It is amazing how quickly we can run from one thing to another. When I became a teacher and then later a father, it would astonish me how quickly children can run from one thing to the next. It can almost be overwhelming.
1. Please describe a time when you or your family had a really hard time staying focused on the task at hand.
If we are being honest, it is really hard to concentrate sometimes. Even when it comes to our spiritual walk, God’s children can jump from one spiritually-sounding topic to the next. What seems to happen is that this process can often confuse others. Henry Ironside wrote, “Very often when one is trying to open up some line of truth to believers, he is embarrassed by the questions that are asked showing that there is no concentration, no follow up of the truth already before them, and as a result people are never truly established.”
2. What is a current topic within the Church that is causing God’s children to be confused? Do you feel overwhelmed?
In the book of Ephesians, we are warned about this. Ephesians 4:14 reads, “So that we may 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.” The warning with this verse relays that we are to “grow-up,” and not be like children because children jump back and forth or are “tossed to and fro.” I just really like using the word “fro.” Moreover, this verse speaks directly to our topic of being carried around by all these new doctrines. I love how the Scripture gives us a picture of being caught in the surf of the ocean as the waves crash into the shore. I have been there, and I have been stuck there before, too. It was really hard to get out of the water.
3. Have you or your family ever been caught up in a doctrine that proved to be false? Please share with the group, and explain how you got out of this situation.
4. Would you define this false doctrine as “by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes”? Why?
Well, if we go back a few verses to verse 12, it explains how we can keep from being distracted or chasing after the “next best thing” spiritually. Ephesians 4:12-13 reads, “To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” So, the goal here is for the Church to be equipped.
5. Before we discuss being equipped, how have you been equipped for the work of the ministry? Please explain.
6. Or, how have you not been equipped for the work of the ministry? Please explain.
As I studied for this lesson, the Apostle Paul used an interesting word that we translated as equipped. William Barclay writes, “The word is used in surgery for setting a broken limb or for putting a joint back into its place. In politics it is used for bringing together opposing factions so that the government can go on…The basic idea of the word is that of putting a thing into the condition in which it ought to be.” So, this would lead us to believe, as the Scripture noted, that we ought to “attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Rather, this should be done when the leadership of the Church takes seriously the fact that God has given gifted leadership to the Church, and He has given His Word to the saints so that we can submit to this equipping of the saints.
7. What has been most helpful to your spiritual growth as you have been equipped for the work of the ministry?
8. How should this be done? Is it just the job of the pastors or staff to equip the saints?
Lastly, we read in Ephesians 4:15-16, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” We get to the beautiful ending of this section of Scripture. We must speak the truth and the great truth revealed by God to us. Henry Ironside wrote, “It is God’s own blessed Word, and you can depend upon it. You can live upon it, and as you feed upon the precious truth here revealed, you will grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
9. When reading Ephesians 4:15-16, there is a direction and a warning. Why do you think the Scripture is translated as “speaking the truth in love”? What is the truth/warning?
I often see two problems. We either have many who are not really equipped for the work because there is no foundation built upon God’s Word, or those who have a firm foundation of the knowledge of God’s Word but no focus on His love for us and others or our love of God and others. We must not forget the great fundamental truth is love. In 1 Corinthians 13:2-3, we read, “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
10. Do you struggle with the truth, or do you struggle with love? Explain.