Built up? For what?
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13–NIV) 1
Remember how Paul started off this chapter? “Live worthy,” he said and quickly layered on three helpful attitudes: humility, patience, and gentleness. He said that we should have an eagerness toward unity in the spirit strengthed by cords, bonds, seatbelts of peace. He wrapped these up by giving us the “seven ones”: One body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. That was the first six verses of this chapter.
The middle verses in this chapter describe the activity of Christ. He gave gifts to men. The gifts were designed to equip church people, to live their lives serving others, that the body of Christ may be built up. Built up toward what? Unity. See? Paul continues to point his readers toward unity.
This does not mean people are cookie cutter. The conglomeration of people we call the church is not a robot factory or Pepperidge Farm extruding goldfish crackers by the millions. The body of Christ, Christians living on the earth, is much more like a fancy hamburger joint where you have a variety of buns, proteins, sauces, veggies, and fries. When the staff member walks to your table carrying your selections it is called a hamburger. It may look (and taste) different, but it is still called a hamburger, and each variety has its own strengths.
Unity? In what?
“In the faith” is one answer; another is, “In the knowledge of Jesus Christ.” Each of us has a diverse set of circumstances and personalities, strengths and weaknesses. God has provided many helps for us the foremost being the life of Jesus Christ layered on top of all God himself did with the Jewish nation beforehand.
Paul gives us two manners in which we are to face the diversity of good things and bad things in our lives. One manner is learning the knowledge of God and apply his way to our ups and downs. The other manner is faith in God for things we do not yet understand. When a body of people look to the one source of scripture and place their faith in the one true God
As we fly through life on that trajectory, our nearness to God leads toward harmony. The medley of Christians becomes a melody
Unity? For what?
Note how the 13th verse winds up. At the end of God’s pure rainbow is a pot of goodness Paul calls maturity. The expectations we have for a 5 year old are different than a 15 year old. It does not stop with the teenage years. At 25 and 40 different mannerisms and stabilities should be in play. As we go through life we mature making better decisions, learning from our mistakes and from others.
It is no different in spiritual matters. We have rough edges as baby Christians and as adult Christians. The full measure of Christ is a mature measure. We can look at our positive and negative circumstances and smile the smile of faith. “Look what God has done,” is how we will be able to pigeonhole some of our things. “Wait for what God will show he is doing,” is how to look at others. There is a stability, a balance gained by Godly-slogging through the experiences our lives are infused with. Faith, knowledge, unity, maturity: that is a ladder with good rungs to climb life with.