Until We Reach Maturity
… 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 4:13 (NIV)
Paul has noted that Christ’s five-fold gift ministries to the church have both a function and a goal in mind; the function is ‘to equip his people for works of service’ (4:12) and the goal: ‘so that the body of Christ may be built up’ (4:12). The passage before us enlarges on that goal by describing it in three ways with the introductory ‘until we all reach,’ a term used nine times in Acts for travellers arriving at their destination.
The first way he describes the goal is as ‘the unity of the faith’ (4:13). Where ‘the faith’ (4:5) is clearly communicated, people from different backgrounds of error and ignorance come into a growing understanding of the ‘one hope’ (4:4), an increasing dependence on the ‘one Lord’ (4:5) and so to a developing appreciation of the ‘one body’ (4:4). It is by faith that the people of Christ are united to Him, and in being united to Him they realise their own unity with one another.
The second description of the goal is ‘unity … in the knowledge of the Son of God’ (4:13). Paul is thinking beyond accepting creedal truths about Christ. The ‘knowledge of the Son of God’ is a personal, experiential knowledge. It overlaps with our knowing ‘the love of Christ’ (3:18) which ‘surpasses knowledge’ (3:19) but which causes us to ‘be filled to the measure of the fullness of God’ (3:19). Interestingly, when Paul speaks of the relation of Jesus to His church and to the Father’s purpose, he regularly uses the title ‘Christ,’ but when he describes Him as the object of our faith and knowledge in which we find our unity, he speaks of Him as ‘the Son of God.’ The church’s goal is not Christ here but its own maturity and unity which comes from knowing, trusting and growing up into Christ (Romans 1:4; Galatians 2:20; 1 Thessalonians 1:10).
This ‘knowledge of the Son of God’ involves a full experience of life in Christ and is encompassed in Paul’s third description, to ‘become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ’ (4:13). ‘Become mature’ translates two words. The first, teleios, carries the thought of full development (1 Corinthians 2:6; 14:20; Hebrews 5:14) while the second signifies adulthood (1 Corinthians 13:11). The term is singular. Maturity involves unity. The many become ‘one new man’ (2:15). This ‘one new man’ is to ‘become mature’ here described as ‘attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ’ (4:13), the fullness which Christ possesses and bestows. Christ is Himself the fullness of God (Colossians 1:19; 2:9) and He desires that we be filled completely with Him. The glorified Christ provides the standard to which His people aim. This is what we press forward into. This is human life as God intended it to be, measured by all we understand the life of Christ to be.
These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness in the faith, until we all experience the fullness of being one with the Son of God, and finally we become one perfect man with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed in the abundance of Christ
Ephesians 4:13 (The Passion Translation)