Christlikeness –
APPlying Gospel truth together
Ephesians 4:11-16
Sermon Introduction
What in the world are we doing here? What are we doing here in the world?
Introduction
This text is so full of glorious life-transforming truth that I am tempted to take a long detour in our series and just spend the next year expounding on what God has given us in these six verses. Last time we looked at this text we learned that Christlikeness is not as much a quality of an individual Christian but of a church. We learned this simple but profound truth – Christlikeness is only truly attained as a group and apart from a group we have no full and true Christlikeness.
Well, today, we are going to study how this actually happens in the group context. We are especially concentrating on verse 15 in our text. We will not have time to visit verse 11 where the team leaders of this gospel group effort are described, we will not have time to talk about how these team leaders equip the church as shown in verse 12, we covered the other week the goal described in verses 13 and 14 of corporate Christlikeness. So today we will mainly focus on verse 15 and in part on verse 16. As we anticipate what God will do today to instruct and change us, let’s go to him in prayer.
Text
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and
teachers, 12 to
equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13
until we all attain to the
unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,
to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children,
tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by
human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are
to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held
together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working
properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:11-16 (ESV)
The Gospel Work
Christlikeness is a group result and a group experience not just an individual quality. Likewise, the process of becoming like Christ is a group effort. And of all the verses in this this section, verse 15 is most explicit about just what this process involves. Do you see it there. Paul in verse 14 has just talked about the alternative to maturity – that is being independent infants blown about by lies and manipulated by deceitfulness. Than he goes into verse 15 saying, rather, speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.
So growing up as a body of believers comes about from speaking the truth in love. Folks if there is anything you remember from today, remember this, speaking the truth in love produces corporate Christlikeness, speaking the truth in love produces corporate Christlikeness.
Truthing in love
In the original language the way you say this phrase is “truthing in love.” It is truthing in love that produces corporate Christlikeness. Let’s take some time to analyze this text word by word and learn about how God accomplishes his amazing work of forming us into the image of Christ himself.
Truth
First off, it is truth that is being shared. Now there are many things we can mean when we speak of truth. Maybe it means just always saying what is true in general. So speaking the truth in love is something like being a kind and happy math teacher. If I really enjoy teaching math and I like my students, when I teach them 1+ 1 + 2 I am speaking the truth in love.
Or some would understand it to be any biblical truth I share. So if I communicate to you that the ninth commandment says you should not bear false witness I am speaking the truth according to Ephesians 4:15.
Sometimes this verse is understood by folks to mean we are to be honest with one another. We are to tell it how it is. So speaking the truth in love means that if I am struggling with a complaining attitude because I just had to pay a $600 dollar car repair bill and I think God has abandoned me, than speaking the truth in love means you come up to me and say, “Paul, what’s up with the tude? It stinks, everyone can smell it, what are you gonna do about it?” And, if I had an attitude and you confronted me with the evidence in a sense you would be speaking the truth.
But the word truth functions differently in the book of Ephesians. Take a look at the other verses that speak of the truth. Ephesians 4:21 speaks of the truth that is in Jesus and 1:13 speaks of the word of truth, the gospel. So folks, the truth spoken of here is not mere facts of truth, it is not observations about one another’s behavior, it is not even biblical truth, in a generic context. The truth that is to be wielded in building one another up for corporate Christlikeness is the truth of the gospel.
Now, we can breeze by a statement like that and even adopt phraseology in line with that statement and miss the very heart of what it means. We can talk about being gospel centered. We can put it in slogans but that is not the same as truly understanding and applying it. When the scriptures talk about the gospel they mean at the core the good news of Jesus of Nazareth as the fulfillment of all the promises and plans of God. And at the core of the good news are the saving events of Jesus life and work - specifically, his substitutionary death in the place of sinful humanity and his victorious resurrection from the dead into life everlasting. This is so simple yet so profound. It is very important we understand the substance and nature of this gospel truth. Christ died for sin and rose again sums it all up. But we also must understand that this truth carries with it some very profound and universe shaking implications.
Prior to our lifetime, small pox was a disease that
ravaged and killed millions of people.
It is estimated that 90% of the native population of
Back in the late 1700’s Benjamin Jetsy, a farmer, learned that milk maids who had previously contracted the less severe cow pox were immune to small pox, something the milk maids had known for some time. The difference was that Jenner used the cowpox to develop a cow-ination which in Latin is pronounced vaccination after the Latin for cow, vacca and vaccinated his family. Later Edward Jenner took it further and developed a regular vaccination for public use. Now, small pox is virtually non-existant. The difference was taking some common, simple knowledge and making application. And thus the truth of vaccination has had profound implications.
The gospel operates like that. It is very simple and straightforward and can be overlooked. But when we start to understand and apply its profound implications for us and our world it really shakes things up. And the bible is full of such examples. Really, the letters of the NT are examples of the apostles making profound application from the gospel. Whenever there is a problem in any of the churches the apostles are not going to Dr. Phil to get answers, they are not even going to the conventional wisdom of their day, they go to the truth of the gospel and draw out its profound implications for God’s people.
