Lesson 16 – Building the Body
Read Ephesians 4:1-16 - https://www.bible.com/bible/59/eph.4.esv
We looked at the equipping of the saints in our last lesson as the purpose for which God gives us gifts. The next purpose is for building up the body of Christ.
To see this in greater detail, let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 3:1-17. The first few verses tell us of a division in this church that Paul was trying to stop. In verse 9 he tells them they are God’s building, and then goes on to describe himself as a master builder. Finally, in verse 16 he tells the people of this church they are God’s temple – and the word “you” is a word meaning all of them together. Later, in 1 Corinthians 6:19, Paul says that we are also individually God’s temple.
But look back in this chapter 3 at verse 12. This describes a number of different materials that can be used for building this temple – those that can withstand the fires of judgment, and those that cannot.
We build up Christ’s body, the Church, in two ways. The first is how we build our own lives. Look at the contrast in the materials in verse 12 – gold, silver, and precious stones; or wood, hay, or straw. The items of true value, those able to withstand the fire, are small, sometimes easily missed. A gold coin is not large. Even a large diamond, of great value, can be so easily overlooked if it is not set in something to make it shine. On the other hand, things of wood can be very large, hard to overlook. It makes me think of an old pedal-organ I once saw, over six feet tall with beautifully hand-carved scrollwork. What a joy to sit at it, pump up the air in the instrument and make it bring forth its music.
Gold, silver, and precious stones are things that God has made but man may shape or frame to enhance their beauty. Wood, hay, and straw, speak of the work of man’s hands to create. That scrollwork on the organ was not God’s work of nature. Hay grows in the fields at God’s hand, but it is man’s work that harvests it and ties it into great bales for transportation. Straw, whether used for the comfort of animals or to make decorations for our homes requires man’s work to make it useful to us.
We build our own lives by obedience to God in letting Him shape those diamonds or rubies in us, by allowing Him, with thanksgiving, to smelt out the impurities in our lives.
We build the Church as a whole by using our gifts to “polish” each other. We encourage each other, instruct new believers in God’s ways, hold each other accountable for how we live our own lives, witness to others about Jesus so we can help bring in new “stones” for the building.
*Paul says that we are also individually God’s _____
*We build our own lives by obedience to _____
*We build the Church as a whole by using our _____