The Résumé of the People of God: The Church as a Community of Grace Sharers
Note From Bob: This is the second of a Changing Lives blog mini-series on God’s vision for His Church. Read Part One: The Résumé of Pastors: The Church as a Teaching Hospital for Soul Physicians.
Christ’s Vision for the Body of Christ
Sadly, in far too many churches, the people of God are second-class citizens when it comes to the work of the ministry. If a “lay” person makes a hospital visit, that’s okay, but we want to know, “Where’s my pastor!”
Christ’s vision is so different.
Pastors and teachers serve the people so God’s people can serve the congregation and community.
Far too many “lay” people are recruited to fill a position and to fill a need—make the coffee, cover the nursery during the service—but not to fulfill a calling.
Paul’s phrase in Ephesians 4:12—“works of service”—elevates the ministry of God’s people. “Works” has a sense of divine calling and meaningful purpose. We could translate it as vocation and mission. The Bible uses it to describe God’s creative work. God the Creator commissions us for creative, zealous, purposeful work—work that glorifies Him as we serve one another.
Paul’s word for “service” highlights personal service rather than serving for wages, serving as a slave, and serving publicly. It involves love in action through sacrificial ministry modeled after Christ’s sacrifice. Christ calls His people to creative, purposeful, meaningful, sacrificial, personal ministry to one another in His name. In the context of Ephesians 4:11-16, that work is nothing less than making disciple-makers through the personal ministry of the Word.
When leaders and members fulfill their purposes together, then the body of Christ builds itself up in two specific, cohesive ways: doctrinal unity and spiritual maturity (Ephesians 4:12-13). When a congregation knows the truth not just academically, but personally, then their love abounds in knowledge and depth of insight (Philippians 1:9-11).
Speaking the Truth in Love
We often miss the vital real-life, how-to application of every-member disciple-making that Paul embeds in this text. How does the church come to unity and maturity? Exactly what are pastors equipping people to do? Specifically how do members do the work of the ministry?
Paul answers: By “speaking the truth in love” we grow up in Christ (Ephesians 4:15). Every word in this passage funnels toward this remarkable phrase “speaking the truth in love.”
Christ’s grand plan for His Church is for every member to be a disciple-maker by speaking and living gospel truth to one another in love.
Paul selects an unusual Greek word which we often translate as “speaking the truth.” Actually, we should translate it both as speaking and living the truth. We might even coin the phrase “truthing.” Paul likely had in mind Psalm 15 where the Psalmist asks, “Who may dwell in your sanctuary?” He answers: “He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart” (Psalm 15:2). Who can serve in God’s sanctuary, the church—the one who embodies the truth in relationships.
The word for “truthing” that Paul uses means transparent, truthfulness, genuine, authentic, reliable, sincere. It describes the person who ministers from a heart of integrity and Christ-like, grace-oriented love. It pictures the person whose relational style is transparent and trustworthy. The tense and context indicates that the body of Christ should continually, actively, and collectively be embodying truth in love as it walks together in intimate, vulnerable connection. In one word, Paul combines content, character, and competence shared in community.
While “truthing” means more than speaking, it does not mean less than speaking. While it means more than sheer factual content, it does not mean less than the gospel fully applied. Paul uses the identical word in Galatians 4:16. There he is clearly speaking of preaching, teaching, and communicating the truth of the gospel of Christ’s grace (salvation) applied to daily growth in Christ (progressive sanctification).
Combine Galatians 4:16 with Ephesians 4:16, both in context, and we find an amazing description of gospel-centered biblical counseling—of the personal ministry of the Word. Speaking the truth involves:
Communicating gospel truth about grace-focused sanctification in word, thought, and action through one-another relationships that have integrity, genuineness, authenticity, transparency, and reliability, done in love to promote the unity and maturity of the body of Christ for the ultimate purpose of displaying the glory of Christ’s grace.
The normal agenda and priority of every Christian is to make disciple-makers. Christ’s training strategy for disciple-making involves pastors and teachers equipping every member to embody the truth in love through the personal ministry of the Word—biblical counseling.
What happens when leaders focus their calling on equipping God’s people to make disciple-makers through the personal ministry of the Word by speaking and living the truth in love? Paul shows us in Ephesians 4:16. The Body in robust health grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work.
Growth in Christ is a community journey.
Join the Conversation
What do you think about this summary of Christ’s plan for His people?
Christ’s grand plan for His Church is for every member to be a disciple-maker by speaking and living gospel truth to one another in love.
How would you word Christ’s vision for His Church?
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