Transformed and matured
This week's goodness is on Ephesians 4:14-16:
When we're young, we're easily tricked. In our culture, contracts signed by someone under a certain age aren't binding, because it's easy to trick a kid. Want some easy money? Sell a kid a lollipop for ten thousand dollars and watch his parents go into debt trying to bail out his debt, right? Obviously, that's not allowed. We need time and experience, training and making small mistakes, in order to relate rightly to the world around us and not be abused. Why, then do we ignore that same wisdom when we're born again?
Paul talks about the maturing process as a Christian. We're newly born into a spiritual world when we accept Jesus. The eternal world doesn't always work the same as the brief mortal world we live in. We're not in things for ourselves. We can't always see what's bothering us. We don't need to provide everything in our own strength. Love conquers death, not the other way around. We don't just say a prayer and get it. It takes time. If we don't see that, we can get ourselves into deep trouble.
There are people who take advantage of newly born believers and lure them into a lifestyle of bondage or immorality. Some of these people have themselves been deceived. Paul talks about a bunch of heresies that were floating around in the early church. Gentiles were tricked into taking on Jewish practices, as though they were required. People questioned the resurrection. In America's church, a lot of people get dragged into politics as though it was part of God's kingdom. There are plenty of deceptions.
Over time we get to know more about who God is. Sometimes it comes from reading the Bible. Sometimes it comes from the experience of others. Other times we have to learn the painful way with trial and error. Over time we get it. In the beginning, if we don't know the Bible and haven't had much experience, we could believe literally anything. That's how people get sucked into cults or get talked out of a spiritual experience. But in time, we gain a solid foundation in our beliefs. We learn to tell truth from deception.
But why the wait? We're on earth for so little time. Why not just instantly transform us all in one shot? Why not just make it us and God, Holy Spirit filled, from day one? Because it doesn't tend to work like that. Why did Jesus have to come as a baby and spend thirty years growing up and maturing before he could fulfill what was planned? How many years passed between Abraham and Moses, and between Moses and Jesus? Why can't we crush up a bunch of grapes and have a fine wine that same day?
The maturing process takes time because time is part of God's plan. It's one of his tools. And the process of growing up teaches us that we need other people, but that other people aren't any more perfect than us. They need us and we need them. Think about all of the different parts of the body, and how it grows. Can a hand make up for a bad heart? Can a five year old do a man's work in a coal mine? God's wise plan is encoded into our design.
So be patient. Continue to learn. Be humble. Understand that there is always more for you to understand. It's just like growing up. Also be gentle and patient with others in the same way. We're all part of something bigger. And if one part benefits, we all benefit.
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.
When we're young, we're easily tricked. In our culture, contracts signed by someone under a certain age aren't binding, because it's easy to trick a kid. Want some easy money? Sell a kid a lollipop for ten thousand dollars and watch his parents go into debt trying to bail out his debt, right? Obviously, that's not allowed. We need time and experience, training and making small mistakes, in order to relate rightly to the world around us and not be abused. Why, then do we ignore that same wisdom when we're born again?
Paul talks about the maturing process as a Christian. We're newly born into a spiritual world when we accept Jesus. The eternal world doesn't always work the same as the brief mortal world we live in. We're not in things for ourselves. We can't always see what's bothering us. We don't need to provide everything in our own strength. Love conquers death, not the other way around. We don't just say a prayer and get it. It takes time. If we don't see that, we can get ourselves into deep trouble.
There are people who take advantage of newly born believers and lure them into a lifestyle of bondage or immorality. Some of these people have themselves been deceived. Paul talks about a bunch of heresies that were floating around in the early church. Gentiles were tricked into taking on Jewish practices, as though they were required. People questioned the resurrection. In America's church, a lot of people get dragged into politics as though it was part of God's kingdom. There are plenty of deceptions.
Over time we get to know more about who God is. Sometimes it comes from reading the Bible. Sometimes it comes from the experience of others. Other times we have to learn the painful way with trial and error. Over time we get it. In the beginning, if we don't know the Bible and haven't had much experience, we could believe literally anything. That's how people get sucked into cults or get talked out of a spiritual experience. But in time, we gain a solid foundation in our beliefs. We learn to tell truth from deception.
But why the wait? We're on earth for so little time. Why not just instantly transform us all in one shot? Why not just make it us and God, Holy Spirit filled, from day one? Because it doesn't tend to work like that. Why did Jesus have to come as a baby and spend thirty years growing up and maturing before he could fulfill what was planned? How many years passed between Abraham and Moses, and between Moses and Jesus? Why can't we crush up a bunch of grapes and have a fine wine that same day?
The maturing process takes time because time is part of God's plan. It's one of his tools. And the process of growing up teaches us that we need other people, but that other people aren't any more perfect than us. They need us and we need them. Think about all of the different parts of the body, and how it grows. Can a hand make up for a bad heart? Can a five year old do a man's work in a coal mine? God's wise plan is encoded into our design.
So be patient. Continue to learn. Be humble. Understand that there is always more for you to understand. It's just like growing up. Also be gentle and patient with others in the same way. We're all part of something bigger. And if one part benefits, we all benefit.
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