Once again we take a look this morning at this great passage in Ephesians on the spiritual growth of the church, the body of Christ. We began last week by looking at the first 6 verses of this passage and discussing one major difference between the physical growth of the human body and the spiritual growth of the body of Christ. Human beings, on the one hand, cannot make themselves grow. It simply takes place over time. We can eat our vegetables and drink lots of milk, but the physical growing process in humans is out of our direct control.  My two-year-old daughter Elayna cannot decide to become an adult any more than I can decide to become a senior citizen.

On the other hand, Paul tells us in these verses that it is possible for the church, the body of Christ to make itself grow spiritually. In both verses 12 and 16 Paul speaks of the body building itself up, and specifically in verse 16, making itself grow. But we do not do so by own effort. Instead, last week we looked at verses 7-12 and how Christ supplies gifts to the church specifically to enable it to build itself up and help it grow. We spoke of the grace to serve which Christ has given to each of us to empower us to serve the body. Not only that, Christ has given to the church graced servants—evangelists, pastors, and teachers—who equip the saints for service. We can help the church grow, so let’s serve.

But there are two other ways in this passage in which the body of Christ grows differently than a human body. First, what is the summit of human growth? What is it growing towards? We say grow up but what do we mean by that? I’m no doctor, but it seems that the growth of the human body theoretically stops at death. So when we suggest to someone that they should grow up are we really saying they should drop dead? Or do we mean retirement, or adulthood. Is the goal just to make it over 18 or to 65? Human growth never really reaches a summit. And if we have no summit of human growth, we really do not have much of a standard either. What is the standard we measure by? Age, but what age, 100, 70, 65? Height, but what height? As humans it seems that the only standard of growth is that you are not dead. On the other hand, the body of Christ has a definite summit and standard for growth. Paul tells us in verse 13-14 that the summit, the standard of spiritual growth for the body of Christ is the head of that body, Christ himself. Christ is the summit and standard for the spiritual growth of the church.

The second key difference between the physical body and the spiritual body of Christ is why it grows. Someone pointed out to me last week that the physical body grows over time because that is its nature. It naturally grows. The body of Christ, though, is made up of redeemed sinners whose very nature has been death. Left to ourselves, we would not grow; we would die. No matter how much we served the body of Christ, by nature, we as a body would decay instead of growing. But Paul concludes this passage in verses 15-16 by telling us that Christ is the source of growth. It is really Christ who makes the body grow. We serve the body of Christ with the grace that Christ has given us, having been equipped by the evangelists, pastors, and teachers, with the aim of growing it towards the summit and standard of Christlikeness knowing that Christ is the source of that growth.

This morning, I simply want to look at what Paul says about Christ as the summit and standard of growth and Christ as the source of growth, and how understanding these two key realities impacts the way we serve the body of Christ, building it up and helping it grow. 

First, in verses 13, Paul tells us that Christ is the summit and standard of growth. He says in verse 13 “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” In Paul’s line of thought, the “until” refers back to verses 11-12. The graced servants will continue to equip the saints and the saints will continue their service, building up the body, until verse 13 becomes a reality. Verse 13 is the goal of our service, the summit of the spiritual growth of the body of Christ. All of our service, all of our building up of the body is aimed at making verse 13 a reality. But verse 13 is not only the summit, it is also the standard. What Paul lists in this verse is also the benchmark by which we measure our spiritual growth, determining how we are growing as the church.

Paul describes what this summit and standard of growth looks like by saying there is unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. When Paul uses the word faith, he is not simply saying we have all put our faith in Jesus. Instead, Paul is speaking of the doctrines and beliefs that describe Jesus Christ. And Paul has already made it clear in verse 5 of the chapter that there is only one true faith. He said “There is one Lord, one faith.” There is only one Christ, so there is only one true faith, one true set of doctrines that describes the one Christ. Many churches and church movements have assumed that growing in the faith means for us all to align our beliefs, coming to a compromise, a general consensus of what we believe. But this often leads to a watering down of truth because the goal of these churches and movements is a unity of faith. But Paul does not say a unity of faith, he says a unity of THE faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The summit of our growth is not a unity of manmade beliefs but a unity that comes as those who believe in the true faith, true doctrines of Jesus Christ. As we grow in faith towards the summit, towards Jesus Christ, we become united as a body as we all come to believe the truth about Him. We measure growth not by how well our beliefs line up with each other but in whether or not all of our beliefs align with the summit of our growth, Jesus Christ.

