Tossed To and Fro

This is going to be a really hard passage for me to not feel the church has failed in. Ephesians 4:13-14 is a continuation of verses 11-12. God gave apostles, prophets, pastors, and evangelists to the believers to equip them for the work of the ministry and the building of the body of Christ. verse 13 goes on to say, "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God..." I can't help but think about how many different churches there are, each one doing "church" their own way. There is no unity of the faith. As believers we need to wake up and realize the problem with not having unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God. We have not reached "mature manhood". Although there is a need for multiple churches in different cities, the goal should be to reach more saints, not to design a plan for more unsaved to go. The ministries at the different churches should strive "to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Looking at the ministry of Christ should be the example followed by churches today. We should follow what Paul taught to the early churches, to better equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

Why? Verse 14 tells us it "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 in deceitful schemes." We need to look at the words of the apostles and prophets and be taught those things in church and go out and share those words with the word. Instead of having the buffet line of churches where you can choose what fits your style, we need churches and body of believers who are focused solely on the Word of God, measuring success by the stature of the fullness of Christ within that body. God gave us His Word as the ultimate and only authority for the Christian church and the Christian life. No longer should we be tossed around, tricked into believing in different people's opinions of how best to "do church" or "do ministry." The early church, the books of the apostles, Paul's letters to the churches, THE LIFE AND MINISTRY OF CHRIST should be our examples of the best way for the church body to be united across the world, in glorifying God with our worship and our work of building the body. No more should we fall for "human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes." The church has the help in the Spirit and the Word of God to build the body the way God designed.

Praise God for His Word.