Meditation from The Rev. Peter A. Munson
19 May 2010
Ephesians 4:1-16

1-3In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
4-6You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.
7-13But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,

He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.
Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.
14-16No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love. (The Message)
Truth and Love

For a good portion of the past year, my wife, Julia, and I have been reading and re-reading the 4th chapter of Ephesians – sometimes separately, and sometimes together. There is a lot in this chapter! Whether you read it in Eugene Peterson’s The Message version (quoted above), or in the NRSV, there is real “meat” here. If 1 Corinthians 13 is known as “the love chapter” in the Bible, then this chapter perhaps should be known as “the unity, maturity, and love chapter”. How we relate to other people is one of the major indicators of our maturity in Christ, and the writer of Ephesians understands that our deep calling from God is to love one another. We should be “pouring [ourselves] out for each other in acts of love” and “quick at mending fences”. (verses 2-3) We should appreciate the fact that God has given us different gifts (verses 7, 11) and we should work within the body of Christ – the church – “until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive in Christ.” (verses 12-13) And “God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love – like Christ in everything.” (verse 15) (The NRSV here: “But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ…”)

In my experience, we need lots of guidance from the Holy Spirit and lots and lots of practice if we are going to learn how to speak the truth in love. It is much easier to: a) speak the truth but not speak it in love, or b) in the name of being “loving”, not speak the truth. For example, all of us can learn some important things about ourselves if we are given feedback in a healthy, loving way. But what often happens? Some folks, in the name of giving us feedback, just criticize us. (Perhaps some truth, but no love.) Other people, in the name of “not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings”, hem and haw and give us a hint of what they see us doing, but don’t give us the full truth. (Perhaps some love, but not really the truth.)

The challenge to us is not: Speak some half-truths and be nice. No. It is: Speak the truth in love. When can we do the latter? When we have remained close to Christ and continued to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and gained maturity.

The thing is, you and I know the difference. We know when we have spoken the truth to another person in love, and when we have just been critical. And the same is true when you and I are on the receiving end. We know when someone has simply been critical of us – Ouch! Not really helpful! – and when someone has given us feedback, in love, that helped us learn something about ourselves. “Hmmm… he or she is saying something about me that I know is really true, and she/he is saying it so I can hear it, and there is a tone of love and care, and this is really useful information. I can learn something from this feedback, and wonder about it, and decide what I want to do with this information.”

I commend Ephesians 4 to you – not just the first 16 verses, but the entire chapter. There is much to aspire to here, when it comes to being in unity with others, when it comes to seeking maturity in the faith, when it comes to loving others (which is probably interchangeable with being mature in the faith), when it comes to speaking the truth in love.

May we trust in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the love of Christ, and in the creativity of God to lead us to this level of maturity. And may we be open to being led.