Paul also mentions knowledge of the Son of God. The term faith speaks more of a series of doctrinal beliefs, while knowledge is a personal heart knowledge of the Son of God. In Ephesians 1:17-23 Paul prayed that we would truly know what is ours in Christ; not just a list of facts, but a life impacting knowledge of grace. Again, in 3:19 Paul prays that we would know the love of Christ. Not just know about, but truly know and experience. The goal of our growth is that all of us in the church would truly know Christ, experiencing His love and daily living by His grace. As Presbyterians, we often focus on the faith, on the doctrine, on the cold hard theological facts. But here Paul says that the body grows in unity as we all come to truly, personally, and experientially know Christ. Again, we do not grow by all having the same experience or knowledge, but by us all knowing and experiencing the summit of our growth, Jesus Christ.

Paul taught us in the first part of this chapter that we are already united in one faith as one body under one head, Jesus Christ. The goal of our growth is not to become united but to make the unity we already have a reality in the way we live as the body of Christ. We are striving as the body of Christ to live like the body of Christ. That is exactly what Paul says next in verse 13. He says “until we attain to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Christ is the standard, the measure of maturity and stature. As the body, the summit of our growth is being a body that matches the head Christ, a body that is united in the faith and knowledge of the head, Jesus Christ. Paul says this in verse 15 “we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” The summit, the standard of our growth is found in asking “As a body do we look like Christ? As a body, do we match the head?

Several years ago a group of us here at Cornerstone went on a mission trip to Ukraine. In the evenings, we would spend time as a team resting and recovering from the day’s activities, each of us relaxing in our way, some of us playing games, others reading, but Pastor Vogel relaxed by using his computer to digitally manipulate the pictures he had taken that day. His favorite manipulation was to take the head of one team member and put in on the body of another team member. The one I remember clearest was when he took the head of his twenty year old daughter Jenny and photoshopped it onto his own body. Imagine a 45 year man’s body with the face of a twenty year old girl, and the body of twenty year old girl with the bearded face of a 45 year old man.  I’m not sure I’ve ever laughed so hard. Our whole team laughed so hard that we were all crying. It is still one of the funniest, most disturbing things I have ever seen. I thought about having it on the screen behind me, but I didn’t want to make anyone nauseous.

Many times the church, the body of Christ, is that disturbing. The body does not fit the head. The head is Christ, but the body does not match. We have an arm over here with one faith and a leg over here with another, we have parts out of joint, a shoulder knowing and experiencing the grace of Christ but a foot content with theology. We are often one really disturbing looking body. And then, rather than measuring our growth by whether the body matches the summit and standard Jesus Christ, we ignore how disturbing the body looks and measure by our attendance, or the size of our budgets, or how many programs we offer. As we serve, we must remember the summit, the standard of our spiritual growth as a body, is the head, Jesus Christ. Our desire is for the church to be united in the faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ, reaching the measure of the fullness of Christ. Our summit, our standard is for the body to match the head.

Paul’s second point is that not only is the head, Christ, the summit and standard for the growth of the body, Christ is also the source. Paul says in verse 16 “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 is build itself up in love.” The key phrase there is “from whom.” Christ is the one “from whom” the whole body makes itself grow. Christ is the source of the body’s growth. This really is not that complicated of an idea. Cut off an arm or a foot and the body still grows. Cut off the head and growth stops. The body of Christ grows because it is connected to Christ. Christ, the head, is the source of growth. Paul makes this more explicit in Colossians 2:19. There Paul writes “Holding fast to the head, from whom the hold body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” We serve the body, we make it grow through our service, but we are not the source of that growth. We serve with the grace Christ has given us understanding that Christ is the source of the body’s growth. It is Christ who has joined us together, holds us together, who has equipped up with every joint. It is Christ who is the source of the body’s growth. Not only is the head the summit, the standard, the head, Jesus Christ, is also the source of our growth.

The reality of the church, of the body of Christ is that we are still growing. We have not yet grown to the point of reaching the “until” of verse 13. Instead of verse 13 being our reality, we look more like verse 14. We are children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. In the body of Christ today, even in this church, there are people, churches, whole denominations who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, are a part of the body, but their understanding of the Word of God, of the true faith, of true doctrine, is not the truth. They have been deceived; they are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. How are we supposed to overcome this division and every wind of doctrine? How are we supposed to grow into the head, Jesus Christ? We know the goal: becoming a body that matches the head, being like Jesus Christ. Christ is the summit and standard of growth. We know where the growth comes from. Christ is the source of growth. We know we have been given gifts to help the body grow, but how does our service overcome verse 14 and lead us towards Christ?

Paul answers this in verse 15. Rather, the rather being instead of verse 14, rather speaking the truth in love, we grow up in every way into Him who is the head. This verse is how we serve, how we build up the body, how we help body grow. Paul says we “speak the truth in love.”

