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Sermon preached on Ephesians 4:13-16 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/29/2026 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
When I was young, I couldn’t wait to be a grown up. Now, it is true that when you are grown up, you have to face more directly many of life’s vanities, and maybe we are tempted to wish we were young again. Yet, we still recognize, that there is something good about being a grown up, mature adult. We were literally made to become grown up. So then, I remind you that we started to consider this analogy for the church, last week, that Paul likened us to a body growing up from childhood to maturity.
Let’s review from last week. Verse 7, announced that Christ gives spiritual gifts to Christians in varying measures of grace. Then, the passage turned to focus on the ongoing work that pastors and evangelists do in growing the church, using this analogy of a human body growing into maturity. This theme of growing is now further developed in our verses for today, especially seeing how all Christians are involved in the growth. So, as we focus today on verses 13-16, we’ll see each verse mentions the idea of growing up. Verse 13 speaks of growing into the mature stature of the fullness of Christ. Verse 14 speaks of no longer being children. Verse 15 speaks about growing up in every way into Christ our head. And verse 16 speaks about the body growing when each body part is functioning properly. As a reminder, this analogy of growing up is describing the whole church. Together, we are growing towards maturity. True, that will require each individual Christian to be growing. But the imagery of a full grown body won’t be complete until all of us are fully grown, together. Let’s appreciate the collective importance here!
So then, today we will consider different aspects regarding the church growing into maturity as the body of Christ. First, we’ll consider what maturity looks like in verse 13. Second, we’ll consider a danger of immaturity in verse 14. Third, we’ll consider how we grow into maturity in verses 15-16. So then, may we capture some of that youthful desire to be an adult as we long today to be grown up as the body of Christ.
Let’s begin then in verse 13 considering what maturity looks like. Verse 13 explains what it will look like when we are finally fully grown up as Christians. We see this with the word “until”. This word “until” transitions from the point about the work of pastors. Pastors are doing their ministry to equip and build up the church “until” the full maturity is attained. That word “until” then introduces a description of what that maturity will look like once it is “attained.” There are four ways the maturity is described, unity of the faith, unity of knowledge of the Son of God, coming to mature manhood, and coming to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Let’s reflect on each.
So then, first, maturity for the church means we attain a unity of the faith. The church of Christ will not be fully grown up until we all believe the same things. Think how hard this is right now. Many churches can affirm the ecumenical creeds, but even then sometimes people will affirm parts of the creeds but mean something different than how someone else might affirm those parts. Of course, the creeds are rather brief, while the Bible is very long. God gave us the Bible as representing his whole counsel to us. That is why there are confessions of faith and catechisms and many other books to summarize what we are to conclude and thus believe from our study of the Scriptures. But while there are many such confessions, they don’t all agree on all the points. Not every book on doctrine agrees with each other. Yes, true Christians will agree on the essentials of the faith. We said two weeks ago that the faith is one of the seven-fold points of unity. But today’s passage reminds us that we can agree on the fundamentals but have a lot of work still to do for us to all agree on everything in God’s Word. Right now, that prospect of full and complete doctrinal agreement seems impossible to attain. But this is something to strive for, and at Christ’s return, when he finishes perfecting us, that will finally be attained fully.
So then, the second aspect of maturity is similar. Maturity for the church means we will attain a unity of knowledge of the Son of God. This surely includes knowledge of an academic sort, which might be similar to the unity of the faith we just talked about. Full maturity will have the church truly confess the same doctrine about Christ. But surely this knowledge goes far beyond mere head knowledge. This has relational and experiential components to it. We will truly and fully know how he has saved us. We will truly and fully know his presence in our hearts. We will truly and fully know his love for us. Think of a married couple who has spent decades together. Sure, they can tell you lots of facts about the other person. But they can also anticipate what the other will think or feel about things, or what they will say or do in any given circumstance. They deeply know the love the other has for them, and have great security and trust in their relationship. How much more so as we grow to fully know of the Son of God in all ways. How much peace and joy and contentment comes in such knowledge of Jesus, our loving Savior, our merciful Lord, our truest Friend. How wonderful especially when each one of us together has such perfect knowledge of Christ Jesus!
