Tag: carried about

27.o. “So that we may no longer be children”

 

Ephesians 4:13  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, 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.

Paul did not command a structural or organizational unity, but a spiritual unity around a common faith. People are given spiritual gifts (they are equipped) for building up and equipping Christians to maturity in faith, knowledge, understanding, and intimacy with Jesus Christ. Remember Paul telling the Corinthians that they were still babies in faith and though they should be on solid food they were still infants on milk concerning things of God.  Maturity in faith does not just happen.  It must be cultivated, watered, and fed. Spiritual maturity, knowledge, understanding, discernment, and wisdom grow when the heart and mind and soul intentionally choose to deny self and worldly lusts, pleasures, and schemes but rather chooses to humbly surrender to the will of God, seeking and desiring to be led by Him, obeying, following, trusting, and relying on Him for the ever-growing and maturing want to honor and glorify Him in all that is thought, spoke, or action taken.

22.f. “I could not address you as spiritual people”

 

1 Corinthians 3:1  But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

 1 Corinthians 14:20   Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

 Ephesians 4:13-14    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,  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.

 Hebrews 5:12-14    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,  for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.  But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Surely, Paul is telling us that there should be a “spiritual growth” realized in each of us.  It is written in Isaiah “For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”  Throughout our lives, we are to be spiritually growing.  This growth requires watering and feeding in the Word of God.  It does not come through osmosis.  Time must be spent both reading it and thinking about it and applying it.  The fruit of the Spirit does not grow without being watered and fed.  Do you have peace, joy, love, long-suffering, kindness, patience, gentleness, rest, courage, hope….?   The world will offer everything under the sun to replace what God will give to the hearts and minds of those who seek and desire to humbly surrender fleshly desires.  Spiritual maturity comes with constant watering and feeding in the Word of God with a heart and mind choice to grow and live to honor and glorify Jesus Christ.