Ephesians 4:15-16 - Receiving and Giving God's Love

Ephesians 4:15-16 - Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Message: Receiving and Giving God's Love

Time: Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians sometime in AD 60–61, around the same time he wrote Colossians and Philemon. Ephesians deals with topics at the core of being a Christian - faith and practice, no matter the situation.

What the Lord is Saying:

As I continue to spend this time reading and studying the Church - the Body of Christ - I am challenged that whether to attend church or not is not an option in our lives. There is a visible church (what we see) and an invisible church (the true church that only God can see). I often and others often choose visible church participation based upon feelings and likes and emotion. But in order to be a child of God and grow up in all aspects of Him - then communing with the saints is required. And this community is not simply ‘shooting the breeze’ or catching up on life but it is communion or fellowship of each part of the body that is growing and building itself up in love.

But this communion is not for the purpose of ‘self only’ growing but so that the entire church - invisible church - grows.

Again I feel like I am trained so often in selfish thinking - pleasing myself. Even as I think about using my spiritual gift i think it is often about me and yet I am to approach it with the idea that I am a part of the body which has a goal not of self growing or growing one self, but ‘body-growth.’ In verse 16 it says, ‘…when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Thus the title of this lesson. Receiving and Giving. I studied previously about receiving God's love, last time, looking at those verses about sharing in the sufferings of Christ, in the saving message that we have received - that is the foundation of our involvement at Church. And so this passage says we exercise our gifts so that the Body grows.

It is a change in focus really. Once I am in church, attending, it is about the entire church, not simply myself only. Obviously I do want to glorify God in what I do and say. But God doesn't need anything. He wants me to have salvation, yes, but once I have it, I am to serve. I am to exercise gifts so that the Body grows.

And so in this lesson is the emphasis upon Love being the greatest virtue. I Corinthians 13:13 says, "But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." Paul is speaking of using our spiritual gifts in I Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. And his central message is the way we accomplish this is out of love. I can work and do but it must be because of love. Love is the backbone of all that I do. 13:3 says, "If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing." Chapter 14, verse 1 says, "Pursue Love." He later says in verse 26 that all of this is for the purpose of edification. Again, the focus of all of this is not on self and pleasing self, but on others and so we receive God's love. 

Summary: We come together because of His sufferings, but once we are together, we are to be about exercising our gifts to build up and grow one another, and it is done with love. 

Promise: If we are not looking for ways to love and serve other believers, meeting their needs as we are able, we are not fulfilling God's purpose for the church. 

Prayer: O God, what a wretched one I am. I am trained so often in this world to focus on me, to focus on self. Even as I spoke last night, I'm feeling depressed and not finding joy in my days and what I do. Yet God, even in those thoughts is the idea of self and pleasing self. Yet, you remind me through this lesson and these words that once in Christ, I am to exercise gifts, giving love, in order to edify and grow up the Body of Christ. This is my calling. I thank you for the online ministry of GMO, for being involved in the past at church greeting people, for evangelism, meeting with Scott, but it is not over for me. I must keep on going. I must keep on serving. I must. This is where life resides. I've received your love and now I must give it. O God, break this cycle where I think self must be pleased. And instead keep me focused on others and giving to others and doing this in the form of love.

Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am now working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines celebrating the 500th year of the Reformation. The month of August is about the Body of the Lord - the Church recovered in the Reformation; July was the right use of God's Law; June was justification by faith alone; May, Christ Alone; April, salvation by grace alone; March, the sovereign providence of God; February, the doctrine of revelation, Scripture; January, the doctrine of God. 

Christ's Body

The Body of Christ - The Church is the Body of Christ and Christ loves the church. We are to imitate Christ and see that the Church is how Christ carries out His purposes in the world. The Head of the Church - Christ is Head of the church and he only has final authority and gives life to the church. Life is found only in Jesus Christ our Lord. - The Church We Can See - Belonging to a church is not optional, for anyone. We are meant to live in a community with other believers, to hear the Word of God preached, and to grow. The Church We Cannot See - What we see is the Visible church, the invisible church only God knows because He is omniscient and that is the Church we cannot see. 

Truths about the Church from the Apostles Creed

Church Unity - The church is bigger than our local assembly; there are core beliefs among the invisible church. One People Throughout History - God has only one people; throughout the world there are people that share doctrines and truths despite their being differences in where we attend or belong. God's Holy People - By being in Christ, though we still have a fallen nature, God has set us apart as holy, as his saints. True Catholocity - God's people includes men and women from every tribe and every tongue that hold to the biblical gospel. The Apostilic Church - we are fellow citizens with all people from all tribes and tongues throughout history, united by being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets teaching, thus apostolic, with Christ Jesus being our cornerstone.

What the Church Does and Believes

Preaching Christ and His Commandments - A church needs to be committed to faithfully preaching the Word of God. Administering Sacraments - Sacraments (The Lord's Supper and Baptism especially) need to be part of a church existing, but they also need to be rightly administered. The Discipline of the Church - We need to be a people that encourage repentance to keep the church pure and set apart.

Church Leadership Offices

Prophets and Apostles - There is a foundation of how the church begins and that foundation is the apostles and prophets. Evangelists, Shepherds, and Teachers - Only mention of pastors in the New Testament. 

Purpose of the Church

Our Arena for Growth - It is being at church, present, that we are to be equipped, build one another up, in order to grow in maturity. Communion in Gifts and Graces - As believers joining in Christ’s sufferings we have community, exercising our spiritual gifts, in order to build up the Body of Christ in Love.