Ephesians 4:14,15 - No longer infants

Apologies for a slight scheduling issue! This originally came out a couple of days early

4:14

While our coming to full maturity and the “fullness of Christ” will not be completed until His return, the process starts now, and we are to be continually developing and growing in Christ. So the church should not be a flakey bunch of people easily swayed by the latest “teaching”. As we all know too well, the church is so often too easily swayed by the current fad. Sometimes that fad comes from the world, for example the action of some churches in thinking that it is a good idea to follow the world’s teaching when it comes to sexual morality. At other times we follow fads from within the church, eg the so-called prosperity gospel. We need to be on our guard, and to demonstrate maturity. In fact, an ounce of common sense would go a long way at times. The latter part of this verse shows why this is important. It is the “cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming”. False teaching is dangerous and harms the lives of people, sometimes even destroys them.

4:15

We counter false teachings not just by showing up the errors in the false teachings, but by “speaking the truth in love”. The current LGBT debates are a case in point. We do need to highlight the error of the LGBT agenda (we also need to highlight the error of all sexual immorality), but we also need to teach the positive good of God’s plan for humanity in creating us male and female, and in creating sex for marriage between one man and one woman. We must also speak the whole positive truth of the gospel. Then we will grow up to become the mature body of Christ that the church is meant to be. And Christ is the head of the church.