Edification 3

Part 1 explored correction's role in edification... not propped up in placation nor flattery, but built up in truth in love for spiritual growth and development. Part 2 focused on the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry.

Let's study unity in the faith / knowledge of Jesus / maturity / fullness of Christ in Ephesians 4:13:

Ephesians 4:11-16 (ESV) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to 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, 14 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 in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 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.

We are Called to remain firm on the Foundation laid, and to grow. Ephesians 4:14, above, says maturity and knowledge in the faith protects us from deceitful schemes and erroneous teachings.

• 1 Peter 2:1-3 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

• Galatians 3:1-4 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

• Hebrews 13:9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

Part of coming into the fullness, at least for the American church, is learning to worship in both Spirit and Truth. (John 4:23-24 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”) Spiritual milk and spiritual meat also includes expanding our focus beyond our own Salvation (as this foundation has been laid, since we are already Saved), and into God's Kingdom.

Paul addresses spiritual milk and meat:

• 1 Corinthians 21-16 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory... 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Verse 2 says "I decided to know nothing among you except Christ crucified". So they would be won over with demonstrations of The Holy Spirit's Power, not intellectual appeals of men. Paul did not give a global instruction to "just preach The Gospel." (In Acts 17 (link) at the Areopagus, Paul does make a novel intellectual appeal; so we must be led by The Spirit for the task at hand.) This raises the concepts of evangelism of the lost and teaching of the saints. Evangelism and teaching are both necessary, and preaching The Gospel is necessary in both. A Body equipped for the work of ministry exponentially multiplies reaching the lost.

Verses 7 & 10 talk about the deeper things of God, of The Holy Spirit searching the depth of God's Mind. This is where spiritual meat is. Being a man after God's own Heart...pursuing to know God...pursuing to know His Heart for Creation...pursuing to understand His Operation of His Kingdom...pursuing to know the roles He has for us in The Kingdom at the moment...pursuing to live as true heirs in The Kingdom, utilizing our inheritance in Christ for Kingdom advancement. None of us will butt up against the end of knowledge of God. So keep pressing in.

Knowledge of and faith in the Son of God bring unity in The Church. Individual Sanctification aids saints coming together as The Church. In verse 16: the whole body equipped, joined together, and working properly. Only by the Power of The Spirit can we discern His Kingdom role for us, and also see His Role for others in every situation.

• 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

• Hebrews 5:11-14 (Warning Against Apostasy) 11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (adding: this admonishment is due to divisions in the church)

• 1 Corinthians 12:12-21 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

Let us be a Church that pursues the deep things of God, in Spirit and Truth. Let us be about Our Father's Business...a whole Body, joined and held together, equipped, so that each part is working properly; the body growing so that it builds itself up in love.

John 15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

In Jesus's name,

Christy Hale