nothing wrong with being,
again, innocent and playful. But when it comes to spiritual matters, we are not to be naive. We're
not to be able to be fooled by somebody who comes along and tells you that that's wild dental
floss.
Mature people are not characterized by naivety and gullibility. They seek to be wise.
They walk with the wise. They grow in wisdom and understanding. These are signs of maturity.
They are not naive and gullible like children in this passage. They are pursuing wisdom.
Second mark of spiritual immaturity is instability. And this is pictured here by those who are
being tossed to and fro by the waves. You ever been to the beach and been out there when the waves
are coming in? And when they start to come in big, you can't stand against the waves. The waves
will knock you down. The waves will knock you from side to side. Waves are strong like that.
And the Bible calls men and women not to stand on the sand,
but to build on the rock. We need our lives to be built on a foundation of stability that makes us
able to stand when the waves come crashing against us. This is why after this whole chapter on the
resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, therefore, because Jesus is raised and because you
will be raised, you have eternal life in him. Therefore, be steadfast and immovable.
Be anchored. Don't get knocked around by the waves that are going to come your way.
I think the waves here in particular are a reference to the trials that are going to come our way.
It's easy to get knocked down by a trial. I think the waves are those things that buffet us in this
life and that can take you out. And the only way you can stand firm against the waves is when you
know what you're standing on, when you're standing on the rock. James says it is a double-minded
man who is unstable in all his ways. Stability comes from being single-minded,
fixed on Jesus. Spiritual stability is
a sign of maturity. If you're someone who can easily lose your spiritual footing,
if circumstances can knock you down pretty easily, the Bible is saying it's time for you to grow
up. It's time for you to get spiritually strengthened. Find your footing.
And by the way, do you know what produces steadfastness in your life? The Bible tells us what
produces it. Trials produce steadfastness. When you go through trials and you stand firm,
you get stronger. That's why God brings trials into our lives to make us be able to stand firm in
the midst of trials. You may be going through one right now. There may be something that is
buffeting you and knocking you around and causing you to go, God, can I trust you? And God, are you
there? And God, do you care? And all of those things that come to mind. And God is saying, yes,
I'm here. Stand firm. Learn to stand strong in the midst of trials.
Here's the third mark of immaturity. Being someone who follows fads or fashions.
You get excited about what's new. Whatever's in the wind. It's pictured here by the wind that
blows, carries you about every wind of doctrine.
Here's something to be on guard against. Be on guard against any speaker or author or someone who
comes along and says, I'm going to reveal something long hidden in the scriptures, a mystery that
has been hidden up until now.
There's a best-selling author of books who has a whole series of books like this one.
His name is Jonathan Cahn. I don't know if you've read any of his books. I haven't read any. Part
of the reason I haven't read is because I can tell from the cover that this is probably not a book
I'd be crazy about with what's inside. So he's got the book, The Oracle, and then this is The
Jubilean Mysteries. In The Oracle, The Jubilean Mysteries are revealed. In this one,
The Mystery of the Shimada. The 3,000-year-old mystery that holds the secret of America's
future, the world's future, and your future. Then he's got the Hosea Manifesto.
No, the Josiah Manifesto, sorry. The ancient mystery and guide for the end times.
One more. Here's the paradigm, the ancient blueprint that holds all the mystery of our time. I
could keep going. The guy's written 11 books. He's sold three to five million copies of his books.
What I'm suggesting to you is that people who buy these books and read them and find something
amazing in them are people who might be easily tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.
Listen, what you want to be anchored in is the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
not something new that someone's come up with. R.C. Sproul says, have you ever stopped to think
how unlikely it is after 2,000 years of intense examination and reflection that any substantively
new understanding of the Christian faith would be discovered now? We find new discoveries in
astronomy, new discoveries in medical science and so on, but here we are, excuse me.
But here we are looking at the same source, the same material that has been shifted over and over
again for 2,000 years. There's something stable about the classical understanding of the Christian
faith. That's where you want to be anchored. Maturity comes not when you're chasing after spiritual
fads, but when you are anchoring yourself in the historic Christian faith.
