Serving IN Christ

An authentic church serves one another in a way that reflects Christ.  We are to minister to one another and alongside of one another. 

We are called to serve in love in a way that reflects Christ to one another, and as we serve those outside of the church, in ways that puts the love of Christ on display for those who are not aware of the mission of the Messiah.

We see in Ephesians 4: 1-7 and 11-16 that Paul was still troubled about the possibility of false or erroneous teachers misleading the church.  Sometimes these can be as overtly evil as the Dallas area “pastor” who recently unlawfully sold THREE church properties for his own personal profit WITHOUT the church’s knowledge, receiving 35 years in prison for it. 

Sometimes it is less obvious such as the case of espousing and promoting non-biblical attitudes and actions.  Sometimes it is not obvious at all, such as attitudes that sneak up on us such as superiority: “we don’t let THOSE kinds of people into OUR church.”  

ALL of these are examples of false teaching because there is error in their attitudes and actions.  For that matter, have you ever stopped to consider that we ALL are, or have been, false teachers at one time or another?  THAT’S a scary thought.  

Paul teaches us that we should be worthy of the calling that we have received.  He teaches us how to go about doing this.

Ephesians 4:1-7

1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 
3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 
4 There is one body and one Spirit ​— ​just as you were called to one hope at your calling ​— ​
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
7 Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

In chapters 1- 4 Paul described the glorious nature of our salvation in Christ and focused on how believers should live out that salvation.  Paul terms himself as a prisoner of the Lord because when he went to Jerusalem after his third missionary journey he was attacked by a mob for being “anti-Jewish” and for allegedly defiling the Temple. Even though Paul HAD followed proper procedure for entering the Temple Grounds, this began a four-year period of Roman imprisonment because he was falsely accused, and because he was successfully teaching non-Jews about God.  Paul termed himself prisoner of the Lord because of his complete commitment to Jesus as the Messiah and the preaching of his Gospel of salvation.

Paul urged us to have a worthy lifestyle.  The Greek word for urge certainly carried the concept of implore and beseech, but it also carried the sense of to invite.  Paul invited us to live worthy of the calling that God extended to each of us, to live our lives in such a way that our thoughts, speech and actions were reflective of the salvation that they had received and the Christ, Savior, Messiah who had redeemed them.  In other words Paul calls us to be aware that your God IS great, AND your God IS good.  YOU need to be great and good too, or at least attempt to reflect that greatness and goodness into the world around you.

Paul notes that God extended a call to repent and believe in his Messiah, Jesus.  He also noted that we have received that calling – we have paid attention to it.  Both the calling and the receiving emphasize God’s initiative in summoning those who would believe to participate in both the privileges and responsibilities of salvation – both individually and corporately as members of the body of Christ.  And he calls for us to do so with humility, an humbler attitude with which the believer is to be a minister of the Lord and the submissive way the believer is to relate to other Christians in the sense of being the servant of all and putting other’s needs ahead of one’s own. Paul also calls for us to be gentle. The Greek term for gentleness is related in meaning to the word translated humility and refers to mildness, kindness, considerateness, and meekness.  Maybe that will bring new meaning somewhat of what a gentle-man and a gentle-lady refer to.

Paul also calls for us to be patient and bear with one another in love.  The Greek word used for patience meant to be forebearing or longsuffering, to have fortitude or courage in the face of pain and adversity and refers to one who has a long enduring temper.  One who can bear with or put up with, or endure one another in love. 

Because we are family, because God loves us and we love each other, we “put up with each other” even though we may not see eye-to-eye.  We do this in love because every Christian is to demonstrate the genuine love that God has shown to them in Christ, offering humanity a super-simple way to choose to be reconciled with and to choose as your guide in life, the creator God of the universe.  The Greeks took the word agape and elevated it to basically mean, doing what is needed, when it is needed, how it is needed, every time it is needed according to God’s plan.

We make every effort to keep and observe the unity induced by God’s Spirit through peace.  The Greek word for bond is descriptive of things like the ligaments that hold your bones together or the tendons that tie your muscles to the bones.  The result of realizing that WE are all bound together in the same body working for the same God Spirit the result is peace – security with God.

