Seek Unity and Maturity

Our reading this morning is from the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, verses 1 to 16.

Ephesians 4:1–16

If you have Bibles with you, then please go to Ephesians 4.

! There are Bibles at the back as well if you need some.

The text is also here on the screens and in your bulletin.

Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 to 16.

Ephesians 4:1–16

I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called

with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing one another in love,

eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Therefore, it says,

When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.

In saying, he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?

He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,

to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves

and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love,

we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head,

into Christ, from whom the whole body,

joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,

when each part is working properly,

makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

This is the Holy Word of God. Amen.

One year ago, we looked at Ephesians 1 to 3,

and here we are a year later, the return of Ephesians, Ephesians 4 to 6.

We're going to look at from now till the summertime, till July.

This is a letter written by the Apostle Paul.

It's called a circular letter.

The scholars will say that.

That means that Paul wrote it to Ephesus in the early 60s,

but it was meant to be spread around so the Ephesians would have received it,

and they would have made copies,

and then they would have sent it to all the churches they knew about.

And in some manuscripts even,

there's a blank where it says,

a letter written from Paul to the Ephesians.

In later manuscripts, there sometimes is a blank there,

meaning put your church's name in the blank.

So because God wrote this letter through Paul by the Spirit,

you can read in Ephesians 1.1,

a letter written by Paul to the church in Edinburgh, to St. Columbus even.

It's to any church.

It's from God to us right now.

So this letter is for us.

It's for today.

And what you get in Ephesians,

we spent a few months on this last year,

you get God's perspective on all that's going on in your life and in the world and in all of history.

So it's a God's eye view of everything.

So you, for example,

you might have become a Christian,

and you might ask,

what happened to me when I became a Christian?

Like, how did it actually happen?

And he says,

well, Ephesians 2,

you were dead,

and the Spirit came and made you alive in Christ

by giving you the gospel through faith.

So he explains what happened to you,

or even back up to chapter 1,

he says,

look, let me take you back to even before history ever began,

time ever began,

God knew you in Christ

and blessed you and redeemed you

before the foundation of the world.

So it's this God's eye perspective.

It's things that you could never know

unless God pulls back the curtain

and tells you how it all happened,

what's happening.

And really the heartbeat of it is to say,

Jesus Christ makes sense of all of human history.

Everything from beginning to end

is all focused on what happened with him

in the middle of human history.

So that's really the heartbeat.

But last year,

we looked at it from a broader lens.

One of the questions that it really focuses on

in the first three chapters is,

who is the church?

What is the church?

And in Ephesians,

you get, I think,

I think the only moment

in the whole New Testament

where there's an actual definition of the church.

So in Ephesians 1 verse 22,

Ephesians 1:22

it says,

the church is the body of Jesus,

the body of Christ,

the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Now that is not an easy sentence to understand.

The church is the fullness of him

who fills,

feels,

fills,

all in all.

What does it mean?

I used this illustration last year.

This is the best thing I can think of,

I think,

to make sense of it.

Imagine that there is a king

and he's ruling the land

and he's got a meeting with his council,

his advisors,

and they're sitting around the table

and the king is a great king

and he is filling the land

through this meeting

with wisdom

and with love

and with justice

and with power.

He's filling up all things in the kingdom

through this meeting

and then all of a sudden

the doors to the meeting room burst open

and his little kids are there

and they've completely interrupted it

and what does the king do?

The king doesn't say,

get out of here little kids.

You know,

we're in a very important meeting.

No,

he scoops them up in his arms

and he gives them a big hug

and he says,

you know what?

You fill me up.

And what is he saying?

He's saying that his kids

in that moment

fill him up with joy

as he fills the whole kingdom with joy,

with love,

with justice,

with power,

with wisdom,

right?

So,

what is the church?

Ephesians says,

you,

Christian,

the church

are the very joy of Jesus Christ,

his body.

Somehow,

someway,

you fill him up

as he fills the world,

the kingdom of God

with wisdom and justice

and power and love

and that's the definition we get

that's a beautiful image.

