But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:15-16, KJV)
It’s essential that we grow into the likeness of Christ, that we share His desire, His passion... It was only a few years ago, going on one of my prayer walks, I was saying, “Holy Spirit, You know more about Jesus than anyone, I want You to share with me the secret of how Jesus ministered, how He was successful in evangelism, how He was successful in the ministry of healing. Holy Spirit, I want to learn more about Jesus, I want to be more like Him. I want to be like Him in the way I preach, in the way I teach, I want to be like Him in the way that I bring healing. I want to be more like Christ!”
I had one young man work with me many years ago, but unfortunately he wanted to copy ‘other people’. Yes, we can learn from other people, but I don’t want to ‘copy’ somebody else! I want to be myself, because God who made us, made us unique! Some people ask me, “David, you are getting older, are you training someone up to replace you?” I don’t think it’s possible! If someone wants to take over from me, they need to have had some experience of a communist prison, some experience of working in the former Soviet Union under communism, and so on... But all that was a unique experience! And I don’t expect people who pray with the sick to have the same experience I have had of being miraculously healed from two major cancers! I don’t expect others to have had the same experiences I’ve had – they are unique to me. We are not to be ‘imitators of other people’, of another evangelist, of another pastor. We are to be imitators of Christ! After all, He is the Head, from whom the whole Body is fitly joined together, vv15-16!
But as the Body, we have to recognise we are not all the same! And we must not disregard the lesser, more humble parts of the Body. As Paul said, the arm is not the same as the leg, the eye cannot expect to be the same as the mouth. Our human bodies are made up of so many different parts. If I lost my legs, it would be extremely difficult getting about! If I lost my arms, I couldn’t be so demonstrative when I preach! Without my eyes, I couldn’t read the Scripture... The Body of Christ is made up of so many different parts and each one fulfils a different purpose! Paul is teaching us that it is ‘maturity’ to recognise that we each fulfil a different function - for which we are designed!
I love to watch children as they develop. One of the key moments is when they take their first steps, when they’re stumbling and falling over... They’re finding what their legs are for! You can laugh about it when you watch them! But it’s the same in the Body of Christ! We have to recognise the different purpose of the legs, of the arms, of each part of the Body – but it’s the whole Body working together in harmony! How would you or I manage if our arms didn’t work together?! But this is what maturity is in Christ, when we move from childhood to becoming adult, when we’re not blown about by wrong teaching, and we come to a sense of unity as we recognise the different essential ministries in the Body. That’s what Paul’s saying.