Building Up the Body: Four Marks of Maturing Churches

From Voice, Nov/Dec 2013. Used by permission. (Read part 1.)

Churches that take the Lord’s instruction in Ephesians 4 seriously will be the ones marching in the direction of maturity (Ephesians 4:13). Those who do not, will find themselves drowning in a sea of immaturity (4:14). These are the two options Paul lays before his readers. The first option finds the local church being equipped by the teaching of the Word and in turn building up the body of Christ. Such churches will be marked by four things.

First, unity: “Until we all attain to the unity of the faith.” Throughout the epistles the term “the faith” does not refer to subjective faith (e.g. “I believe; I have faith in God”) but to objective truth. “The faith” is a phrase synonymous with sound doctrine, or the body of truth as taught in the Bible. True unity is grounded in correct theology.

A certain pastor, in writing a critique of my ministry, said that he “leaned toward unity but you lean toward purity.” That may be a true evaluation, but I do not believe there is unity without purity. An attempt at unity without doctrinal purity is merely uniformity. Many today are willing to lay down their conviction of Scriptural truth in order to get along. Organizations are built under the umbrella of minimal beliefs but at the cost of great compromise, which leads to the doctrinal impurity of the church. While not all doctrinal beliefs are essential to the faith, and some are not hills worth dying on, I am amazed at what many are willing to jettison in order to embrace some form of outward unity. Paul, however, calls for a unity that is wrapped around the cardinal truths of the faith.

The second mark of the equipped church is the “knowledge of the Son of God.” Virtually nothing is more important than our knowledge of Christ. Peter would go so far as to write, “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3). If everything we need for life and godliness is found in the knowledge of Christ, why should the church dabble around with anything else? And while some, even within Evangelical circles, guide us to finding Christ “within ourselves,” imagining Him or experiencing Him in some mystical fashion, the fact is that the true knowledge of Christ can only be obtained through the Word. Apart from what the Scriptures say about Christ, we know nothing with absolute certainty about Him.

The third and fourth marks appear to be mutually defining. We are to attain “to a mature man,” “mature” meaning complete, not perfect. This maturity is identified as “the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” Our standard of maturity is nothing less than Christlikeness. If we love Him we will want to be like Him.

Two marks of immature churches

Those not marching toward maturity, as they are being equipped by the teaching of the Word, are left hopelessly entangled in a web of immaturity (4:14). Unfortunately, the description given of the immature believer hits very close to home in our Evangelical environment today. As Paul portrays the immature believer (or church), the one not equipped by the teaching of the Word, he uses the illustration of a child. The proof of a child’s immaturity is found in two characteristics found in all children.

They are unstable: “We are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves.” Children are notoriously fickle and changeable. They lack self-control; they are creatures of extremes and are ruled by their emotions. So too, immature Christians are on emotional, spiritual and doctrinal roller coasters. The day after a church retreat they are ready to follow the Lord anywhere; by Wednesday all enthusiasm is gone. While attending a Christian musical concert they are overflowing with feelings of love and warmth for the Lord and others. The next morning they don’t “feel” like reading the Scriptures or praying and so they don’t. When convicted of sin, they make strong pledges of future obedience Bur a few days later they buckle under the same old temptations. They have mastered the art of selective obedience to Christ. Their faith, while possibly genuine, is superficial, lacking substance and power. They are truly “tossed here and there by waves”—at the mercy of so many influences, fads, powerful personalities and temptations that float into their lives.

They are easily deceived: “And carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.” Baby Christians remain such because they are constantly being deceived. Rather than being equipped by the Word (or better, because they have not been so equipped) these immature believers are taken in by false doctrines, con-artists, slick programs and campaigns. Place in front of them a great communicator and they lack the discernment to filter his message. Baby Christians are always chasing after the latest book or message promising them instant spirituality.

What is the remedy to this endless merry-go-round of childishness? “Speaking the truth in love” (v.15). We need to keep the context in mind. Paul is not calling for open and honest communication, although that is a biblical teaching and supported in verse 25. At this point he is giving us the antidote to spiritual immaturity and that antidote is found in “equipping the saints for the work of service” (v. 12).

Conclusion

Udo Middelmann admonishes that

the church has lost the wider audience because it gave up much of what it should know and in the past was good at: the light shed on human reality from the Word of God in love, encouragement, moral clarity, and compassion…. When the church abandons her singular calling, she is usually not even very good in the attempt to compete with the street and market. (The Market Driven Church, Crossway Books, 2004; 201).

The church must concentrate on its mandate to equip the saints and not be sidetracked by other things. As the body is built up through the careful teaching of the Word of God by the gifted men and the application of that truth by the local church, the body “grow[s] up in all aspects into Him, who is the Head, even Christ.”

The loving of God’s truth is what matures lives and develops godly churches. Verse 16 tells us that it is the power of Christ working through the members of the body functioning as God designs, which ultimately causes the growth of the body.

We ignore God’s plan as outlined in Ephesians 4:11-16 for the growth of the body of Christ at great peril. If we want churches that please people, then our priority is to listen to the strategy of people. But if we desire churches that please God, surely we will want to know and implement God’s methodology. Whom we listen to reveals whom we want to please.