As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 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. 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. 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 4.1-7, 11-16 (NIV)

On Friday we saw that the Church is a visible manifestation of God’s saving grace. Jews and Gentiles, the two groups once hostile toward one another, are now reconciled through the cross of Christ and brought together to form Christ’s Body, the Church. Today, Paul continues to flesh out the ramifications of this. Specifically, he tells us how the Church can and should manifest God’s wisdom, a wisdom that we cannot penetrate without the help of the Holy Spirit.

The first thing we notice when reading today’s passage is the emphasis on mutual love and service. In effect, Paul is telling us this: We all have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. Our exile from God and alienation between one another is over if we will reorient ourselves with the Spirit’s help to look out for one another and not just ourselves.

This is why our understanding of the hopelessness of the human condition is so important. This is why we need to understand as best we can what God did for us in Christ because when we do, we realize we are no better than anyone else. We realize our needs and wants are no more important than the needs and wants of others. We understand that we can do nothing on our own to satisfy God’s holy righteousness.

When by the help of the Spirit we receive grace to understand this, we are ready to demonstrate our faith in Christ by loving our fellow humans, not only in the Church but also those who are outside of it. As I have demonstrated in previous reflections, the biblical notion of love is not some kind of sappy sentiment. Biblical and godly love always desires the best for the beloved and always manifests itself in action on behalf of the beloved.

So here we see Paul talking about the Church as a model for the world to see, a model the demonstrates God’s wisdom for fallen humanity. We realize the incomparable gift of life that God has given us in Christ. This realization, made possible by the help of the Spirit living in us, works to slowly but surely destroy our sinful pride and transform us into the humans God created us to be. God’s wisdom and grace are therefore demonstrated in how folks in the Church love and treat one another. Paul fleshes this out more thoroughly in 1 Corinthians 12 but we also see it expressed quite clearly in today’s passage.

So what does this mean for us as individual Christians? First and foremost it should be readily apparent that the Christian life is meant to be lived corporately, not just individually. That comes across unmistakably in today’s passage. While you can certainly find God in nature or at home or during a quiet walk on the beach, your faith will not be sustained nor manifested completely if that is as far as you are willing to go. As Paul reminds us here, God intends for your faith to be made manifest, in part, in and through his Church so that he can use us to make his wisdom manifest to the world.

“Look at my Body, the Church, when it is faithful to me,” Jesus seems to be saying through Paul. “You will see how I intended you to live when I created you. Pay attention to its dynamics when the Church is faithful (and learn about the perils and pitfalls when it is not) because in those faithful dynamics you will find the secret to living a happy life, irrespective of other circumstances.”

Second, Paul is very concerned about the content that forms the basis for our beliefs, i.e., Paul is concerned that we believe correctly. His emphasis on our one faith, one Lord, one hope, one baptism, and one body cannot happen if members of Christ’s Body, the Church, are free to believe whatever they choose. No, our faith must be rooted in the teachings of the Apostles, the Apostolic Faith once delivered to the saints. We must all learn it so that we can help each other grow in that faith aided by the Holy Spirit living in and through us. And where do we learn this “faith once delivered to the saints”?

Yep. You guessed it. We learn it primarily through Scripture.

This, of course, means those of us who want to grow in our relationship with the Lord and who take our faith seriously must be engaged in Bible study together as well as individually. Since we are all fallible and prone to error, Paul seems to be reminding us that God will use us to help hold each other accountable for what we think and believe in matters of the faith to keep us safe from the Evil One and help prevent us from falling away from our saving faith through wrong teaching, whether that teaching is done unintentionally or with malice. The “Gold Standard” we use to determine what is correct or in error is of course the Apostolic teachings found in the NT.

This doesn’t always play well to our 21st century American ears. We don’t like to be told what to do or how to think, and in some areas of our lives that is perfectly fine and acceptable. But as Paul reminds us here and elsewhere, we do not have the luxury to “think for ourselves” when it comes to the Christian faith. I am not talking about adopting a blind faith or suggesting that it is wrong to have legitimate questions about biblical teachings. Nor am I suggesting that we will not or should not have doubts because we will likely have all of the above.

Rather, what I am suggesting is this. If we wish to really do God’s will and manifest his wisdom, in part through the Church, to broken and hurting world that desperately needs to hear the Good News, we must be humble enough to submit to teachings of the Apostles found in Scripture after we have had our questions answered. This, of course, requires that those who answer our questions have a firm and accurate understanding of the Apostolic Faith so that they can answer our questions and help us confront our doubts based on God’s Truth found in Scripture. That is why Paul acknowledges that Christ gives his Church teachers and pastors to serve in this role. This, perhaps, is one of the best reasons for all of us to read and study the Bible regularly, both corporately and individually.

What about you? How have you reacted to what I’ve just written? How you answer will give you keen insight into your willingness to enter into the kind of life-giving relationship God created you to have. It is mapped out for you in Scripture and you have God’s very promise to help you discover and hold firmly to his Truth. But you cannot and will not be able to do it on your own. No, you must be humble enough to admit that you are profoundly broken and cannot possibly fix yourself. You must be humble enough and wise enough to turn to the One who can help you and fix you. You will find him in the pages of Scripture, especially in the NT and you will find him at work in his Body, the Church, when its members remember who they are and Whose they are. And when that happens, you will not only find real hope and joy, but the world will get a preview of coming attractions and God’s wondrous wisdom made manifest to us right here and now.