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Measuring Growth
September 6, 2011
When a high school student tried using a thermometer to measure a table, his teacher was dumbfounded. In 15 years of teaching, Dave had seen many sad and shocking situations. But even he was amazed that a student could make it to high school without knowing the difference between a ruler and a thermometer.
When a friend told me this story, my heart broke for that student and others like him who have fallen so far behind in their education. They can’t move forward because they haven’t yet learned basic lessons of everyday life.
But then a sobering thought came to me: Don’t we sometimes do the same thing when we use wrong spiritual measuring devices? For example, do we assume that churches with the most resources are the most blessed by God? And do we ever think that popular preachers are more godly than those with few followers?
The proper measure of our spiritual condition is the quality of our lives, which is measured by such attributes as lowliness, gentleness, and longsuffering (Eph. 4:2). “Bearing with one another in love” (v.2) is a good indication that we are moving toward God’s goal for us: “the measure of . . . the fullness of Christ” (v.13).
Our spiritual maturity
Is measured by the quality
Of attributes that others see
Produced in us by Christ. —Sper
Our love for God can be measured by our love for others.
Read: Ephesians 4:1-16
Till we all come to the unity of the faith and . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. —
Ephesians 4:13Thank you, for the reading in Ephesians today.
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Ephesians 4:1-16
King James Version (KJV)
Ephesians 4
” 1.I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
2.With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
3.Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4.There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
5.One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6.One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
7.But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
8.Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
9.(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
10.He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
11.And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12.For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13.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 fullness of Christ:
14.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;
15.But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
16.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.
...”
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