Grow Up

Ephesians 4:12-13 (NIV)

… prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Grow up. God has equipped his people for a mission, but to do the job we need to be mature members of a united body.  Mature in our individual faith and mature as a church. That maturity is not measured against each other, or against other churches, but measured against the standard of Jesus.  In the preceding verses, Paul hints at what a mature church looks like.  That is, it looks like people doing what God has equipped them to do and doing it together in love. As a mature church, we will stay on the coarse God has for us.  We won’t be distracted by teachings that are counter to God’s instructions, but instead speak truth in love with Jesus himself as our head.