IS THAT IMPOSSIBLE!?
Wednesday – January 4, 2017
Wow, hump day already and what a beautiful pair of Bactrian camels for our picture today. Greetings from The Three Minute Word publications and Eastern Gate Ministries International. God is so good and so kind to all of us. Now, back to Ephesians and I am presenting two translations for comparison.
Ephesians 4:11-13 (KJV)
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Ephesians 4:11-13 (GW)
11 He also gave apostles, prophets, missionaries, as well as pastors and teachers as gifts {to his church}.
12 Their purpose is to prepare God’s people, to serve, and to build up the body of Christ.
13 This is to continue until all of us are united in our faith and in our knowledge about God’s Son, until we become mature, until we measure up to Christ, who is the standard.
The Five-Fold Ministry gifts are given by Jesus for He is the one who descended and then ascended. The persons with these gifts function to prepare each of us to serve, do our part, building the body of Christ, the Kingdom of God. This leadership, modeling, mentoring, and teaching by the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, and Teacher is to not only bring us into maturity but simultaneously bring us to a unity of the faith. This is seemingly impossible to our natural mind but so is splitting the Red Sea and immediately walking across on dry ground. Does this statement of coming into a unity of the faith preclude all differences between people? Is it possible for two persons to be mature and have a ‘theological’ difference with his or her brother or sister? This passage is telling us something that I think we know intuitively but imagine to be impossible which is exactly where God works (the impossible to us). Looking at the whole verse (Ephesians 4:13) notice that unity, knowledge, maturity, and attaining the stature of Christ are all tied together. It is not one or the other or some combination that suits us.
First let’s take a look at the phrase “come in the unity of the faith”. We are not to come into unity of ‘a’ faith but ‘the’ faith. In the context we are talking this is not a common belief in some secular or other esoteric fact or issue but ‘the faith’. When two mature persons in the body of Christ have a unity of the faith, there will not be areas in which they agree to disagree. Whenever you see that happening you know immediately that one or both parties or immature. For example, if one person believes that Apostles and Prophets are at work in the earth today and another does not, the one who does not is immature by definition. Of course, both people could believe in the operation of the gifts of Apostle and Prophet and neither be mature. In the process of attaining to maturity any particular Scripture, passage, or concept will be found to have many facets and these may unfold for eternity however there must be agreement between persons on each facet by those who are mature. The faith being talked about here is our faith in God, and our faith (belief) that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.
Scriptural understanding is woefully lacking in the Church, body of Christ, and false doctrine parading as the Truth is rampant. When we see these things starting to disappear and we see the unity of the faith taking shape we can know the end is near. Notice that the unity of the faith is intimately linked with “the knowledge of the Son of God” by the conjunctive ‘and’. This unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God are co-equal to the attaining of perfection (maturity) and attaining to the stature of the fullness of Christ. There are many that say, oh, we can never be like Christ. Well, are you calling God (Scripture) a liar? Not only does the passage we are studying imply that maturity is expected in our lifetime on the earth but Jesus commanded that we be like Him doing the things He did and the greater things.
Now, I want to be clear that maturity, attaining to the stature of the fullness of Christ, is not necessary to do ministry, the doing of ministry is a part of the maturing process. However to do all that the Father has assigned us and anointed for to further the Kingdom of God requires maturity. The only way to arrive back home in Heaven having run the race to its completion is to have attained spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity is a process and is not achieved by the passage of time alone. As I end for today be reminded that the verse (Ephesians 4:13) starts with “Till we all come in unity of the faith” meaning that what is being taught at the Methodist Church is being taught at the Pentecostal, and at the Catholic. A tall order but these are our marching orders.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
