{"id":2947,"date":"2011-12-08T00:31:59","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T08:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.com\/blog\/?p=2947"},"modified":"2012-02-20T11:03:19","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T19:03:19","slug":"ephesians-415-lovely-body-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/ephesians-415-lovely-body-building\/","title":{"rendered":"Ephesians 4:15 – Lovely Body Building"},"content":{"rendered":"

but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—<\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

We need to be truthful and loving as we minister to our fellow Christians.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

“Speaking the truth<\/span>” is translated from the verb al\u0113theu\u014d<\/em><\/span>, which is derived from al\u0113th\u0113s<\/em><\/span>, meaning “truth.” Thus, al\u0113theu\u014d<\/em><\/span> means “to be true, not counterfeit.” The word “speaking<\/span>” is not in the Greek text, so the opening part of this verse should probably be translated as “but, being true in love …”<\/p>\n

The word translated “love<\/span>” is agape<\/em><\/span> which refers to “perfect, self-sacrificing love.”<\/p>\n

“May grow up<\/span>” is from auxan\u014d<\/em><\/span>, meaning “to grow” or “to increase.” This word implies growth as a result of an outside power acting through the element of life within. This is different than the growth implied by the verb prokopt\u014d<\/em><\/span>, which indicates growth as a result of personal effort and achievement.<\/p>\n

The words “into Him<\/span>” are translated from eis<\/em> auton<\/em><\/span>. The word eis<\/em><\/span> means “into” or “unto” implying movement from outside to inside or movement from a separated position to a united position. The word auton<\/em><\/span> is the second person, singular pronoun (him). In Greek, word order is important and in the Greek text of this verse, the words eis<\/em> auton<\/em><\/span> immediately follow the verb auxan\u014d<\/em><\/span>. This implies that the emphasis of growth is to grow “unto Him” and that “in all things” is a secondary characteristic of this growth.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

In verse eleven Paul described some of the spiritual gifts given by Christ (specifically, church leadership gifts). He told us that these gifts were given so that we, church members, would be equipped to do the work of the ministry, building-up the body of Christ (the church). One purpose of our building each other up is to develop unity and a complete experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our God. The other purpose is that we might be fully grown, mature Christians not misled by false doctrines and the persuasive words cleverly crafted to mislead us.<\/p>\n

In contrast to the deceitful methods used by those who teach doctrinal error, we are to be truthful and we are to do so in love, considering the good of others to be more important than our own. I am reminded of a time in my own ministry when I didn’t do this. I was worship leader in a church leading choir rehearsal. The accompanist, an accomplished pianist, did not follow my lead regarding the tempo of the songs we were singing. After rehearsal I took her aside and explained to her how her lack of following my lead was making it difficult on all of us. My intent was to improve the way we all worked together, but my delivery was not done in love. The result was not unity but further dissention.<\/p>\n

Everything we do within the church should be done in such a manner that it encourages and builds-up others so that we all might become more Christ-like.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Are you using your spiritual gifts in your church? If not, you are being disobedient to our Lord. If you are, are you doing everything with the goal of making others more Christ-like and are you doing it in a Christ-like manner?<\/p>\n

In God's service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Copyright ©<\/span> 2011 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— Truth to Learn We need to be truthful and loving as we minister to our fellow Christians. Behind the Words “Speaking the truth” is translated from the verb al\u0113theu\u014d, which is derived from al\u0113th\u0113s, meaning “truth.” Thus, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[220,2229,2230,2064,2231,959,1391,2232,20,2233],"class_list":["post-2947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-agape","tag-aletheuo","tag-auton","tag-auxano","tag-being-truthful","tag-eis","tag-him","tag-into","tag-love","tag-may-grow-up"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-Lx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2947"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3293,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2947\/revisions\/3293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}