Ephesians 4:11-15 ~ And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
This morning when I was creeping on somebody’s Facebook page that I didn’t even know (a friend of a friend) I found the sunflower picture. My immediate thought was, “Wow, that’s love.” My second thought was a question. “Why isn’t the church in love like that?”
The reason I creep is godly (most of the time). I like to see what’s going on in the lives of other Christians and their images generally tell a story a bout what’s important to them. I run across lots of family pictures and plenty of comedy! I occasionally run across some off color image that shouldn’t oughta be there on a Christian’s page (just sayin’) But mostly I run across pictures of people they love. So it has me thinking today, if God took a snapshot of the American Church today what would it look like? The body of believers is so fractured into denominations and then sects within the denomination, then clicks within the sects and Jiminy Cricket, God Himself probably doesn’t have enough film to take as many pictures as necessary because we can’t be included in that group because they don’t believe like us.
In the beginning of the New Testament Church it had already begun; the need for Paul to reign them in. Paul was trying to put the unity back in their communities. He wanted them to know Christ’s ideas (knowledge of the Son of God); he wanted them to un-know man’s ideas (be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men). He wanted them to grow up into a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
Perfection doesn’t mean without sin, not until we come to Heaven will we know perfection. But we are made perfect through Christ in the unity of our faith in Him. Contrary to popular belief, when God pulls out His wallet of baby pictures, certain denominations are not on top, but there are some baby pictures. Crying, whimpering, selfish believers that don’t play well with others. Always tattling on the other believers to non-believers, telling them why they shouldn’t join so and so’s church rather than letting them see Jesus and deciding on their own. Paul tells them to grow up. Know what you believe and live it, stop creeping in other peoples churches, it’s messing up your own doctrine. I guess it was the Facebook of the day.
God has given us (in our church) where like believers are, our own preachers and teachers of the gospel for the work of the ministry. It’s time to get to work. That’s what people do when they grow up. They work. And we need to be edifying the body of Christ (that’s each other). I know it’s just an image, but when I look at the sunflowers faces I see the love of the artist that created it. It’s with that love that God created us to love one another. (But speaking the truth in love, may grow up). When I grow up I want to be a Sonflower and love people just like that.