BIBLE READING: EPHESIANS 4:11-16
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 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.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
REFLECTION
Today we are thinking about what it means to become a grown-up Christian, a mature Christian.  Paul is talking about what it looks like to be made alive in Christ.

One of the amazing things about being a parent is watching your children develop into personalities of their own.  When our children were younger we created the character ‘Spiderhand’. Spiderhand used to crawl across the table to tickle them, or steal food from them, or try to tease them in someway. As he crawled across the table, they would bang down their hands and squash Spiderhand.  But then there was one day when my children turned to me and made their hand into a Spider. They had taken Spiderhand and made it into their own thing.

Just the other day, one of my children turned to me and said ‘Look, Daddy, Spiderhand has come with us’. What they are doing is taking something that they have seen and exploring it through their own personalities.

When Paul talks about being made alive in Faith he is talking about expressing the faith we have. As we become more mature Christians that becomes more evident. In verse 11 he talks about these fivefiold ministries; ministries of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. We talked about those last summer and you can find more information on the resources page at sthomascrookes.org.

Paul says that we are given these gifts by Jesus to live out and show our faith in a particular way, as we become mature we use these gifts to build the body of Christ.

The first thing about being a mature Christian is being given gifts that we use to benefit the whole body.

In verse 12 he says that we are to not only express our faith but we are to do it together. Verse 12-15 talks about how we do this to grow as a body together. The Christian faith is not an individual faith, we are in this together, we share our faith together, we work together.

So, as we become more mature we express our faith, and we, secondly, express our faith together.

Thirdly, we do this to make the love of Jesus known. We are to be a community of the love of Jesus, to show that love to our world. As we become mature Christians we work together to show the love of Jesus. And what our world needs to see more than ever is the love of Jesus.

Part of our instructions as Christians is that we work towards something together.

Who are you working with today? Who are you made to be? How can you use that to build up the body?  Because this is what w are called to; to show the love of Jesus to our world.
PRAY
Father, we thank you that you call us to maturity, to grow in the faith, to grow in to the people you called us to be. We thank you Father for the gifts you give. We pray we might be a community that when people look at us they see the love of Jesus. And, Holy Spirit, equip this day to do these things. In Jesus name, Amen.