Christians Full Grown
I have been listening to a show on 990 Main Street America Radio, Chevis and Joe: The Other Side (http://www.990mainstreet.com/onair_display.php?id=9). They have a lot of folks call in and say that they are Black men full grown. This is the first time I have ever heard that phrase and I have pondered it and decided it was time to use it in reference to Christians.
There is a lot of nonsense going on in the name of Christianity. Much of it is false doctrine or heresy, but much of it is just childish toy playing by folks who should be teachers and Christians full grown instead of babes.
1 Cor 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (KJV)
To hear some Christians talk, you would think they were two year olds because everything is about them. They are in a spiritual, “Me, me, mine” mode and expect the church to cater to their every whim and entertain them at every turn or else they throw a tantrum and disrupt the congregation or leave to find a better play pen.
It is extremely sad. These are people not only supposed to be chronologically mature adults, but many have been saved for quite a few years. A young person you cut some slack, but if you are not mature by age twenty-five, you will have a difficult chance of ever getting there. It is time to put away the childishness and be what God called us to be.
Heb 5:12-14
12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (KJV)
We have many young adults that have been raised in church and should be taking over the leadership of many ministries or at least be in apprenticeship but instead they just “hang out” at church when they feel like it and use it like a club or bar seeking mates. Though these people may be under thirty by their birth date they have had more spiritual training than the vast majority of people and thus are held accountable for the gifts and training they have been given.
They should be teachers and yet they have to be taught the simplest principles of Christianity and church life. They are so confused about what is right and wrong and they don’t want to be judgmental or intolerant. All those are milk issues. By now they should be dealing with deeper spiritual issues and seeking power for service and instead they are still in spiritual diapers or maybe training pants.
Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit and He dispenses various gifts to the members of Christ’s body that the Body might be complete, healthy and productive.
Eph 4:11-16
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
While we do not have apostles in the similitude of the Peter and Paul, an apostle was an ambassador or one sent on a mission and we are all to be ambassadors of Christ and we are sent out on the Great Commission with His message. In that respect, we are all apostles, but a more accurate modern counterpart may be a missionary sent out by the Church as were Paul and Barnabas.
We no longer have prophets in the sense of foretelling the future since we have the future laid out for us in Revelation and Daniel. We have all the future we need to know and its purpose is to inspire us to live more holy lives and to be about the Father’s business. It is not to satisfy our curiosity or to make us captivating party guests.
We do have “fix it” men (polemicists) that point out the errors of the church and exhort the brethren back to the Lord and His truth through revival, which is 98% of what prophets were sent to do. When they foretold the future it was to allow the people to have affirmation that the prophet was speaking for God.
We have the complete written Word of God so all we have to do now is compare the message with the Word. If it matches the Word the message is from God. If it does not, it is of the flesh or of the devil or both but not of God. Indeed, the Word itself now proves itself from fulfilled prophecies hence we can be assured that the ones yet to be fulfilled shall be done without question.
We have evangelists whose primary gift is to preach the Gospel and win lost folks to Christ. Often we have evangelistic meetings that are really revivals because only saved people are present. But a true evangelistic meeting would be where lost people are being saved.
Some evangelists are gifted to reach academia and other folks considered to be the intelligenzia of our day. We call these apologists and they do some tremendous research finding out some very detailed proofs of biblical veracity. They are a needed part of the Body though their work will only win a small minority of the group they are seeking to reach. Yet, this does not free us from giving a reason of the hope that lies with us to every man just because we are not called to be evangelists. Timothy was told to do the work of an evangelist though that was not his primary calling.
With that being said, we come to the pastors and teachers or as I believe the pastor-teachers. The Greek word kai when between nouns can be translated as even and in this context I believe that “or” would be acceptable so we could say pastors even teachers or pastor-teachers. I Timothy 3 tells us that any man desiring to be a bishop or pastor must be apt to teach. So a shepherd must be a teacher as well as a leader hence he is a pastor-teacher.
But, even if you wish to make teacher a separate gift, a teacher has to have some leadership or shepherding ability in order to win the respect of his students. He has to be able to guide them from what they know into what they do not know even if they do not want to know what he is trying to teach them. Frankly, that is a tough job. I know. I am a pastor-teacher.
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
We have all these folks with all these fantastic gifts. Now what? What is their purpose? It is not to run the show and have the rest of the Body be spectators. In the human body, there are “command centers” so to speak that somewhat have the main functions running but every part down to the last cell has a job to do. The brain, heart and lungs may make some commands and provide support or stimuli for the various parts, but they cannot do all the jobs required to keep the body functioning.
Neither can the prophets, evangelists or pastor-teachers do all the work of the ministry. What they do is ministry, but it is not the ministry. That takes a lot of people to do. Teddy Roosevelt’s charge up San Juan Hill might have been dynamic, but it would have been a tragic failure if he did not have troops following him.