There's a lot of beautiful images

in this book.

There was a theologian

named John Mackay

who was born in Inverness

in 1889

and he moved over

to America

in the early 20th century

and he became

the third president

of Princeton Theological Seminary

in New Jersey.

But later in his life,

he was invited back

to Scotland,

to Edinburgh,

to give a series of lectures

at the university

and he talks about Ephesians

in those lectures

and in them,

he tells the story

of how he came

to follow Jesus,

how he came to faith

in Christ

and he says

that he was 14 years old

and he was walking

through the highlands

north of Inverness

and he was reading

the book,

this letter,

Ephesians

and he says,

he says,

to this letter

I owe my life.

In it,

I saw a new world.

Everything was new.

I had a new outlook,

new experiences,

new attitudes

to other people.

I loved God.

Jesus Christ,

when I read this letter,

he became to me

the center of everything.

I have been quickened.

I was made alive.

I was really alive.

Then he writes,

this letter

is pure music.

What we read here

is truth

that sings

doctrine set to music.

That's the letter

to Ephesians.

I hope that

as we go back

through it again,

the back half,

you feel like

you get that experience too.

There's a piece of music

in it

at the very end

of chapter 3.

If you have a Bible,

you can see this.

We didn't read this piece

but chapter 3

verses 20 and 21

is a doxology

and he says here,

all glory

from the church

be to God the Father,

God the Son,

God the Spirit.

Then it feels

almost like

that's the end

of the letter.

This doxology,

letter done.

But then chapter 4 starts.

The reason that last year

we stopped

at chapter 3

is because there's

a very natural break there

with the doxology.

Praise be to God

for all these things.

Now,

then he says

in chapter 4 verse 1,

I therefore,

Paul,

write the next thing

to you.

The therefore

in chapter 4 verse 1

is pointing back

to everything

he's already said

in chapters 1 to 3.

One of the ways

you could think about it,

we've got to have

a little bit

of a longer introduction

today to get back

into the letter

we've left for a year.

One way to think

about it is

scholars will call this

the indicative

and the imperative split.

The credenda

and the agenda

as it's often put.

What does that mean?

Indicative statements

are statements of fact.

So chapter 1 to 3

is statements of fact.

You were dead,

but the Spirit

made you alive.

You were lost,

but now you're found.

You were Jews

and Gentiles

that hated each other,

but now you are

one church.

Facts,

declarative statements,

indicatives.

And then chapter 4 to 6

are imperatives.

Now,

what could you do

in the light of that truth?

You were called,

now,

here's commands.

Right?

And so if you look

at the very first thing

he does

in chapter 4 verse 1,

he says,

I therefore call you

to live in a manner

worthy of the calling

to which you've been called.

So the very first thing

you get is a command.

So chapters 1 to 3,

who's the church?

What happened to us?

How do we become Christians?

What is God doing

in all of world history?

Chapter 4 to 6,

what should we do now

in the light of who we are?

So chapter 1 to 3,

who are we?

Chapter 4 to 6,

now what do we do?

How do we live?

How do we go forward?

How then shall we live?

And so we begin

with this command,

walk in a manner worthy

of the calling

to which you've been called

and that structures

the whole of the last

three chapters.

If you were here

in January,

I know,

I see guests here today,

I know some of you weren't,

but if you were here

in January,

one of the things

I said is that

if there was a unifying theme

to the whole semester,

this spring semester,

it is spiritual formation,

it is how can we grow together?

And if there's one sentence

that unifies the whole

of this semester

and all the different series

we've looked at,

it is this,

that true discipleship,

true formation,

growing by the Holy Spirit

as Christians,

is just this command,

become who you already are.

Be who God has already

made you in Christ.

And here,

what he's saying

in this argument

in chapter 4,

1 to 16,

is he's saying,

let me summarize

all of 1 to 3 for you,

you have got the life

of God in you.

You've got the Spirit,

you've got the triune God

with you,

blessing you,

redeeming you,

you've got the life

of God in you,

now be,

grow into who you really are

in that light.

