—Ephesians 4:8, 11-15
Evidently Paul didn't consider the church at Ephesus to be grown up yet. Did you notice he said, "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up...."?
And, "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man...."
This is the King James translation. I think when it says "perfect" our minds tend to run off on a little tangent and we miss what he's saying to us. Moffat's translation reads, "until we reach maturity." The Amplified translation says, "that we might arrive at really mature manhood." Paul is talking about growing up to be a man, or a mature person, spiritually. "That we henceforth be no more children." He's talking about growing up spiritually, about reaching spiritual maturity, about becoming a full grown man spiritually.
God wants us to grow.
And the Bible teaches that there is a striking similarity between spiritual development and physical development. It speaks of at least three stages in spiritual development which correspond to three stages in physical development. They are: babyhood, childhood, and manhood.
As we look at them in just that order and notice subdivisions under each one, you'll find that some of the characteristics true of each stage of natural development are also true of the corresponding spiritual stage.
And I believe somewhere we can locate ourselves.
CONTINUE
