Saturday, November 22, 2008
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Call to Faith = Grow Up
When I wrote the "What is Your Woe?" challenge a week ago, I related the stories of a couple of Old Testament prophets and their call from God and said that we all have a call — we each have a "woe is me if I do not" — from God. A second point of each of these stories is that when God calls us to something, he expects us to obey and do what we have been called to. Not because he is some kind of tyrant, but because there is some part in the body of Christ that we, uniquely and individually are supposed to fulfill. Something will be missing if we don't do our part. God has given each of us a part and he has given it to you and me for his reasons and purposes. I quote again my reading of Ephesians 4:
"It was he who gave some to be _____________ (you fill in your blank), to prepare God's 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" (Ephesians 4:11-13).
I encourage you to read the November 15th challenge if you haven't already, but today, let's move on the the purpose of all of this, as it is here in Ephesians 4:12-13. It is all about growing up. A call to faith is always a call to grow up and growing up in our walk with God is always a call to faith. In this, we all need to walk in our gifts and calling for all of the others who are dependent on that for their own growth. And, we need to accept and receive the gifts and callings of others for us to be able to grow up into our full potential and place. We have been given to each other in the church to grow each other up and to encourage each other in the faith. "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24). Gifting and gift people have been given so that:
- God's people are prepared to do what God needs us to do.
- As Christ's whole body, which is the church in all its members, we are all built up and encouraged.
- The church as a whole and in its individual local expressions comes to a place of real and evident unity among individuals.
- There is a demonstrable unity in faith — both in the content and actions of what we believe.
- It is obvious that we are not just believers in a creed but people who are in a real living relationship with Jesus (the knowledge of the Son of God).
- There is an obvious maturity among the people in our church.
- The whole measure of the fullness of the anointing that comes with our relationship to Christ — "the Anointed One" — is present in our body.
Does that sound like a dream church? Maybe. It is the dream of Jesus Christ! It is his dream for his body! That we grow up individually and together. Paul continues, and it is important that we do too. What, he asks will happen, when this "dream team" steps up and does what it is supposed to and what it has been called to? What happens when you and I take up what we may have let fall and embrace the job that we have been given to do in the body? What happens when we stop making excuses for why we cannot?
"Then we will no longer be infants [sounds like growing up to me!], tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into 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" (Ephesians 4:14-16).
To share our gifts and to receive the gifts of others is an act of love. Speaking the truth in love. Building itself up in love. We give and we receive because we care so much. That is the Spirit of Christ. He did not come to be served but to serve and to give himself away for all of the others (Mark 10:45). When we do that which is like him, we "grow up into him"! As each part does its work, the whole body grows. It is all about growth, it is not at all about drawing attention to ourselves or our gifting.
Jesus is coming back for a bride! Hallelujah! But he is coming back, not for some kind of dismembered monstrosity, he is coming back for a mature and complete bride, spotless and without wrinkles. A together grown up bride. I want to be a part of that. And the good news is, that we are and we can be even to a fuller degree as we fill in the blank and do what we have been gifted and called to do and as we embrace the fact that our call to faith is a call to maturity and growth and going beyond where we are right now. Thank the Lord that he has given us others in the body to encourage us in this quest. And thank God for what he has given each of us that we can share with the others that he brings our way.
"We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect [mature and complete] in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me" (Colossians 1:28-29).
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