KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD
Thursday – January 5, 2017
Greetings in the name of our Lord and our Savior Jesus the Christ. God is so good and so kind to us all. Today I will pick-up where we left off yesterday with our text in the Book of Ephesians.
Ephesians 4:11-14 (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:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
We have been given specific ministry gifts by our Lord Jesus for the purpose of helping us to mature and be more effective in the ministry we are assigned of God. Ministry has to do with serving another person. I and this Scripture (Ephesians 4:12) is not talking about being a Minister like your Pastor. If you are in the body of Christ you have a ministry assigned of the Master and you are uniquely and wonderfully equipped to function in that ministry with little effort as you grow in maturity. This ministry will build the body of Christ, the Kingdom of God. These Five-Fold Ministry gifts are given to prevent a diversity of Scriptural interpretation and to give a unity of what is believed (faith), what the Truth is concerning Scripture.
Before I move along here I want to give some insight based on Biblical Numerology concerning the passage we are studying. Ephesians is the tenth book of the New Testament and ten is the number of responsibility. We are responsible to obey all that we find in this book, a book to the Church, the Ekklēsia. Eleven is the number of alignment and the responsibility of the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher in the Church is to bring understanding into alignment with the Word of God, with each other. Twelve is the number of God’s perfect government. The governance provided by the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, and Teacher brings the body of Christ to maturity for effective ministry and elevates the body of Christ. The number thirteen is the number of rebellion and depravity. If we fail in the preceding verses, in coming to the unity of the faith and the knowledge or the Son of God we end up with rebellion and depravity in the Church (body of Christ) which is where a great deal of the Church is today. On the other had if we adhere to verses eleven, twelve, and thirteen we come to fourteen which is the number of deliverance and/or salvation. In our maturity and our paying attention to the Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers in our midst we will avoid the ebb and flow of false doctrine. Obedience to the Word of God has its own reward.
From verse thirteen in our passage let’s take a look at our coming with others into the unity of our knowledge of the Son of God. The knowledge being talked about here is the highest level of knowledge or information transliterated from the Greek as, epignōsis (Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary). This kind of knowledge is clear, exact, engaging, life changing knowledge that is at the very core of Truth. We are all to be receiving the same instruction and developing the same understanding and thereby advancing into spiritual maturity and advancing the Kingdom of God. I think we can see right away that we can learn a boatload of the wrong doctrine and our maturity will not budge and in fact may regress and we will not advance the Kingdom of God. Just think of the great mercy and patience of our Lord who has watched for nearly two millennia as the body of Christ has fractured into hundreds of sects (denominations).
We are all to have a commonality of knowledge and understanding about the Son of God. Without the proper understanding, the proper knowledge one cannot even approach unto maturity, or attaining to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The lack of mature persons in the body of Christ is evidenced by the lack of the works of Jesus and the greater things. This Scripture is driving home the notion that too effectively expand the Kingdom of God there must be a unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Everyone seems to think they are entitled to their own private understanding, or opinion of Scripture which is ludicrous. You will hear a remark like this: “Well I just don’t believe it like that” or “I just don’t see it that way”. A lack of the correct understanding of Scripture and knowledge of the Son of God leaves us wide open to deception (Ephesians 4:14) and having faith in a doctrine of devils. Who are the Apostles, the Prophets, the Evangelists, the Pastors, and the Teachers in each of our Churches and what are they saying?
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