The folks in verse 11 are to use their ministry gifts to perfect or mature the saints by furnishing them all they need to do the work of the ministry. They are the teachers, cheerleaders and mentors for the rest of the Body. They are support and resource people for the real ministers or servants.
In our society, this is not the case. The pastor-teachers and others do all the work of the ministry while most of the saints stand around and cheer or jeer them. It has become a spectator sport. The people who need to be exercising their gifts are sitting on the sideline while the ones who should be guiding and teaching are wearing themselves to a frazzle, burning out and then quitting leaving the body weak and often comatose.
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Even when the saints are willing it is a tough job. Have you ever really tried to get folks to become one in anything? I often joke that I can ask six Baptists and get twelve opinions, but there is much truth in that humor. Everyone seems to have a different perspective and agenda and that is just on the color of the carpet. Imagine trying to get a group to agree on every doctrine from A to Z. The numbers of different Baptists alone shows that has not been accomplished and obviously shall not be until Christ returns.
Yet, if we come to the full knowledge of the Son of God how can we differ? Is Christ divided? Does Christ teach yea and nay or yea and amen? So, if we have different doctrines it is we who are divided because we do not have the full knowledge of Christ. We are not complete or mature and have not attained the maturity of Christ, which is His goal in us. We are still children even after 2,000 years of training.
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Children are easily deceived and often confused when confronted with conflicting concepts. If Mom, whom the child loves, tells him the moon is made of green cheese, but Dad, whom he also loves, tells him it is not he will be confused and maybe even traumatized because he is not yet grounded in truth nor understands that Mom may only be joking with him.
So it is with many Christians who are like feathers floating about in a fairy tale world easily moved by every new doctrinal breeze they encounter. They are easily deceived by spiritual card tricks or shell games of false prophets. Men and women who know how to word things ever so well deceive the ignorant as they seek them out to control them by their artistic lies.
We are long past the time when we can afford to be children. Our culture and even the lives of many are at stake.
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
We need to speak the truth. To do that we need to know it and that is part of the growth process. A three year old that says two plus two is six evokes smiles from us but a first grader will flunk his math test if he believes that. He has been taught the truth. He can’t plead ignorance.
Too many Christians are trying to be cute as a three year old and plead ignorance of the truth but neither God or man is buying it. They have the truth in the Word of God and if they are truly born again they have the Holy Spirit to teach them so it is time they grow up and accept the responsibility they have to know the truth and then speak it openly.
Now, we must speak that truth in love as well. To those who are truly ignorant or lost we must tell them the truth because we love them and try to love them into the truth. Too often, we tell them the truth, but it is just because we are mad at them and desire them to change to make our lives better. That won’t cut it.
On the other hand, some folks are way too nice to people who should know the truth and may well know it but reject it. To those folks, you have to speak in tough love terms or in some cases read them the riot act. Being soft will not work on them. Jesus, John the Baptist and Paul cut the Pharisees and Sadducees no slack at all because they knew the truth and perverted it for their own goals. They were not treated gently like the prostitutes and even tax collectors. You have to know your audience and speak accordingly.
This is a part of growing up in Him in all things. Wisdom and discernment are a part of growing. We need to have all areas of life open to learning. That is the danger of gray areas. We write off certain things because we say we can’t know the truth and hence we cannot grow in those areas. We need to let God shed light on everything and ask for better vision but not remain blind because we do not have enough light or because we put blinders on ourselves.
Why? Because He is the head and he sent the Holy Spirit in all love to teach us all truth. If we shut ourselves off from any truth we have denied that He is the head because in Him there is nothing but truth and He wills that we walk in all truth. We block some of His love because as a loving head He will in love show us all truth if we allow Him.
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. (KJV)
Christ made this Body, the Church, and He made it to fitly join together. Men marvel at how precisely each block of the pyramids fit together in a way that would be tough to match with all our modern equipment. Men allow for certain percentages of error, but Jesus means for His Body to fit together perfectly.
His love in our hearts should drive us together or compact us into a place that wherever we are joined together we supply what the other needs. Every measure of every part or cell of the Body works to the energizing or effectual working of the Body. That is why every part of the Body must be mature and full-grown. A seven foot man may make a great basketball player but not if he has arms of a three month old child. Many Churches are not properly energized because too many parts are not mature. They may have large hands but extremely small feet. They may have great minds or eyes but no legs.
You see each part helps the other to grow if we love Him and each other. We will build ourselves up not by weight lifting but by the exercise of truth and love. Even the weakest part will mature if we seek truth and love one another.
Brothers and Sisters are you Christians full-grown? If not, it is time to exercise and get involved in the Body so that you can grow. The Body needs you and you need the Body and the World needs us to be fully energized. Let us grow together!! Maranatha!!