And we've said that,

this is probably

the 10th sermon

that's been the thesis

this semester,

but that really is

what the New Testament

says over and over again,

become who you already are

in Christ.

You've got everything,

you've got all the treasures,

you've got the life

of God,

now become that.

Two ways today,

every week,

for the next couple months,

we'll ask the question,

what does the church do,

what are we to do?

The answer today is,

seek unity

and seek maturity.

So Paul,

in these 16 verses,

says,

be one,

be unified,

and seek spiritual maturity.

Let's take him in reverse.

He does unity,

then maturity,

I want to do maturity,

then unity.

All right,

so first,

seek spiritual unity.

That's what we're told

to do here.

If you're a believer today,

God has saved you,

you were dead in your

trespasses and sins,

by faith,

in Christ,

by grace,

God made you alive,

you're saved.

Here's the church,

that's what the church is,

here we are,

right here.

What are we to do?

Verse 13,

if you look at it with me,

he says that the big goal,

he's talking about the goal

here of our Christianity,

and he says,

we strive after unity

until we attain

the unity of faith,

the knowledge of the Son of God,

and then here's the clause,

unto mature manhood.

Now,

he puts that in the masculine,

that's just the way people

talked in the first century.

You could translate it like,

until we grow up,

all the way,

until we become adults.

So,

he's talking here about

the big goal

of the Christian life,

and he says it's

spiritual adulthood,

spiritual maturity,

that's the big goal

of the Christian life.

When you become a Christian,

you start out

as a spiritual baby,

a spiritual infant,

and Paul says the goal

in the Christian life

is to grow up

and to become

a full-grown adult

in the spiritual life.

Now,

we have a baby

at my house right now.

It's our baby.

The baby we have

at our house

is our baby.

And,

she can't do very much.

She's very needy.

She's very dependent.

Right?

So,

she cannot talk.

She cannot walk.

She cannot feed herself.

She can grab

a little bit and feed.

But a couple weeks ago,

she did start crawling.

She started,

you know,

the baby scoot

across the room.

You know,

the scoot.

And,

she probably about

a week and a half ago

was the first time

she was able to make it

across the whole room.

And,

you know what we said

to her that day

when we saw that?

We said,

Isabel,

little baby,

you know,

scooting across the room

is nice,

I guess,

but all the other kids

can run.

You know,

we said,

scooting,

crawling is okay,

but walking

is far superior.

And,

even better than that

is running

and even better than that

is sprinting.

And,

most of our kids

can sprint.

No,

right?

It's good to be a baby

when you're supposed

to be a baby.

And,

if you are a new believer,

if you are an early Christian,

it's good to be a spiritual baby.

It's not bad.

You're supposed to be.

You're supposed to

become a Christian

and then

learn to crawl

and then learn to walk

and then learn one day

to sprint.

And so,

it's a very good thing

to be exactly

where you are

when you come to faith

in Christ.

And,

Paul says here,

the goal is to grow

in spiritual maturity

unto full adulthood,

manhood,

womanhood,

as Christians,

right?

So,

it's good to be a spiritual baby

if you are a new Christian.

Christian.

And,

if,

if I came back up here

and we looked at this passage

again in three years

and I said,

Isabel is still crawling.

She hasn't quite gotten

to walking yet.

You see,

it's a beautiful thing

for Isabel to be crawling

right now,

but it would be a terrible thing

if in three years

she can't walk,

right?

We would be searching out

help for that.

So,

it's very good today

if you're a new believer

to be a spiritual baby

and it's not good

to stay that way.

We've got to grow,

Paul says.

So,

the Christian life

is all about

starting out as a spiritual infant

but growing.

Now,

how do you know

if you're a spiritual infant?

He tells us here

in verse 14.

He says,

grow up from spiritual infancy

to adulthood

so that you may no longer

be tossed to and fro

by the waves of deceit

and cunning

and doctrine

and Bible teaching

from all over the place.