Third, the maturity of the church means we will come into mature manhood, literally in the Greek a mature “man”. Now, the Greek word here for mature is a word often translated elsewhere as perfect. It has the idea of reaching the final goal or intended outcome. When we ask, “what is the chief end of man”, the word for “end” is what this is talking about. The end or goal of a body growing up is maturity. For a body, we can think of physical maturity, including even brain development. Such bodily maturity might normally be in someone’s 20s. Humans grow up from conception to infancy to childhood to adolescence and then into adulthood. Spiritually, we are all together growing into the final goal or end God has for us. When each and every Christian is together brought to the ultimate end and goal God has for our spiritual growth, then we will be a mature, perfect man.
Fourth, the maturity of the church means we will come into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. This affirms what Paul teaches elsewhere, that we will be fully conformed to the image of Christ, Romans 8:29. Or as John says in 1 John 3:2, we will be like Jesus. In other words, this is building on the previous description that we will be a mature man. The church is like a body growing up into maturity, and when we reach that prime age, we will measure up to the full stature of Jesus. Indeed, if we remember that Jesus is actually described as our head, the full picture is that the rest of the body grows to be the proper body for Jesus to be its head. Of course, this is all an analogy, but the spiritual picture is clear. When all is said and done, the church will be fully grown up and mature, completely sanctified, and look truly like Jesus. As Christ is thus fully formed within us, we will think like Christ, live like Christ, speak like Christ, and act like Christ. For that full grown church will enjoy the union and the communion with Jesus in the full, with his fullness filling us fully.
So then, we’ve considered something of what this maturity will look like as verse 13 explains. This is worthy of continued meditation to more fully appreciate what spiritual maturity individually and as a church looks like. But for now, let us turn to our second point and consider a danger of immaturity. We find this in verse 14. While this is not the only danger of immaturity, it is certainly a broad and important one. Our first point spoke about that full blown maturity will mean that we will have a perfected faith and knowledge of the truth that is in Christ. So then, verse 14 warns that prior to such maturity, we will be children subject to be turned away from the truth by false doctrine.
Look at verse 14. It says what we when we are fully mature, we will “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.” This implies this danger that prior to maturity, we are children, subject to this threat. It says that children are more prone to be tossed about and carried about like how the wind and waves can affect a ship. Surely you’ve seen this analogy of how children can be easy convinced of things. Children, especially young ones, can believe anything. They can be gullible. They can be easily swayed. They can lack the knowledge and discernment needed to tell right from wrong. If they listen to one person one moment, and another contrary person the next moment, they can literally be torn back and forth between various claims of truth.
This concern raised in verse 14 again reinforces the thought that maturity involves learning and fully embracing the truth. Again, the Bible really emphasizes that doctrine, that is teaching, is an integral part of Christian growth. Again, surely this is not only doctrine in the bare head knowledge, but doctrine also loved and lived out. But it is such an important point here that maturity will involve growth in doctrinal purity. This is why I mentioned earlier in this chapter that despite its emphasis then on peace and unity that this part of this passage would emphasize also the need to grow in purity of the faith.
So then, this verse 14 tells us that during this time, before we become the fully mature and complete church that Christ intends for us, we will be subject to doctrinal impurity. Let us appreciate that it uses the analogy of waves and wind to describe how this can work. Imagine Paul comes and preaches to Ephesus and lays a foundation of the true teachings of the Christian faith. The Ephesians start to believe that and live it out. But then some new so-called truth comes crashing into them. Then some new false doctrine blows in one day. Of course, those doctrinal errors don’t label themselves as such. They present themselves as true. They sound convincing to the spiritually young. They are attractive to the spiritually immature. Using the analogy, the result can range from turbulence to completely being taken off course. Such turbulence can rock a congregation, leaving them unsettled, as different positions are argued and people start to take sides. But it is even worse if the church ends up off course because everyone just bought into the false doctrine and started heading toward where that takes you.
Notice how Paul describes the malevolent motivation behind such false doctrine. He describes how it can come from human cunning and craftiness in deceitful schemes. Of course, we know that doctrinal error can sometimes happen unintentionally. Sometimes it can come because of sloppy studying of the Bible. And even when you do put in the time and properly study a passage, some texts of Scripture can be very difficult and hard to interpret and two Christians of good conscience can come to different interpretations. In our ultimate maturity we will even grow out of that, too. But Paul here notes that sometimes false teaching is the result of malicious intent. Satan has his schemes to deceive the church. He wants us divided not united in the truth. He wants to shipwreck faith and have people deny the one true God. Likewise, some humans out of various motivations, look to trick people. They might be a charlatan trying to profit from leading people astray. Or they might be someone who hates God and wants to turn people away from him. Whatever reason Satan or a human might try to lure people astray, it is evil.
