Ephesians Devotionals
Bob Morris
We’re Lost without Each Other (Ephesians 4:14)
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.
The Third Purpose of Spiritual Gifts
A characteristic of young children and some underdeveloped adults is the ease with which they are distracted. When my children were younger I soon learned that it was far easier to offer them a new toy to replace the dangerous object they first had, rather than try to wrest it from their grip. It resulted in less physical exertion and fewer tears! In a similar vein, a book describing the symptoms of attention deficit disorder is called Scattered Minds (Gabor Maté, Knopf Canada; available in the US as Scattered). So it is with the spiritually immature. Easily distracted and unable to focus on the touchstones of the faith, they are susceptible to every deceit that swirls around us in the ideological bazaar of global culture.
In our postmodern world we rightly celebrate openness to new points of view, and tolerance of the ambiguity and mystery inherent in truth. But without any fixed stars or touchstones of faith we quickly become lost, and lose our ability to distinguish truth from error. One friend ruefully admitted that his philosophy of life was whatever the last one he heard was. Paul implies that Christ and the knowledge of him is the keystone of the universe, the non-negotiable Way, Truth and Life, the measure by which we approach every other claim to truth or way to God.
Paul mixes the metaphors of infancy, oceanic flotsam and jetsam, and maybe even tumbleweed (was there tumbleweed in his day?) to describe the inconstancy and passivity of the spiritually immature. The really scary implication of what he says is that it is possible to be dangerously naïve about other people’s intentions. Not all the ideologies on offer are harmless. There are nasty people out there. They are not just wrong; they intend to harm us. They scheme deceitfully. They are clever and intentional about dissuading us from God’s truth as it is in Christ Jesus. Jude describes them colorfully:
…ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord…shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted – twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. (Jude 4, 12-13)
And those are just the false teachers within the church! Jude felt compelled to write and urge his readers to contend for the faith that the Lord has once entrusted to us, his people (Jude 3). In the context of Ephesians 4, that means making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit, doing good in the world, and exercising our spiritual gifts in the church.
Father, we are surrounded by truth claims and siren calls to allegiances other than to you. Help us to grow up and learn to distinguish truth from error, and together with our fellow believers to become like more like Christ.
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