So,

he says,

he says that when,

one of the ways

you can know

am I a spiritual infant

is that you're still

struggling

to tell the difference

between teaching

that comes directly

from the Bible

and false teaching.

So,

you still are in a place

where you can be

tossed to and fro

by false teachers,

by cunning,

by deceit,

by schemes of people.

You might turn on the TV

and you watch TV preaching

which is usually

false preaching

and you're sort of

mesmerized by it

and he says

that's when you sort of know

that you're not yet,

you haven't yet grown

into spiritual maturity.

You can't yet

tell the difference

between good teaching

and false teaching,

biblical theology

and false theology.

You know,

Isabel,

Isabel tries to eat Legos

so we could put food

in front of her

and we could put Legos

in front of her

and she just,

both,

they're equally good

to her,

right?

That's an issue

of discernment.

That's being a,

you know,

a spiritual baby

cannot discern

good and bad

all the time.

What are the details

underneath that?

It'd be something

like saying

you might,

you're not expected to.

When you just become

a Christian,

you shouldn't yet

be able

to discern exactly

because you haven't yet

put all the pieces

of the Bible together.

And I don't mean

just knowing

the Bible stories,

I mean being able

to put the theology

of the Bible together

in your head,

in your mind,

in your heart

and being able to know

who is God,

what is a human being,

what is wrong

with the world,

all the different pieces

of theology together,

right?

That's an issue

of discernment

and time.

It takes time.

Nobody should be

at the finish line

on that.

If you're a new Christian,

you shouldn't know

very much about it.

But he's saying here,

but it is time to grow.

It's time to take

the next step.

Another aspect would be

that you're just now

learning to walk

in a manner

worthy of the calling

to which you've been called.

So you don't,

you might not even know

what's happened to you yet.

There are a couple

new believers

in our congregation

right now

and talking to them,

I know that they say,

I don't quite know

what has happened to me,

but I know that

I was lost

and now I'm found.

And then Paul says,

well, read Ephesians

and it can explain

to you a bit more

about what the Spirit

did in your life

and exactly what happened,

but you shouldn't

necessarily know

the full of that

on day one,

not at all.

You're a spiritual baby.

That's okay.

But you may find,

what does he say

right after?

Walk in a manner

worthy of the calling

to which you've been called

by putting on humility,

gentleness,

patience,

forbearance,

bearing with one another

sins,

love,

he says.

So you may be in a place

where you're looking back

and thinking,

I have yet to kill

the sins

that I really,

really struggled with

before I became a Christian.

And that's okay.

That's the process

of sanctification.

So you might say,

you might look up

and say,

I have yet to put to death

the impatience

that I really had

before I was a Christian.

And that's because

you're a spiritual baby.

It's okay.

It's a process.

Sanctification is a long road.

Or you may look up,

and I think this is one

that's subtle in the text,

but a little bit hidden,

but there

and really important.

How do you assess

your own spiritual immaturity?

Are you a person

who is tossed

to and fro

week in and week out

by experiences

and feeling

more than anything else?

In other words,

is your spiritual life

and the health

of your spiritual life

conditioned on whether

or not today,

this Sunday worship service

was good for you or not?

So do you walk away

thinking,

you know,

I enjoyed that today.

I got something

from that today.

My feelings

were struck today.

I liked the music.

I liked the sermon.

Or I didn't.

And if that's

sort of the primary way

you're assessing

your Christian health,

you're a spiritual baby.

You're still in infancy,

right?

Because you've yet

to learn the ordinariness

of the Christian life,

which is to come

week in and week out

with God's people,

worshiping under

the command of God

that says,

come and be with God's people.

Take up the duty

until it becomes a delight.

And you know,

sometimes it won't be a delight.

Of course,

sometimes the preaching

is not good.

Sometimes the music,

well,

that's rare,

but every once in a while,

right?

Of course,

but if your Christian life

and your spiritual health

is judged based on

experience of feeling,

so in other words,

if you don't have

a mountaintop moment,

if you feel a little bit

in the valley,

you don't know what to think

about your Christianity anymore,

you're at spiritual infancy,

right?