So truthing in love is making application of the gospel into our lives. It is speaking and living out the impact of the simple good news of Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord.
Speaking truth
Note that the word which is literally translated “truthing” is translated as speaking the truth in our bibles. And this is a very valid translation. For the first aspect of this truthing is the speaking of the truth - that is sharing with one another the truth and its life changing implications.
As much as we emphasize action and application we must understand the proper and necessary role of communication of gospel truth. I have heard people say, “Preach the gospel and if necessary use words.” While I agree with much of the heart behind this phrase to make sure we live out what we say, nevertheless, we must be careful to distinguish the gospel from the implications and application of the gospel. There is no preaching of the gospel where there are no words. For the gospel is fundamentally news not action. The gospel is the good news about someone else’s action. The gospel is the good news of Jesus the Christ and his actions and teaching. The gospel is the good news that Christ died sin and rose again. And therefore it is necessary for us to communicate with words this essential news. And, yes, we are to live out the implications of the good news but this itself is not the gospel, it is the application of the gospel.
It is like if we heard that
the war in the Mideast was over – there was peace and order in
So truthing is verbally sharing the truth of the gospel and its theological and life transforming entailments. This is what produces corporate Christlikeness. Yes, this goes hand in glove with actions but let us not neglect the essential importance of communicating the good news and its related truth.
In Love
There is one essential part of this phrase that we mustn’t leave out. The verse says, “Rather, speaking the truth we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” Right? Wrong. It says, “Rather, speaking the truth in love…”. Oh folks, this is oh so important!
Paul didn’t just throw this on the end of this phrase because it would make it sound better or give us some warm fuzzies. The vehicle of our communication of truth must be love. The delivery system for truth and the fuel for it’s propulsion must be love or we are not obeying his exhortation. 1 Cor 13 teaches me that I can have all the truth in the world and all the gift and intelligence in the world, we can have all the right slogans and all the right programs, we can have a perfect statement of faith and line up with all the best theologians, we can even die as martyrs on the mission field for our truth, but if we have not love we are nothing, we are empty and only obnoxious background noise at best.
You see, this is how God does it. His whole motive for sending the truth incarnate was love. God is love. Ephesians 1:4& 5 says “in love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 2:4&5 says, “because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. The truth of the gospel is inextricably woven together with the eternal love of God. Because in the very nature of God he regards our well being as his delight he has brought us the truth, Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. He has given the truth in love and spoken the truth in love and we are to do no less.
Anything less is not his design. And a church built on truth without love is not going to be Christlike. Truth without love is like a body without a brain or heart. We call that a corpse. Love is to animate and fill our truth. It is to drive it and shape it and sustain it. A pursuit of doctrinal orthodoxy that springs apart from love is a very dangerous thing. It is a forgery of the real thing, it does not make for a Christlike body of believers but a perversion, a Frankenstein’s monster of a church. Oh God, help us to keep love and truth together where they belong.
So we are called to speak the truth in love. Truthing in love producescorporate Christlikeness.
Case Studies
What does this look like? You know, this is one of those things that we don’t really grasp until we see it fleshed out. And a healthy church will have many examples of folks truthing in love together.
My first exposure to this came as a fairly young Christian. Before I came to Christ I hung around with those who were most like me and pretty much ridiculed those who were different. After coming to Christ I found that life because of the gospel brought many diverse people together and in love they could be one. As we conformed ourselves to the unifying power of the gospel and its ability to knock down social barriers I found myself befriending and enjoying people who I previously would have avoided or worse. One of my first examples of truthing in love was in the unity amidst of diversity of the Christian fellowship we were in. Sometimes truthing in love happens pretty automatically. Sometimes things are more explicit and intentional.
We had a friend that I many ways was exemplary as a Christian. Call him Kurt. He and his wife were warm, affectionate and considerate. They were faithful in being at different gatherings and spoke knowledgably of the gospel and biblical truth. He was a part of an accountability group I was in. What we found over time was that when the other guys would share their struggles Kurt would have good scriptures to share and warm encouragement but never his own examples or confessions. After a few times of meeting for encouragement and accountability it seemed that Keith was either unaware of his own struggles or unwilling to address them. In this case, truthing in love meant talking to Kurt about his lack of sharing of struggles and how that seemed to be putting him above the gospel, at least in terms of his relationship with the rest of the group. His inability to confess his weaknesses and struggles with other men who were sharing regularly distanced himself from us and our ability to bring gospel truth to him for his growth. His functional denial of his sin was not in keeping with the gospel and hindering his growth and our growth as an accountability group. So, during one of the times, we asked Kurt about this. He seemed a little bit surprised but when we gently illustrated and shared and urged him to ask others if they saw the same pattern, his listened. And, after taking these things in and seeking counsel he came back to us next time and let us know that we were right. That was the beginning of a season of growing deeper as a group in truthing in love and to this day, Kurt is a dear friend and we look at that season together as a major time of growth in all our lives.
