EPHESIANS‬ ‭4:7-16‬‬‬

“However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That is why the Scriptures say, “When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.” Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
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Ephesians‬ ‭4:7-16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

When we discuss individuality in today’s context, we speak of self esteem and personal potential. These are used to service a self oriented ambition and this is seen as the way to service the greater good. In fact, it could be said that this generation’s highest virtue is achieving the knowledge of how to love one’s self. It is said that if we can do this, than we can know how to play well with others. It provides us with the security we need to be safe in so others don’t consume to much of our personal resources. This is a distinctly Antichrist attitude. Paul noted that we are made, as new creatures in Christ, into beings that are equipped for the service of others. It is part of our new nobility as regenerate humans. We are capable and suited for the same work as he took on. His passion was to serve, as should ours be. The church should be filled with those who have this mindset and build lives that mean to accomplish this task. This is how we grow as people and a community. This is how we find safety and fulfillment in our new creaturehood.

Published by Josh McGary

MY NAME IS JOSH MCGARY. First, I am a Pastor of a small church in Portland, Oregon named Aletheia Bible Fellowship. We call it ABF. I have been a pastor there for the better part of 20 years. I am very eclectic. What I love, I love loudly and immersively. I have notable collections of toys, funko pops, and vinyl. I also infamously love pop culture, comic books, technology, the arts, psychology and philosophy. https://sleek.bio/joshmcgary

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