The Blessed Effects of God’s Saving Grace (4:1–6:20)
Speaking the truth in love
Paul not only gives positive advice and encouragement, but he points out that there is a dark side, yes, a real danger, in not growing up spiritually. He sketches that for us in a series of vivid pictures that describe the grave situation from which spiritual maturity spares us.
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 men in their deceitful scheming.
People who don’t grow spiritually through diligent use of Word and sacrament remain infants, despite their chronological age. With no doctrinal base, they’re helpless because they have nothing firm to hang on to. That’s why Paul can liken them to people in a rowboat out on the high seas during a fierce gale. They’re swept around “by every wind of teaching.”
Or, to change the picture a bit, spiritually immature people are like unsophisticated buyers being “worked” by a slick salesperson. Because they don’t know the product, they’re taken in “by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” Without knowing it, immature Christians may not be getting pure doctrine or correct teaching. They may be accepting spiritual snake oil from false teachers. Not a good situation at all!
But there is help. Paul gives us the remedy and antidote.
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
Far from accepting false doctrine, spiritually mature Christians will rather go on the offensive against it. They will “[speak] the truth in love.”
Let’s take a moment to review Paul’s line of thought in this chapter. He has stated that the ascended Christ (verse 10) gave gifts to his church in the form of public ministers (verse 11). These public servants of the Word are to prepare God’s people for service-work (verse 12), so that they, in turn, can help others. Paul has help from rank-and-file Christians in mind when he refers to people “speaking the truth in love.”
It is important that such speakers not only be correct (speak the truth) but also that they speak “in love.” They are not to lord it over their weaker brothers. Nor are they viciously to turn on false teachers but, rather, to speak as lovingly and as winsomely as possible in the hope of winning over the proponent of an incorrect view. Then the unity will be kept, and growth in the church will be effected.
To be sure, it is the Christians who do the speaking, but God grants the results. Paul points that out when he reminds us that all growth and increase in the body, the church, comes from Christ, its Head. He asserts:
16 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.
Paul makes it clear that every Christian has a role in Christ’s church. We need to keep that in mind. We’re often inclined to think that we’re too small or too unimportant to make much of a difference. Paul helps us understand how wrong that kind of thinking is. “Every supporting ligament” is important to the body. The whole body grows and builds itself up “as each part does its work.” Every Christian is an important part of the church, because growth and improvement in the church come “from him,” that is, from Christ, and not from us.
The converse, of course, is also true. The church suffers when any Christian wastes his God-given gifts and doesn’t do his part. Again, we need only think of the analogy to the human body. Think of what misery and discomfort the whole body feels when one member is sick or fails to function properly.