So you've yet to learn

that Christianity

is actually a long obedience

in the same direction,

slow,

a marathon,

right?

Not a series of mountaintops,

but more like a series of valleys

that you're working through.

And so one of the things

I think that I've seen

is when people in our community

become Christians,

sometimes one of the experiences

that they have

is six months in,

maybe there'll be a season

of I don't know,

I don't even know

if I'm a Christian anymore

because I'm struggling

to read my Bible,

I'm struggling to pray,

and what you're just doing

is entering into

that first valley

after the mountain peak

of coming to faith in Christ,

right?

A long obedience

in the same direction.

Lastly,

verses 15 and 16,

he says,

what is the goal

to grow up together

in maturity,

in deep community,

the kind of community

that says,

I can speak the truth

and love to my Christian neighbor

and we're okay,

we're walking together

in the same direction.

And so another sign

of spiritual infancy

is just sort of

a lone wolf mentality,

an individualism,

where maybe you've yet

to come to see

the real vibrancy,

the depth,

the reasons

that you need

the spiritual community,

you need the community

of faith deeply,

you can't walk alone.

There has to hit

some point along the way

in your Christian life

where you realize,

boy,

the church has been

sort of peripheral to me,

I go,

but I'm not deeply embedded

in the community of faith

until that moment

where you find out

how much you need it.

And then you grow,

you come up

out of spiritual infancy

into maturity.

Now,

will you ask this week

the question

I'm asking me,

I hope right now

you're willing

to ask yourself,

am I a spiritual infant?

And when you look

at that list,

the answer is,

of course.

You know,

in some sense,

yes.

In some sense,

every single one

of us in here

have not grown

into full adulthood

in some of the ways

I've just talked about.

And we've yet to grow

into the mature manhood

and womanhood

of the Christian experience

in a way that we could have,

of course, right?

So let me,

I've culled together

a list of questions for you.

And I've taken these

from three different authors

on spiritual health.

And I just want to ask them to you,

it'll take one minute,

ask yourself these questions.

I'm asking myself these questions.

Number one,

do I have more theological

and biblical understanding

today than one year ago?

Number two,

have I overcome

any patterns of sin

as of today

that were very present

in my life

one year ago?

Number three,

am I more patient,

long-suffering,

and gentle

with people

that I struggle with

regularly

than a year ago?

Number four,

am I more of a refreshment,

I think this is

the most important one,

am I more of a refreshment

to the body of Christ

than I was a year ago?

Number five,

I think I've got ten,

do I love the saints?

Do I love the church

more than I did a year ago?

Do I love the body of Christ,

my local church body?

Number six,

do I have Christian friendships

that exist

to help me grow

by being able

to speak the truth

and love to me?

So do I have

a real Christian friendship

where somebody can,

verses 15 and 16,

speak the truth

and love to me

because I want

to grow up

in the Christian faith,

I want to put on humility

and gentleness

and patience?

Do I think about God

more on a daily basis

than I did a year ago?

Do I pray

and do I delight

in prayer more today

than I did a year ago?

And lastly,

am I more aware

of my need of grace today?

Do I know my neediness,

as Ryan preached

on last Sunday,

do I know my neediness

today more than I did

a year ago?

So as I've grown up

in the faith,

I'm more aware

of my need of grace.

So some questions.

Now let me say this

before I move to the close,

the second thing.

One writer puts it like this,

if you've really done

that assessment,

probably it breaks you

a little bit.

And the most important thing

that this passage

is saying at its core

is you are not saved

by your spiritual maturity,

but by Jesus Christ.

You don't come into the faith

because you're strong.

You come into the faith

because you're weak, right?

You're not saved

by spiritual maturity,

but by Jesus.

And so at the very center

of this passage

is the idea

that you're not saved

because of maturity,

but unto it, unto it.

And at the heart

of the passage,

if you look at the center

with me,

verses 4 to 10,

I can just briefly summarize

the argument here.