Let me give you a few more scenarios but these are composite scenarios, made up of a variety of people’s experiences.
Wilma worry wart is worried about many things. She isn’t always worried but she is often worried. She is in your caregroup and you are not sure if you are glad for it. Her latest worry is that the hospital where she works is restructuring and it looks like her job may be in jeopardy. You have drawn her out and she has told you the whole entire story and then some. What does truthing in love look like with Wilma?
Well, first, the truth of the gospel calls us to love Wilma where she is, accepting her even as God himself has accepted her in Christ. So we are not looking to fix Wilma because she is a pain in the neck. We are patient with her and accept her and empathize with her weaknesses and challenges. We listen and pray for her. We share with her the promises of God from his word like "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32, ESV) and "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7, ESV)
Or “ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Philippians 4:8, ESV)
And we share with her our own struggles and how God has met our needs. And then we encourage her to trust God. Also, we follow up and call and relate to her over the long haul.
Another one, say you have a guy who is in the church and we call him Craig. Craig is a great guy, he’s funny, he’s amicable, he knows the Christian lingo and he fits right in. But, soon after getting to know Craig you meet his wife, Carleen. She is quite and pleasant. She is more reserved than Craig and seems to be somewhat in his shadow. As you get to know them you learn that Craig is leaving the hard work of caring for the family to his wife. He gets home from work, reads the paper, takes a nap, and then after dinner spends most nights watching sports on TV or going out to play basketball or hockey or whatever. He has neglected Carleen and she and the kids are suffering for it. What does truthing in love look like for Craig the couch potato and his family?
Well, first it involves getting to know them and them getting to know you. It involves living according to the gospel whereby we accept one another even as Christ has accepted us. It means coming humbly to Craig recognizing we have stumbled in the area of leadership and care ourselves so we come to assist not judge. But come we must. And in time, as bridges of trust and love are built we cross those bridges and perhaps privately and even indirectly at first we ask Craig about his understanding of being a husband. We draw him out, we share our own experiences, we point him to the word or resources that will help him in his understanding of gospel centered husbanding. For Ephesians 5 is very clear that the gospel means husbands are to love and lead their wives like Christ loves and leads the church. "For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior." (Ephesians 5:23, ESV) "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her," (Ephesians 5:25, ESV) This is the truth. And in love we bring this truth patiently, faithfully and lovingly to Craig.
And guys, there are a lot of Craig’s in our midst. I used to be like this in how I acted when I came home from work. It was through the truthing in love at my former church that I realized that I needed to orient myself to loving and leading my wife the minute I walked in the door even after a hard day of work. And thank God for that truthing in love.
Larry & Linda came from a church that took holiness very seriously. They were exemplary in their pursuit of the spiritual disciplines. They faithfully read their bibles, prayed, shared gospel tracts with neighbors and co-workers and were at every single church event right on time, sometimes even 10 minutes early. They came because they heard our church was serious about the word of God and the gospel. Soon after arriving they confessed their struggle in their walk with God. They were diligent but had lost their zeal. Much of their discipline was empty. They found themselves bickering with each other and fairly miserable. What does truthing in love look like for Larry & Linda? Well, first it involves building relationally with them, for the context of truthing in love is the covenantal relationships we have in Christ as fellow members of his body, knit together and united. And in this context we begin to get to know them and enter their world and ask questions and enjoy what they enjoy. As we do this we probably would discover that Larry & Linda had a strong streak of legalism in their lives. They were measuring their well being before God based on their performance instead of Christ’s performance. A steady diet of grace motivated preaching and our own sharing of the wonder of free grace and the unmerited and unlosable love of God in Christ would do much to chase out legalism. Grace, when properly understood and applied, is powerful stuff for killing legalism and forming Godly love and zeal for his ways. I have seen Larry & Linda’s changed dramatically by the teaching of grace. For I have been a Larry and I am so glad for the night and day difference between legalism and grace inspired Christianity! Thank God for the people who have truthed in love in my life in this area!
You guys are so good at this! Though these are fictional characters I know many real life folks in our midst who, though they may be a Wilma at times, are also excellent brothers and sisters who speak the truth in love very effectively. I am so thankful that I have the undeserved privilege of being a part of a church that takes Ephesians 4:15 seriously! I need it, we need it, thank God!!
In conclusion, there are many other real life scenarios we will encounter. Thank God for his wonderful love, his patient persistence and the grace and forgiveness we have in Christ. Thank God for his church which is to be full of brothers and sisters in Christ who truth in love as a regular part of life. He loves us dearly and he is forming us into the image of Christ. Let us pursue his call to truthing in love as his people!
Let’s pray.