This may be one of the most abused verses in all of scripture. I have heard so many bad explanations of this passage that they cannot even be counted. Some have suggested that this means that anything that happens to be true we are required to say, albeit lovingly. Such as lovingly saying “Yes, that dress does make you look fat.” After all, maybe it’s true! Some have abused this verse to the extent that they claim that we have a responsibility to tell people anything true even if such information is not asked for, such as telling them what we really think of their children, or their parenting skills, or their behavior. The result is a group of people walking around convinced it is their job to lovingly point out everyone’s faults and convinced that they are helping the body grow by doing it. After all, they are speaking the truth in love. But how does this make the body grow? Do we really grow the body of Christ by lovingly offering our opinions on any given topic because we think they are true? This, I assure you, is not what the Apostle Paul was speaking of.

Paul does not say speaking any truth in love. Actually, he does not even say “speaking.” Literally, He says we “truth” in love. Paul takes the noun truth, and turns it into a verb. From truth, we get “truthing”. Verse 15 actually begins with “truthing in love.” And what is this truth that we are truthing? Is it our critique of others in the body? Look at the context. Verse 15 immediately follows verse 14. How do we help the body spiritually grow up so that we are not affected by the winds of the doctrine and human cunning and deceitful schemes? By “truthing”. And what is the truth we truth with? What truth keeps us from false doctrine and deceitful schemes? What truth is the source of our growth? It’s Christ. Christ said in John 14:6 “I am the truth.” He said all of scripture speaks of Him. When we are truthing, we are truthing the truth of Jesus Christ. We help the body grow towards verse 13 and avoid verse 14 by helping it grow in a knowledge of the source of growth, Jesus Christ. 

We help the body grow towards verse 13, towards a unity in the faith and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, overcoming the division in today’s churches over doctrine, not by adjusting doctrine so that we all agree, but by truthing one another in love. As we proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ, the body grows in its knowledge of Jesus Christ and its understanding of the doctrines of the Jesus Christ, and grow more united as a body in the one faith, in the one truth. 

We avoid verse 14 and a childish acceptance of false doctrine and human cunning through an intimate knowledge of the truth of God’s Word. When we truth one another in love, proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ, we help the body grow and mature and avoid the pitfalls of false doctrine. If we want the body to look more like the head, we must proclaim the truth of the head. And we do so in love. This goes back to the first part of chapter four which we talked about several weeks ago. We aren’t beating people over the head with the truth. We are truthing in love, with humility and patience, bearing with one another in love. Our service must be done in the truth, but it must also be done in love. We lovingly seek to build others up with the truth of Jesus Christ.

And what was it that we said last week that the graced servants of verse 12 equip us with to serve the body? We said they equip us with the Word of God. They equip us by teaching us the Word of God so that we can serve one another. The Word of God proclaims Christ, the head that unites us. So when we serve with the Word of God, the truth of Jesus Christ, we help the body grow spiritually, becoming more united in the true faith, so that we are not taken by winds of doctrine. Our service to the church is not service just to be nice, it is done with a desire for people to come to the truth.

Whether it be cutting down trees, fixing light bulbs, replacing air conditioners, helping in the nursery, teaching Sunday school, planting flowers, our primary goal for all of this service to the body must be so that others grow in the knowledge of the truth of Jesus Christ. The actions of our service display and declare the truth of the love of Jesus Christ to one another. Our service also supports the proclaiming of the truth. The person running the sound board right now is truthing all of you in love because his service allows all of you to hear the truth I am proclaiming. Nursery workers are watching some of your children right now so that you can hear the truth but also so that their service displays the truth of the love of Christ to the children they are watching. Primary Praise is truthing our children downstairs right now. When we encourage one another, we do so with the truth of God’s Word. In all of our service, the goal is to build up the body of Christ with the truth of Jesus Christ so that we can grow towards the summit, towards the head, Christ himself. As we serve the body, we must remember that we are serving so that others might know the truth. Christ is the summit, the focus of our service. We are striving to help the body grow into the head, and we do so by truthing, proclaiming the source of growth, Jesus Christ, in our service.

The human body grows on its own over time simply because that is it nature. Who knows what it is growing towards, other than “up” or death, it just grows. The body of Christ does not grow on its own simply because enough time has passed. Instead, Christ is the source of the body’s growth, and he involves us in that process. He has given us grace to serve and graced servants to equip us with the Word of God so that we can build the body up, helping it grow towards the summit, towards being like Christ, united in the faith and knowledge of Him. So let’s serve one another with the grace we have been given, truthing one another with the Word of God that we have been equipped with. Let’s serve and help the body grow in the Truth, towards the summit, towards the standard, knowing the source, Jesus Christ.