Paul then goes on to demonstrate this ONENESS saying there is one body.  Just as each human soul has one body, so the soul of Messiah has one body – the church.  Just as there is one Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives demonstrates that we ARE an active part of the Body, Soul and Spirit of the Gospel church. And we have ONE hope, the reconciliation with God now and for all of eternity.  We could paraphrase this simply as “we are ALL in this together, we are all worshiping the same God, we are all moved by the same Spirit of God, together we ACT as a body-of-God to demonstrate for the world the morality that God has instructed for us to adhere to.”

Paul then points out that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Creator God.  We have seen in the Bible that Lord is used to indicate God‘s “personal name”, YHWH.  So “how many authentic YHWH’S can there be?!”  Only one.

Faith is of only one kind – trust, confidence, belief, reliance.  So how many authentic “faiths” are there?  Only ONE, while there are myriad of things in which humans may place their trust, confidence, belief, and reliance in, there is only one faith.  One either has faith, or one has no faith.  Living life without ANY kind of trust, confidence, belief, or reliance upon something is indeed a “HELL of a life.” Our faith is in that of the Gospel message: God has provided an extremely simple means of reconciliation with God – Desire to have faith that God IS and WILL do what God said.

Baptism.  The word used describes immersion and is basically the concept of being thrown into the deep end of the pool, or joining in unity with something so as to become a part of it.  As such there is only one authentic baptism.  You are either fully immersed in God, or you are struggling to tread water while you try to maintain your self-identity rather than becoming immersed in your godly-identity.

Paul asserts that there CAN be only one Source – the creator God, the Father of all (every THING, and everything).  This source, in creating the universe, is above, between, and within every THING and everything (that’s how God is all knowing, he’s already there).  Because there is only one Source that has this capability, This entity is the king, the sovereign, the numero uno of every THING and everything in creation.  

So at the same time that 

• God is apart from his creation (superior to), 

• God is also a PART of his creation.  It is God, a PART of his creation, that makes use of the body-of-Christ, the Church, to carry out the will of that part of God that is apart from (superior to our) creation.  

• In our conceptualization of the trinity we often visualize 
• God the Father as apart from Creation, 
• God the Son as a PART of creation, and 
• God the Spirit as “the apart part of God that is PART of (within) creation.”  

Meditate on that for a while!

Grace is a freely given gift, and Paul tells us that God has given each of us grace.  This grace is, in effect, the Holy Spirit making use of us to help meet the needs of others.  As long as we do not resist, withhold, decline or run away from the nudging of the Holy Spirit.  WE get to choose whether we are used or not.  God metaphorically ASKS “may I” and we decide if we will help God or ignore God.  

In this passage Paul has explained this to us and urges us to submit to the authority of God to invite and request that we assist God in carrying out his will in the Cosmos.

Next Paul describes some of the spiritual gifts that are graced to us by the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 4:11-13

11 And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, 
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.

So while God makes us one, he equips us with various gifts.  The word referring to apostles literally means those who are sent out. We primarily recognize the official apostles as twelve men of Jesus, and we recognize Paul who was directly called by Jesus, but there are, have been, and will be other apostles, for example Mary Magdalene who Jesus technically called to be the apostle to the apostles.  One who is sent out is an apostle.  One of the spiritual graces of the church are those who ARE willing to BE SENT on a mission from God.  Great or small, such missions are part of God’s plan.

Some are graced with prophecy.  There are many nuances of the word prophecy, but the basic concept is one who can conceptualize and communicate the will of God to others.  Since we have the Word of God in written form almost all of us are prophets to some level, but some have been graced with exceptional abilities to proclaim the truth.  Prophecy has more to do with communicating the messages of God than it does to do with forecasting the future.

Some are graced with the ability to evangelize.  Though all believers are called and equipped to tell the Gospel message and spread the news about salvation and reconciliation with God, some have a special ability to proclaim the truth of the Gospel and to encourage their hearers to repent and believe.

