Ephesians 4 and the Heart of the Matter
And he gave some as apostles, and same as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of god, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. (Eph. 4:11-16, NASB)
There is power in the church, more power than modern Christians can understand. All the things that they strive so hard to do, they would be empowered to do if they simply—or not so simply—were the church.
The verses above state very plainly how the church grows. It is the job of the leaders to train the saints to do the work of service and to build the body of Christ. The body will then grow “according to the proper working of each individual part,” as the saints speak the truth in love to one another. One version I've read—I don't remember which—had “as every part does its share.”
We have been told that the way to grow is to get alone in our room and to pray and read our Bibles. We've been told to start every day that way. That's not a bad way to start a day, but it is not the source of our growth. That teaching has led to Christians that say, “All I need is Jesus and my Bible.” That's a nice saying, but both Jesus and the Bible say that the eye can't say to the hand, “I have no need of you.” The writer of Hebrews declares our need of one another just as plainly: “Encourage one another day after day...so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (3:13, NASB).
The body is to grow together. Note the emphases on togetherness in the verses above. They say things like “until we all attain,” “we are to grow,” and “causes the growth of the body.” We all know what a bad state modern Christianity is in, and there is no need to wonder why. We don't do the things that are necessary for us to grow. While we may all quote the verses that talk about the eye needing the hand, we happily send another member of Christ off to a different church for wanting to raise his or her hands when singing or for disagreeing on some insignificant point of doctrine. The people God has put you with, according to the Scriptures, are the other Christians in your town or city, not the Christians that read the Bible and sing and praise the way you do. Paul wrote his letters to churches like the church of Ephesus and the church in Corinth, not to the first church of loud singing or the holy tabernacle of quiet worship.
In the verses above, Paul says that the supply for our growth comes from the joints. Now that's not a very good analogy of the body. What human body is supplied by joints? Colossians 2:19, a sister passage, is even stranger. There, Paul tells us that the whole body is supplied by joints and ligaments. What supply is your human body getting from your ligaments?
We want you to notice that a joint is not even a body part. A joint is a joining of two body parts. A ligament is like a rubber band that holds your bones together, thus creating the joint, the joining of two body parts. Paul's analogy may not apply to human bodies, but it applies excellently to the body of Christ. The body of Christ is supposed to be known for its love. Love is the “perfect bond of unity” (Col. 3:14, NASB). Love is the ligament that makes a joint—a joining—between us who are the body parts of Christ, and it is no stretch to say that it is love that supplies and spurs on our growth.
Pray in your room all you want. It is a good thing. Jesus did it, Paul did it, and Paul exhorted believers to pray without ceasing. However, prayer is not the source of your growth. If you can give to the poor and give your body to be burned and be without love (1 Cor. 13:3), then you can pray all day long and be without love, too. However, if you are speaking the truth in love—all of us, for we have need of that which every part provides—then the body will grow.
I don't believe I can overemphasize the importance of this teaching. It is ignored in the modern church, and we are seeing the fruit of it. We can try hard to do all the things that we've already done, but if we do the same things, even if we do them better, we will get the same results. The Scriptures are clear on our need. “Disputes, dissensions, and factions&148; are works of the flesh, and they cause us not to inherit the kingdom of God. It is clear that the church in America has not brought the kingdom of God to earth for men to see. It's time to make a change, and a drastic one at that, so that we might not be those who speak well of the Scriptures but those who actually obey them.
“While we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal 6:10, NASB).