At the very middle,

he puts the grace

of Jesus Christ

in this passage

from Psalm 68

that Christ ascended

and he led captives

out of captivity.

We just sang it

in Psalm 68.

But you look at verse 4

and following,

he says,

you are one church,

one people,

one faith.

Jesus is the one object

of your faith,

one baptism.

So if you've been baptized

in the name of Father,

Son, and Holy Spirit,

you share in the one baptism

of the church,

of Jesus Christ, right?

No matter where that happened.

You have one faith,

one people,

one spirit.

There's only one Holy Spirit.

So if you're a Christian,

you have the Holy Spirit.

So you're united

by the Spirit

with all the other Christians.

There's not multiple spirits.

So you can be Baptist.

You can be Christ.

You can be Presbyterian.

You can be Pentecostal.

You can be any of it

and there's still

only one faith.

And he says,

why?

Because Jesus condescended.

He came incarnation.

He came down

and when he ascended,

when he went into heaven,

he gave all the gifts

of grace to the church.

Meaning,

you're not saved

by what denomination

you're in.

You're not saved

by your maturity.

You're not saved

by any of it.

What is the condition

of being one of the captives

that the Redeemer

is set free?

The condition?

Being captive.

It's being weak.

It's being imprisoned.

It's being in darkness.

It's being dead, right?

You're not saved

by your strength.

You didn't get out of captivity

because you're strong.

You got out of captivity

because of your immaturity,

your weakness,

your deadness, right?

And now you've been set free

to grow into maturity.

So today,

no,

I'm not saved

because of my maturity

just like I'm not cast away

because of my immaturity.

So if you look today

and say,

I am a spiritual infant,

that's a wonderful thing

to realize today.

It's so good.

You're not cast out

by your infancy

and no more than you're brought in

by your maturity.

Instead,

you are saved

unto

taking up the call

to the full stature of Jesus

as he puts it in verse 14.

Now secondly and finally,

that means

that we're called then

as part of our maturity

to seek unity.

That's the second and final thing.

All right,

now for Paul,

maturity and unity

are deeply connected.

So maturity breeds unity

and unity breeds maturity.

They're completely intertwined here

in this passage.

So he's talking here

to Jews and Gentiles

and they hated each other

truly

far more than we can understand.

And he's saying,

but now you are one church,

one people,

by one spirit,

one baptism,

one faith.

Jesus is your saver.

So you've got to actually pursue that

and be eager to maintain

the unity Jesus has created

in the bonds of peace.

You've got to take that up.

You've got to actually be one.

Imagine,

imagine a family,

put it like this,

imagine a family.

Maybe you get invited over

to somebody's family home

and you don't know them very well

but you go

and you visit the home

and you observe

how the family functions

and you go to dinner

and you're kind of there

for a few hours.

And one of the things you notice

is how tight

everybody is in the family.

Parents and kids

and there's a lot of respect

and love

and it's just a really warm environment.

You kind of feel like,

have I stepped into a hobbit hole?

It just feels so wonderful.

You're like,

this is exactly where

I want to be right now.

The food is great.

The company is great.

You've maybe had

those hospitality experiences

with people like that

and you've noticed

with the kids,

you think the kids

are so mature for their age.

What does that look like?

It looks like humility.

There's not a lot of pride.

Gentleness.

Even one kid

tries to start a fight.

You know,

they say something

and you think,

boy,

that could be fighting words.

But the other child

is forbear's patience

and just swallows it

and lets it go.

Why?

Because they're mature enough

to think,

I'm not going to start

a squabble right now

and they let it go.

And you have this experience

and you say,

what is it that made them

so mature?

What is it that made them

like this?

And you realize

it's their unity.

Their love for one another

is based on a deep bond

and unity

and that unity breeds maturity

and that maturity breeds unity.

And he's saying here

that unity and maturity

are so hand in hand

that the church,

this St. Columbus,

we ought to look,

ought to be like that.

This family

where people come

and say,

boy,

they're so for one another

that they're also

spiritually mature

and they're so spiritually mature

that they are for one another.