Some are graced as pastors and teachers.  From ancient word meaning to feed, to tend, to guard, to protect, the word pastor literally means shepherd. Paul, in Timothy, wrote that a pastor must be “able to teach” and mentioned teaching as part of Timothy’s duties.  Teach is derive from an ancient word meaning to show, to point out.  It is the pastor’s duty to lead the flock to pasture and water.  Thus a good pastor is a good teacher. 

Verse 12 tells us that Jesus’ purpose for these four types of church leaders was for them to teach (point out and show) and prepare (lead, pastor) every believer “for the work of ministry” in which believers humbly serve others, especially those within the church To equip is to make someone completely qualified for a task, to make them fully mature to take on the task, and building up refers to the act of construction.

Paul refers to believers as the saints, literally meaning the holy ones – those called to reconciliation with God.  As all believers grow and mature they are better able to serve others and work together. The church grows as it reflects Christ’s character and increases in numbers of saints.  Paul points out that we build each other up and support each other until we reach our final destination.  In this passage Paul referenced three non-material objectives:

Unity in the faith in the knowledge of God’s Son. Growing in understanding of the teachings of the Gospel and living by those teachings through the power of the Holy Spirit, and in knowing about God’s son, Jesus, AND also by coming to know Jesus will our unity in the faith be realized.

Growing into maturity. Indicates that which is complete, perfect or whole.  In speaking about spiritual maturity throughout life we continually draw closer to this spiritual maturity as we continue to exercise unity in the faith in the knowledge of God’s Son.

Standing fully matured by Christ’s standards. While very few would claim to be living up to Christ’s standards, when we occasionally compare our standards with Christ’s standards we are made aware of the standards we should aspire to and the standards that we should seek to let go of. 

Paul shows us that we are invited to learn, practice and attain the teachings of the Gospel message.  We CAN make a lifetime endeavor of it and it WILL achieve the perfecting standard of being made whole with God.

For more on spiritual gifts you may go to the Spiritual Gifts page of our website and review the spiritual gifts list and the spiritual survey list.

Paul paints for us a picture of the result of what this fully mature, complete, whole, Christ standard way of living looks like.

Ephesians 4:14-16

14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. 
15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head ​— ​Christ. 
16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

One thing about aging is that you can more readily see the inconsistencies in the  attitude of the “children” (all those significantly younger than you).  Paul paints the picture of such “children” being tossed about on the waves of the belief-de-jour and blown around by every wind of teaching (like "science": eggs are bad…no eggs are good; coffee is bad…no coffee is good type of advice).  He describes them as being subject to every clever and cunning technique of deceit that humanity has learned from Satan.

The Greek word for cunning originally meant gambling with dice and came to mean fraud or trickery.  The point is that false, cunning, clever deceitful humans are false teachers motivated by selfish gain whose main purpose is to exploit other people.

The Greek word for cleverness literally means ready to do anything.  And that for deceit means to cause someone to wander or be lead astray.”  In short Paul warns that false teachers are humans ready to do anything through fraud or trickery to lead others away from what is real.

Paul encourages us to speak the truth in love.  Love is to characterize the manner in which  believers live their lives.  Love meets the actual needs of others.  Emphasizing correct doctrine (actions) without love gains nothing but getting people to ACT in a certain way.  Love is about the DESIRE for people to act in a certain way, NOT just the action itself.

Paul stressed that believers should not remain ignorant immature little spiritual children in regards to their faith.  Rather, they should be constantly growing and maturing in Christ, both individually and collectively.  We should all be maturing in every area of our spiritual lives.  This growth is to take place in an atmosphere characterized by the highest kind of love the love of, and our love FOR, God.  We are to be ministers (servers, waiters) OF Christ as we seek to serve FOR Christ by helping meet the needs of others (love).  

Serving in Christ is what authentic churches do.  As the believers work together under Christ’s direction and through his enabling power, the “growth of the body” in love will occur naturally.

Authentic churches seek to serve IN Christ.