COV LIFE BLOG

Ephesians 4 – The Church Building Up One Another

The goal that we are headed towards, the final end, the destination of all the equipping and the building up of the body of Christ is three-fold. First of all, it is unto the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God. That is number one. Number two, it is unto a mature man, a perfect man. Number three, it is unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. How do you know when the body has reached the point that God? Remember, we have the universal body of believers, the local body of believers and the individual believers.

First of all, there is the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God. The ultimate spiritual target for the church begins with the unity of the faith. The faith is the gospel in its most complete form. When believers are properly taught and faithfully obeying Christ and allowing His Spirit to minister His gifts through them, then the inevitable result is the unity of the faith.

God’s great design for the church is that every member of the body of Christ be conformed to the image of His Son Jesus Christ. That is our goal. That is where we are headed. While we are down here in the quarry, God wants us to be growing that way. As I learn to be strengthened in the inner man, as I learn to obey God’s will in my life, God is doing a transforming work in my heart. I get to know Christ. I get to walk with Christ, but I am moving towards something. I am being moved to the point that I am filled to the fulness of Christ. 

The bottom line in this passage is, we need each other to get there. That is why the gifts are given. No man gets there on his own. That is why the gifted men are given. We need to join hands united in faith, united in the knowledge of the Son of God, coming to a mature man. Then all of us can rise up, and when the world looks at us it will not see us, but Christ. We desperately need each other. If you are not living in the gift that God has given you and you are not ministering in that gift, we are being short-changed for the whole body to reach the stature of the fulness of Christ.
 
What is the unity of the Spirit? The unity of the Spirit is that which the Spirit alone produces. We preserve it. We don’t produce it. He is the ligament that holds us together. As I begin to let His gift in me function, then I am reaching out to you and you are reaching to me. We are reaching out to each other through the unique gifts that God has given you and me. After a while, we have come to that unity of faith. Then we begin to experience Christ together like never before. Then we see the progression and begin to mature and grow up to the stature of the fulness of Christ. That is the goal. We need each other to get there.
 
Wayne Barber

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SCRIPTURES FOR THIS SUNDAY
Read Ephesians 4 and consider the ways that the church factors into the change that each and everyone of us wants to see in ourselves and in the congregation as a whole. How do you grow such that the church is built up and changed through your change?

SONG FOR THIS WEEK
A Christian’s Daily Prayer by Sovereign Grace