They really love each other

desperately.

You see how those things

fit together for Paul?

In other words,

he's saying,

a church

that is truly unified

is desperately serious

about discipleship.

And a church

that is desperately serious

about discipleship

exhibits in unity

in avoiding faction

and really being

for one another

and that's all born

out of a killing pride,

being humble,

meek.

The word here,

gentleness,

in this passage

is the Greek word

for meekness.

It can be translated

either way.

And meekness

is not weakness.

Meekness instead,

this Greek idea

that Paul attaches here

is the strength

of a lion

but self-controlled.

The strength

of a lion

that's a person

that's so strong

they're gentle.

Right?

A person that

underneath their gentleness

has unyielding strength

knowing when to exercise

strength in the right time.

Right?

And that's the word

he uses here,

not weakness

but meekness.

Right?

And he says

that the church

should look like a family

that has those virtues,

has those things.

Now there's an interpretive

tension here

and it's in verse 4-6

and related to verse 3.

In verse 4-6

he says

you are one.

Radical unity,

Baptist,

Pentecostal,

Presbyterian,

all these different

denominations

and factions

of the church

we see all throughout

our city

and the world.

He says

but there is only one faith,

only one baptism,

only one people.

And he says

but in verse 3

be eager to maintain

the unity of love

and the bonds of peace.

Now what does he say?

Which is it Paul?

Are we one people

that can never be divided

or is it that we have to fight

to maintain the unity

of the spirit

and the bonds of peace?

And the answer of course

is yes.

Right?

What is he saying?

He's saying that

our calling here

is to maintain

visibly

what can never be broken

invisibly.

So in other words

the invisible church

is the one church

of Jesus

saved by the gospel

no matter where people

go to church.

There are true Christians

all over the world

in all sorts of churches

of course.

And he's saying

that invisible unity

can never be broken.

That's called

the church organic

the organic church

the living body

the organism.

It's invisible

to our eyes right now

because right now

we're here

and Charlotte Chapel

is over there

and Chalmers is over there

and Becloos over there

and Corubbers is down the street

and so we can't see

the unity of the church

visibly today

right here

but he's saying

in your local church

and in your mind

and your heart

you've got to fight

to maintain

the invisible unity

in a visible way

as much as possible

until you see it all

come together

visibly one day

when the king comes

to establish the kingdom.

Right?

So he's saying

you've got to have

the spirit in your heart

but then to the local church

to us today

as we close

you've got to

fight

be eager

to maintain

the unity of the church

and the bonds of peace

right here

in our little

visible community

of unity

one faith

one baptism

one people

right here united together

on this Sunday.

So look

what does that look like

practically?

Let me be practical

don't

don't let the sun

go down

on your anger today

towards somebody else

in the room.

Don't

don't let anger

and little tiffs

separate

and schism

the church

at all.

What else does it look like?

Don't let factions

in here

of friend groups

get in the way

of including

people who are new.

Don't

don't create

an inner ring

where nobody else

can get into

your friend bubble

within the local church.

What else does it look like?

It looks like

being a person

who speaks

the truth

and love

in other words

we've got to fight

to avoid flattery

with one another

meaning we're just a place

where everybody's nice

to each other.

Really

what does

what does Christianity

do for you?

Well it made me really nice.

No

it made you into a person

who's meek

meaning

strong as a lion

but knowing

when to use that strength.

In other words

you're able to speak

the truth in love.

You're not

merely words of niceness

and flattery.

You're able to have

such real Christian friendships

that you can tell

your neighbor

the truth

about their struggle

because you love them so much.

Or

avoiding

mere bluntness.

Words of truth

some of us

you see

some of us

flatter

and we're too nice

others of us

we

tell the truth too much.

Words of bluntness

without

the real reason

for that love

right?

And he's saying

that's what

maintaining

the unity of the church

and the bonds of peace

actually looks like

at a local level

in the day to day

true unity

seek the bonds of peace.

The word bond

there

is the word

sinew

or muscle tissue.

