This morning at my zero hour Bible Study we were looking at Ephesians 4:1-16. There are two things that jump off the page at me in relationship to life as a believer.
1. Paul calls us to live a life worthy of chains. Say what? Paul was probably rarely in trouble before he came to Christ. But after his encounter with Jesus on his way to Damascus, his life was a wreck. But it all comes down to this. When you are chained up for what you do (look at v. 11-13 to know what to do) than you know that we are all equal in position in Christ’s church. If Paul, one of the greatest Christians in history, was chained to a wall… we are all the same.
2. Growing up comes through knowing who you are and service. Louie Giglio paraphrases Jesus by saying our goal in serving Jesus is to make ourselves look smaller so Christ’s name will be greater. The smaller we make ourselves, the greater we will serve.
Paul says that when we do this, we won’t be infants in Christ. What do infants do? Infants are more worried about "big me" than they are about "making Jesus’ name greater." Infants are easily tricked by people who talk fast and present crafty messages. I used the example of the prosperity gospel teachers. Just because they have a nice smile and look like nice people doesn’t mean that what they say is true. In fact, the entire prosperity gospel idea that "Prosperity is my birthright as a child of the King of kings" is antithetical to the entire new testement narrative. Did Jesus or any of his disciples die rich? Perhaps this was because they didn’t have enough faith, right?
But when you are an infant in your faith and walk with the Lord these things seem like a good idea. You have a hard time looking past what you want to see what you will gain. Paul didn’t write, "To get rich is gain, to die is passing on wealth" did he? Quite the opposite.
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