Don't be carried about by every wind of doctrine. Anchor yourself in the bedrock. Here's the fourth
mark of immaturity. People who, like children, can be easily outsmarted and easily fooled and
easily deceived, carried about by human cunning, craftiness in deceitful schemes is how it's
described here. By the way, we see this happening throughout Africa right now, where the so-called
prosperity gospel, which is no gospel at all, is telling people that if they come to Jesus,
they can be healthy, wealthy, and wise. God wants you to be rich. God wants you to be healed. God
wants you to prosper. You just give us your money when the collection plate comes by and God will
do all these things. That's a satanic deception. That's a scheme. And the spiritually immature fall
for it.
So that's a pretty good list. Look at that list. That is spiritual immaturity. Spiritual maturity
is
the antithesis of what we see up there.
People who are wise and discerning, instead of being naive and gullible. People who are steadfast
and stable instead of being instable. People who keep their eyes fixed on the heart of the faith
rather than being swept away by fads and fashions. People who are able to spot and stand up against
deception and cunning instead of being fooled. So if that's a picture of spiritual immaturity,
What does that text tell us about what spiritual maturity looks like? Well, the first thing
spiritual maturity looks like in the text is in verse 13, it's a unity of the faith.
You see that phrase in verse 13? Remember we talked about the faith is different than faith.
Faith is believing. The faith is the thing we believe in. So the unity of the faith is when we have
unity as a body in that core of what we believe in, the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
A spiritually mature person is grounded in what the faith is.
These are people who don't just recite the Apostles' Creed, they understand the Apostles' Creed,
and they believe that the Apostles' Creed is true, and they could tell others about what it
teaches. When we recite the catechism each week, a spiritually mature person doesn't just read it,
but he says, I affirm this. This is what I believe. I understand what this is saying,
and I could explain this to others. That's spiritual maturity. A spiritually mature church is where
we are united in this one faith that we affirm, and there's unity with regard to that faith.
That's one of the hallmarks of spiritual maturity. Paul has emphasized the unity.
that needs to be a part of the body of Christ. It's a priority for Jesus and should be a priority
for us. Second sign of spiritual maturity in this passage is the knowledge of the Son of God.
The word knowledge there is the intent. intensified word in the original language.
The Greek word for knowledge is gnosis. This is epinosis. It's not just knowing something up here,
it's knowing something experientially. So you have an experiential knowledge of the Son of God.
You don't just know facts about Jesus, you know Jesus. I read a testimony this week.
from a believer in Canada, a guy named Josh Simbrano, who grew up in the Philippines. Both of his
grandfathers were pastors. He grew up in a Christian home, grew up going to church. Here's what he
said. I grew up calling myself a Christian. I believed in God. I knew about Jesus. I knew Bible
stories. I went to church. I tried to live a good life. If you'd asked me whether I was saved,
I probably would have said, I think so. I try to be a good person. I compared myself to other
people and their sins instead of comparing myself to a perfectly holy God. I knew Jesus was the
Savior, but I didn't fully understand why I personally needed him to be my Savior. He said,
as I began reading and understanding the Bible more deeply, God showed me that my biggest problem
was not my circumstances, but my sin, and that no amount of morality or church attendance or good
works could make me right with him. I began to understand that Christianity is not mainly about
blessings, breakthroughs, spiritual experiences, or trying to become a better person. The greatest
treasure is Christ himself. I was dead in my sin. I needed God to give me life.
He said, I don't know the exact moment God saved me, but my understanding of what it means to be a
Christian is very different today. My confidence is no longer I think I'm good enough. I know I'm
not good enough. In one sense, I am saved. By works, but not by mine.
My own works could never make me right with God. My hope is in the perfect work of Jesus Christ.
He lived the life I could not live, died the death I deserved, rose again. I'm saved by grace
through faith in him, and I'm trusting in Christ alone.
Now, spiritual maturity comes when you go from knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus,
when you go from knowing the facts to knowing the person. having a relationship with him and a
relationship with him that you walk in through your life. There is no spiritual maturity that can
occur based simply on knowledge about Jesus.
If Christ is not in us and we are not in Christ, we can't grow into his likeness.
And as a pastor, I just want to make sure that as a church, we are cultivating a unity of the
faith. But I also want to make sure that everyone here understands it's not just knowledge of Jesus
that we're aiming for. It's a relationship with Jesus, a vibrant walking relationship,
a living, breathing relationship with him. He is the author and finisher of our faith.