So he's saying

maintain

to be connected

as muscle tissue

to the ligaments

and joints

as much as you possibly can.

Be eager

fight for it

don't separate

the only condition

of separation

is false teaching.

That's it he says.

Other than that

fight

to maintain

the unity of the spirit

and the bonds of peace.

I look up

at St. Columbus

and I think

we've got pretty good unity

around here

by my perspective

and I'm very thankful

for that.

I recognize

it's not something

that I created

but I stepped into

and received

from many of you

and from our predecessors.

Paul is telling us here

the most dangerous position

that we could be in

is to be complacent

about that.

that either

we are growing up

in spiritual maturity

or the weeds

are growing

and we're moving

towards schism.

One of the two.

Either we're growing up

together and saying

I'm a spiritual infant

I need growth

in my life right now

or the weeds

are growing up

and we're preparing

for the next separation.

One of the two.

And he's saying

be eager

fight to maintain

the connective tissue.

Make visible

what is true and visible.

One faith.

One body.

One baptism.

One people.

Now next week.

Come back next week.

Because I didn't talk

at all about spiritual gifts

which are at the center

of this passage.

We're going to do

a whole week next week

on the spiritual gifts

that God gives us

to maintain this.

But I'll finish with this.

Paul says

in chapter 4 verse 1

I Paul

am a prisoner

of the Lord

for your sake.

Now that is

the third time

Paul

in this short letter

has mentioned already

prisoner for the Lord.

He really, really, really

wants you to know

he's in prison

when he writes this letter

and he is.

He's in prison in Rome

when he writes this letter.

One of the first times

he says it

he said

I'm a prisoner

to the Lord

and this time

he says

for the Lord.

In other words

he's saying

I am in chains

as I write this letter

because the Lord Jesus

is my master.

I am in chains

as I write this letter

because I'm willing

to serve

all the way

to the point

of imprisonment

and death

for the sake

of my master Jesus.

Now let me translate

that to as practical terms

as I can say it.

I think Paul

because he said this

three times

is trying to get us

to see this

our greatest need

at St. Columbus

as a church family

is not wonderful circumstances

but Christ-like character

humility, gentleness,

patience,

forbearance,

and love.

our greatest need

is not great,

beautiful,

wonderful circumstances.

When Paul says

how do you maintain unity?

How do you grow

in spiritual maturity?

There's nothing here

about our budget.

There's nothing here

about a great building.

There's nothing here

about how many people

are coming today

relative to a year ago.

Nothing.

He says

you don't need

great circumstances.

You need

the character

of Jesus Christ

in your life.

And how do you get that?

How do you get

his humility?

The word

Paul uses

for humility

in this chapter

is a unique word

for humility

and it's used

of Jesus

in other parts

of the New Testament

for the fact

that he did not

consider equality

with God

something to be held on to

but made himself nothing.

That's the word.

How do you grow?

How do you kill

spiritual pride

that could divide a church?

church

you just gotta

go and look at him

and you've gotta

be with him

and you gotta

sit with Jesus

in order to

become like him.

So it's as simple

as that.

What's the

real secret

of true unity?

Be with Jesus.

What's the real secret

of spiritual maturity?

Be with Jesus.

If you're not

with him

relationally

sitting down with him

you're not going

to become like him.

Be with Jesus

and you'll become

like him.

Let us pray.

Father we ask

for renewed

spirit

of a desire

to seek

maturity

in the faith

maturity in Christ

and we pray today

that the big thing

that would happen

is that we become

more like you Jesus

because we've got

your grace

and so

we want

your humility

your patience

your forbearance

your love

your gentleness

your meekness

and we want unity

together in the light

of that.

So Lord

convict us

in exactly the places

we need to be convicted

of a lack of maturity

in Christ

and then

encourage us

with the words

of the gospel

and then send us on

to grow.

Lord

so I pray

that each one of us

in this room today

would want to want

to spend time

with you

would want

to want

to become

more like you.

That's my prayer

for me

it's my prayer

for all of us

in this room

Lord

we pray it

in Jesus name

Amen.