MATURE IN AND THROUGH JESUS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ.

Ephesians 4:14-15 

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I remember when I first came to Jesus and believed, gaining my salvation.

Everything was new and fresh. I was on fire from the Holy Spirit and was like a little child who knows very little and finds a learning experience in everything.

My knowledge of the scriptures was minimal and so there wasn’t much discernment at that time. I would listen to preaching and teaching but was ill equipped to really identify whether or not the teaching was Biblically accurate or not. In other words, I was spiritually vulnerable and a prime candidate for people who Satan would use to try and mislead and misinform the people of Christ.

The church in Ephesus was filled with baby Christians who were like me when I started to follow Jesus. Paul uses a great analogy in our scripture passage for today likening new believers to “infants” who were “tossed back and forth by the waves” and “blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming”.

You may remember our study of Paul’s letter to the Galatians and recall how a group of Jews had infiltrated the Christian church. They began to teach a different Gospel than the one Paul taught the Galatian Christians, a Gospel that demanded additional actions such as circumcision to be taken as well as believing in Jesus in order to gain salvation. It was false teaching impressed upon baby believers with the intent of deceiving and misleading.  

Paul didn’t want the same fate to fall on the Ephesian Christians and so he called on them to seek spiritual maturity as individuals, mature in their knowledge of the scriptures and mature in their relationship with Jesus. If every believer did this, then the body of Christ overall would be mature and fully under the leadership and direction of Christ, the head of the church.

This Christ-centered spiritual maturity would allow Jesus believers to always speak truth in love to others, truth that came by speaking words granted by the Savior who was and is the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).

After 30 plus years of being a Christian now, I am a long way down the narrow spiritual path Jesus has led me down, far away from the Christian infant I once was and now in a place where I can minister to others, speaking truth in love through my teaching and preaching. My prayer for you today is that you too get to this place if you’re not there already. For there’s no better place to be in life than fully one with Jesus and the word of God who tells us about Him.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com