The unity of the faith is only important if you know the one who is the author and the finisher.
And I just wonder if it's possible that there's somebody here this morning whose story is like Josh
Sombrano's story, where you grew up in the church, you have a knowledge about Jesus,
but you need to move to a knowledge, a relationship with him, an epinosis. If that's you,
he is ready to welcome you. Are you ready to come and move from a knowledge about Jesus to a
relationship with him? Here's the third hallmark of spiritual maturity. It's at the end of verse
13. The stature of the fullness of Christ. Spiritual maturity comes when we are filled up with
Christ. Now, what does that mean? How do you fill yourself up with the fullness of Christ?
Well, Paul's going to talk in Ephesians 5 about being filled with the Spirit. It's really the same
thing to be filled with Christ and filled with the Spirit. Here's what it means. It means your
thoughts, your desires, your choices, your words, your attitudes, your whole life is controlled by
your relationship with Jesus. You're aligning the priorities of your life.
around the highest priority, which is walking with Jesus. Now,
this might sound mystical, but it's really, it's simple. Let me ask you this.
What fills up your mind during the day? What is it that you're putting into your mind throughout
the day?
What are you filling your heart up with? What do you fill your time with? What are the things that
fill up the moments of your life? Are they the things of Jesus or are they something else?
See, the more you're filling up your heart and your mind with things other than Jesus,
like the latest news or what's on social media or TikTok reels or whatever you're filling yourself
up with, that's what you're full of. But if you're filling your heart and your mind up with what
God's Word has to say, time in prayer, fellowship with other believers, then you will be filled up
with Jesus. instead of filled up with other things. You'll have the fullness of Christ,
which is a mark of spiritual maturity.
Here's a fourth thing. A spiritually mature person is somebody who speaks the truth in love. Now
that's a verse that we often take out of context. And it's not wrong to say that when you speak the
truth to somebody, you should speak the truth in love. It is Christ-like to do that. 1 Corinthians
says, let everything you do be done in love, including speaking the truth. But the context here is
about declaring the truth about Jesus to others, presenting the gospel,
pointing lost people to Jesus, doing the work of an evangelist, correcting theological error when
it comes along. That's the truth that's being talked about here, that you are to speak in love.
And how we correct one another and how we speak the truth to others is a sign of spiritual maturity
if it's done harshly if it's done arrogantly if it's done with an absence of love no matter how
right it is it's wrong no matter how correct it is it's not coming from a place of spiritual
maturity Long quote here from John Stott, but I love this. He says, thank God that there are those
in the contemporary church who are determined at all cost to defend and uphold God's revealed
truth. I agree. Thank God that there are people who do that. But, he says, sometimes they are
conspicuously lacking in love. When they think they smell heresy,
their nose begins to twitch, their muscles ripple, and the light of battle enters their eyes.
They seem to enjoy nothing more than a fight. Others make the opposite mistake,
he says. They are determined at all costs to maintain and exhibit brotherly love, but in order to
do so, they are prepared even to sacrifice the central truths of revelation. Both these tendencies
are unbalanced and unbiblical. Truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love.
Love becomes soft if it is not strengthened by truth.
Speaking the truth in love means that when we present the things of God, if our presentation is not
full of grace, full of love, we're not doing it in a spiritually mature way.
R.C. Sproul makes a similar observation. He says, unfortunately, the people who most often preface
comments by saying, brother, I want to speak the truth in love are the ones who are the most
insensitive. and most injurious in violating other people by acid and destructive criticism.
Just because you say, I want to say this in love doesn't mean that what's coming is coming in love.
If you're not speaking the truth, that's an indication that you need to grow in maturity. And if
you're speaking the truth but not in love, that's an indication you need to grow in spiritual
maturity.
Like I said, not just a provunctory, let me say this in love, brother, but truth from a genuine
heart of love for the person that you're talking to, where your heart,
you really have a heart, you love them. You're communicating this to them,
not so that you can be proven right and they can be proven wrong, but because you love them and you
want to see them grow in grace.
Okay, here's the last hallmark of maturity mentioned in this passage. It's a life that is marked by
lots and lots of love.
