Lesson 52 August 17, 2003

4:13-16 Ultimate objective of the gifts - an advancing believer prepared for life

#1 Unity 4:13a

#2 Maturity 4:13b

#3 Stability 4:14-16 [negative examples and then positive examples]

#1 Unity 4:13a

- until we all attain [katantaw - to come to, to arrive at a destination or goal;]

- here the attainment, the goal reached is threefold... again we have 3 prepositional phrases and they all speak to the spiritual goals that the body of Christ is striving to attain

 

 

a. to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,

 

#2 Maturity 4:13b

b. to a mature man, is the second part of the goal, or the journey; this stands in contrast to the children in vs:14

 

- te,leioj mature, complete; idea of the word is that of totality, as opposed to partial or limited; in all its uses te,leioj carries the component of a purpose that has been achieved;

 

c. to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

Principle: Remember that the church does not grow qualitatively if the individual members of the church are not growing in the Word!

What Paul is saying is that maturity is our experience in life as believers matching our position, living out the character of Christ.

 

#3 Stability is the Result of this growth 4:14-16

These verses give us some reasons for and evidence of the importance of teaching the word; observe the results in the lives of believers.

Spiritual phases of an individual:

1. new-believer = infants; justified, in Christ; but with limited capacity; limited knowledge

2. adolescent believer; advancing, growing in word; many side trips while failing to utilize the resources

3. Mature believer who demonstrates a measure of the stature of Christ in view here.

4. Glorified believer; face to face; conformed to the image of Christ!

 

The metaphors (5) of arrested spiritual development:

1. Infant metaphor: "we are no longer to be children,"

children = nhpiosj used lit. of infants, very young child;

1 Cor. 14:20; 13:11; 3:1

2. Nautical metaphor: "tossed here and there by waves,"

This depicts instability in life, that comes from responding to the various religious fads of the day, the false doctrine or teaching in vogue, not being discerning about what they hear or read.

Jas. 1:6 also links this condition with doubting what God has said and what He has promised that He would do!

3. Vertigo metaphor: "carried about by every wind of doctrine"

What happens when you spin around, loss of balance; loss of perception of reality;

Such is the impact of responding to the many winds of teaching of false doctrine;

4. First a Gambling metaphor: "by the trickery of men"

- trickery = kubei,a dice playing with loaded dice; therefore cheating

- Those who fail to identify false teaching and therefore respond to it are being defrauded, conned; most, often actually think they're hearing truth.

 

5. Psychological metaphor: "by craftiness in deceitful scheming;"

- panourgi,a = craftiness, the unscrupulousness that stops at nothing to achieve an intended result;

- meqodei,a = scheming speaks of the methods, the strategies used

- pla,nh = deceitful speaks of a wandering from truth, used of error, deceit, delusion.

What these last 2 metaphors are saying is that behind the false teaching that the immature, the new believer are especially susceptible to; are dangerous, and deceitful people, ready to manipulate and take advantage of them.

- Rem: The Satan's ultimate objective is to separate the believer from truth, to neutralize them in their Christian life so that they become a casualty in the angelic conflict.