Paul continues in this passage, moving on from unity in the Body of Christ into spiritual maturity. In verses 7-10, he discusses the fact that Jesus has risen to the highest position in the heavens, after having come all the way down to earth to be with us, to save us, to show us the way. In the remaining verses, he discusses the fact that this Jesus, who had come down to our level, gave generously of Himself so that we, being led by the apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers might share in His fullness to attain maturity in Him as his Body.
Pay careful attention to the wording here: “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 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.” (4:12-13) There is purpose in these words, intentional and deliberate purpose, for Jesus has made Himself available to us, and blessed us with His presence not only in body, but now in the Spirit, not simply for our own edification, but to build up the entire Body of believers through us. This is quintessential discipleship. Jesus came and made disciples while here in the body, and then equipped His disciples to make more disciples… now it is our turn to carry this work forward.
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.
Ephesians 4:14
The goal is for us to help other believers attain this maturity, the maturity that enables us to avoid being tossed to and fro in confusion. If you listened to last week’s podcast, you heard me tell of some who find themselves being tossed around like this; how will we help such as these? Surely, being tossed around by our own spiritual immaturity is not part of God’s plan for us!
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Ephesians 4:15-16
We have surely each received amazing gifts and blessings from God of many kinds and types, yet they are given to us freely so that we may use them to build up His church in love. Some are leaders, some are teachers, some are helpers, and many other things, but none have been given gifts merely for their own enrichment. No, we have been blessed that we might bless those around us, and each of us needs to use those gifts intentionally to help build up others for His glory.
Life Project Blog 
Pass it forwards … pass it on … pass it around … just don’t sit there and “pass” on loving!
Just so, and well put!
Thank you, I love this!
🙂
Give and it shall be given to you. Jesus was given a body to give us life. Everything given is to be used to build God’s kingdom. This is done by building others up. Thanks for sharing!
Amen!
Don I am interested then in your definition of spiritual maturity – when Paul encourages us to continuing growing, press forward as another translation renders it what is he telling us to aim for?
The gifts we have we are already told to apply in our service to god. Our resources we devote to his purpose but we are encouraged to grow to maturity.
For many they continue to want to be fed the basic truth and the gospel Paul is clear that is not enough.
So have you given this some consideration?
Yes, a great deal. Of course I would never discount the importance of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, but as you indicated, this is the basic “milk” and not really the solid food. Maturity comes, in my view, when a person learns to set “self” aside, something relatively few Christians seem to learn, at least those I’ve come across. I don’t mean saying the right things, and I don’t even mean pitching in and helping out from time to time; no I mean seeing the world and everyone around them in a selfless way and placing the interests of otherd ahead of their own.
in doing this, a mature person is not inconvenienced by a brother in need, nor are they ever too busy. They don’t complain, they’ll share the shirt off their backs without hesitation and they really and truly live out the gospel… to the point that when you look at them, you see Jesus at work. They seek no recognition, they expect nothing in return and might even prefer to work behind the scenes, but in all that they do, they build up the Kingdom by making disciples who in turn make disciples.
I’m not sure if I explained it very well, but that’s how I would describe mature believers.