You've got lots and lots of love. Look at verse 15. Speaking the truth in love it says 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. How does the body build itself up?
How do you get stronger in spiritual maturity? How do you grow in godliness and cultivate maturity?
Verse 16 says you build yourself up in love. I love this from Brian Chappell. He says,
the church community functions because we are all called to be love contributors, not just love
consumers.
Are you a love contributor?
What other people say, we see the evidence of your love for others.
It's clear.
The way that you become a dispenser of love to others is by first...
yourself up with the love of God, so much so that it just pours out of you.
It just spills out.
If you say, I have no love to give, then you just go to God. He's got it.
Fill yourself up with his love for you. Meditate on the cross. And if you can come away from
meditating on the cross without being full of love, first for God and then for others, go back and
meditate some more. And when you're filled up, it should just flow out of you.
God wants us to be known as self-sacrificing, self-emptying lovers of others.
Is that what you're known for? It's God's goal for His church, that we would be mature men and
women, living out our faith, united on mission, serving one another, and loving one another in
Christ. And for the church to be this mature organism, each one of us individually has to be
committed to growing up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.
We have to make spiritual maturity our aim. We did an extended series on the subject of spiritual
maturity two years ago. It's when we put these banners up because these banners are here to remind
us of what it looks like to pursue spiritual maturity. And when we did it, Colossians 1 was the
place where... We anchored ourselves where Paul says, him we proclaim.
We proclaim Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present
everyone mature in Christ. That's our goal as a church. The leaders of the church,
we want to present everyone mature in Christ. Paul says, for this I toil, struggling with all his
energy, that he powerfully works within me. That's still my heartbeat for us as a church.
We want to warn. We want to teach. We want to serve. We want to do all we can do in the hope that
we might be able to one day present every one of you before Christ as mature in him.
I want to be able to say to the Lord, Lord, I did all I know how to do toward that end. I labored
toward that purpose that the men and women who are under my care would be able to stand before you
mature in Christ.
I trust that's your goal as well, to make it your aim to grow. in grace every day,
to grow up, not to remain a spiritual infant, but each day to grow more and more into his likeness.
Between my travel schedule and getting the flu this week, I haven't been to the gym in a while. I'm
planning to go to get back on track this afternoon, and I don't want to go. When I leave for the
gym, Marianne always says, have fun, and I go, no, I'm going to the gym.
I can have fun, but I'll have to go somewhere else to do that.
If I don't want to go, why do I go?
Why do you show up at the gym if you don't want to be there? Because you know it's good for your
heart and for your muscles and your bones and for your motion. And if you're going to do all of
that, you need to go to the gym. I guess it's good for your body. Well, pursuing spiritual maturity
is good for your soul.
The workout you do, the stuff you need to do. You go to the gym. You go to the scriptures.
You spend time in prayer. You read godly books. You spend time in fellowship with other people.
You go to your small group. You come to church on Sunday. You demonstrate love for one another.
These acts help you get stronger spiritually. They make you more mature spiritually.
It's good for your soul. And if we want to be a church in our world,
the kind of church God wants us to be, a mature church, then we've got to grow up.
So what do you need to do this week? To grow up. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you that you have not left us alone in this endeavor, in this quest.
That what you call us to, you equip us for.
That we, in our own strength, could never be the kind of spiritually mature men and women that
you've called us to be. But you don't leave us in our own strength. We don't rely on our own
strength. We can depend on you.
Lord, I pray that as we stop to contemplate how you have loved us with an everlasting love and
demonstrated your love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, I pray that
your love for us would be the motivation that we need to walk in obedience to you and to grow in
grace and maturity.
I pray that our desire would be Christ-likeness in our speech, in our actions,
in our relationships with one another.
and how we interact with the world.
Lord, I pray that we would live lives that are pleasing to you and that as a church we would be a
mature church having an impact on our world in the same way that the church in Ephesus had an
impact on their world.
Lord, I pray for any here who have a knowledge of you but don't know you
and pray that you would make that clear by your spirit and call them. to something deeper than just
that superficial knowledge about you,
that they would long for a relationship with you.
And they would respond to your invitation and come and you would give them rest.
We ask these things in your name. Amen.