May we be on guard in our own day. We might also need to watch out for those less mature in our midst that might be more prone to these deceptions. How many false truth claims are out there. Let me give you some examples. One false teaching is sincerity over truth – it’s not that important what you believe as long as you are sincere. Another is love over truth – it’s not that important what you believe as long as you have love. Another false teaching is everyone is on their own personal journey so I found something that works for me, don’t try to tell me otherwise. Another false teaching is when someone tries to convince you that they have some secret truth that others do not, so you need to join with them. These often come in the form of cults or conspiracy theories. Another lie is that hell is only for the worst of the worst. Another lie is that there is no hell. I could go on and on. These examples are all false because the Bible tells us they are not true.
So then, we’ve considered this danger of immaturity, that the church can be easily disturbed or even led astray by false teachers and false prophets. They can come and peddle their lies deceptively. The point is we need to discern the truth. We should be zealous for truth over lives. We will need to keep growing in the truth so that we can becoming increasingly wise against such attacks. That leads us then to our third point, to consider how we grow into maturity as we find in verses 15-16.
The most fundamental answer to the question of how the church grows in maturity is Jesus. Notice how verse 16 starts out with the words “from whom.” That’s referring to Jesus and its referring to how the body of Christ grows. Fundamentally, the church will grow into maturity because of Christ’s work to grow us into maturity. To God be the glory!
Yet, these verses explain that Christ’s work to grow us makes use of us as his ordinary instruments for that growth. Verse 15 gives the big picture of how Jesus will use us. It says that we are to be speaking the truth in love. Do you see how that ties together what we’ve been talking about. Our first point said that maturity means we will be perfected in the truth. Our second point warned that in our immaturity we will be in danger of being turned away from the truth. So, now, our third point says that we will be growing in the truth as we speak truth to each other. The more we learn together the truth that is in God’s Word, the more protected we will be from false teaching and the more we will grow to truly know God in the fullest, lived out, sense. As the bankers say, they can spot counterfeits easier than most people because they handle and know legitimate money so much.
Now verse 16 goes into more detail about how Christ uses us in growing the church into maturity. It describes us Christians as being “joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped” that “when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love”. This is saying that each Christian is a different part of the body that is being connected to the body. This is also going back to verse 7 which said that “grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” The Greek word for measure in verse 7 appears again in verse 15. It’s hard to recognize in our pew Bible’s translation but it’s in the part that says, “when each part is working properly”. The KJV translates it more literally, writing, “according to the effectual working in the measure of every part.” My point is that verse 15’s discussion of each body part doing its part to help us grow goes back to verse 7’s talk of spiritual gifts. It also goes back to how verse 12 spoke about pastors helping to equip the saints. Jesus gifts each member in the church with some spiritual gift of grace. Pastors especially then help prepare the member to serve and helps to fit them into the church where they can serve. The result is the body of Christ grows up into maturity as each part is working properly according to the measure of grace that Jesus has given each member.
Let us appreciate the emphasis on love here. Verse 15 said we are to speak truth “in love”. Verse 16 says that we are to build one another up “in love”. Whatever spiritual gift you have, whatever role you play in the church, let us exercise your gifts in love. If you have a gift for teaching, speaking in love. If you have a gift for encouragement, encourage in love. If you have gift for leadership, lead in love. If you have a gift for administration, administer in love. If you have a gift for service, serve in love. If you have a gift for giving, give in love. If you have a gift for showing mercy, show mercy in love. If you have a gift for discernment, show discernment in love. Whatever gift Christ has given you, exercise it in love for God and in love for your brother or sister in Christ. Your gift is not a weapon to destroy but a tool to build up. If you want to further understand what it means to use your spiritual gift in love for your fellow saints, I point you to the example of Jesus who in love gave up his life to save us. Trinity Presbyterian Church, it understandable that young children sometimes can’t wait to grow up. We too, using the spiritual analogy, surely long to be fully grown and mature as the church of Jesus Christ. We will have growing pains, so to speak, along the way. Yet, while we will need patience, I remind you that when verse 13 talked about our growing in maturity it used the word “until”, not the word “if”. The church of Jesus Christ will ultimately grow up into maturity. It is not a matter of “if” but “when”. Our final maturing is just as inevitable as Christ’s return when he completes our growth. Until then, may we each look to find our part in the body of Christ. Let us consider how to use our gift of grace in love, in humility, and in patience. Let us, by the grace of God, seek to build up the body of Christ in purity, peace, and unity, growing together in the truth.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
