In Ephesians 4:11-16, the apostle Paul says this:

“And he [Christ] gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro [by waves] and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the [trickery] of men, in craftiness [in deceitful scheming]; but speaking [the] truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ; from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each [individual] part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.”

In this passage, Paul is continuing to give the Ephesians arguments and explanations in order to instruct them to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”, as he says near the beginning of the chapter. Just before this passage, he started to explain that this unity can only be preserved through the diversity of the gifts that Christ has given to every single believer, and that these gifts are only given because Christ has ascended into heaven, and now fills all things, particularly all believers, through His Spirit.

In this passage, then, he now lists the spiritual gifts that are the most important for equipping the entire body of Christ to preserve the unity of the Spirit, and explains how this preservation is to be achieved, and what it’s goals are, both in the present, and at the end of this age.

In this article, I want to focus on verses 13-16, but will start at verse 11 for context here:

“11 And he [Christ] gave some . . . 12 for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: 13 till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro [by waves] and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the [trickery] of men, in craftiness, [in deceitful scheming]; 15 but speaking [the] truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ; 16 from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each [individual] part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.”

Having just said that Christ gave the speaking offices to the church to equip the saints for the work of ministering, or serving, for the building up of the body of Christ, in verses 13-16, Paul teaches four main things about the purposes for this equipping and work of serving:

  1. The Goal of Christlikeness (v. 13)
  2. The Giving Up of Childishness (v. 14)
  3. The Growing Up of Truthfulness (v. 15)
  4. The Group Effort of Brotherliness (v. 16)

The first purpose, and the ultimate purpose, that Paul gives for the equipping of the saints, and their work of service that builds up the body of Christ, is the end goal of Christlikeness:

“. . . till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ . . .”

So, what is to go on “till we all attain unto”, or achieve, this unity?

“. . . the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ . . .”

What is this unity that Paul speaks of?

“. . . the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God . . .”

First, then, Paul says that the work of service is to go on until “we all attain unto the unity of the faith”. By “we all”, Paul has to mean every single member in the body of Christ that is being built up. So, who exactly does he have in mind? Does he mean even members of the body of Christ who are in heaven, and have already become spiritually perfect? No, since we must remember that the whole context of “the body of Christ” of which he’s speaking is the body of Christ as it is on earth, since he begins this whole passage by saying that Christ gave the body the speaking gifts. Clearly, the speaking gifts aren’t needed in heaven. Thus, when Paul says “we all”, he must be referring to every member of the body of Christ on earth.

But what is “the unity of the faith” that is part of the goal of the work of service? Well, Paul has just described it in Ephesians 4:4-6:

“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.”

So, here, we see that Paul says that this unity already exists. So how can he say that the unity of the faith is something that is yet to be attained? Well, part of the answer lies in this whole phrase about unity:

“. . . the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God . . .”

Notice that both “the faith” and “the knowledge” are preceded by “of”, telling us that the unity refers both to “the faith” and “the knowledge”. In a similar way, both “the faith” and “the knowledge” are connected to “of the Son of God”, so that Paul is saying that “the faith” is “the faith of the Son of God”.

So, what does this mean? First, we need to understand why Paul says that this faith is the faith of the Son of God. What does he mean by that? Well, this designates the absolute uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God. What does it mean for a person to be the son of someone else? Well, at its most basic level, it means that both persons share the same essential qualities. So it is with Jesus and God. They both share the same essential qualities. And what are those essential qualities? The qualities of deity, or divinity. Both are God in essence, or nature. However, the fact that Jesus is the Son of God has more to it than just that He is God in nature. It also means that He is the Son of God whom God sent into the world to become a man, to live His life, to die on the cross, to rise from the dead, and to ascend into heaven. Thus, “the Son of God” includes everything about Jesus that makes Him different from every other human being.

So, what does Paul mean when he says that “the unity of the faith” about the Son of God is going to be attained by all Christians on earth? It means that they will believe everything that ought to be believed about the Son of God, and have perfect trust in Him.

Second, Paul says that the work of service will go on until all Christians on earth attain to the unity “of the knowledge of the Son of God”. It’s important to note that this knowledge immediately follows “the faith” about the Son of God. What does that tell us? It tells us that this knowledge flows from the faith of the Son of God. It is only when the church on earth unites in its faith about, and in, the Son of God, that it will be united in its knowledge of Him.

So, what does Paul mean by “the knowledge of the Son of God”? The Greek word he uses for “knowledge” here isn’t the normal one — it literally means “full or true knowledge”. That is, he’s not speaking here of knowledge about the Son of God, but knowledge of the Son of God. In other words, this isn’t mere head knowledge about Him, but heart knowledge from knowing Him Himself. And it’s not just knowing Him in part, but knowing Him fully. Again, how is this to be achieved? By having complete faith in Him.

But remember that this is the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God, so Paul is saying that the goal of the work of service is that every Christian on earth know the Son of God fully and completely.

And what is the purpose of the church attaining this unity? So that it will be “a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”. What is this “man” that Paul speaks of? It is the man that the body of Christ constitutes, since he’s speaking of the entire church as the body of Christ.

And what kind of man will the church be when it attains to the unity of faith and knowledge? A “fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”. What does Paul mean by the second clause beginning with “unto”? In contemporary English, he’s saying that the church will be united to the point of measuring up to the maturity of all that Christ is. In other words, he’s saying that the church — and thus, all the members of it — will be and act exactly like Christ when they all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge. Clearly, this will only be achieved at the end of this age, when Christ comes for His perfect church. The apostle John says this in 1 John 3:2b:

“. . . we know that, when he [Christ] shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

So, Paul says that the goal of the work of service is the Christlikeness of every believer on earth. But how will that impact the church? First, by causing every believer to give up childishness:

“. . . that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro [by waves] and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the [trickery] of men, in craftiness [in deceitful scheming] . . .”

The first thing that Paul says will be left behind when the church is perfectly mature is spiritual childishness. What does he mean by “we [will] be no longer children”? Obviously, first, he means that there are people in the church who are spiritual children. And what kind of child does he have in mind? Young children, of course, or children who are immature. This, of course, is an analogy for those who are spiritually children, regardless of physical age.

The second thing that Paul says will be left behind when believers are mature is instability:

“. . . that we may be no longer . . . tossed to and fro [by waves] and carried about with every wind of doctrine . . .”

Again, like Paul connected both “the faith” and “the knowledge” with “of the Son of God”, here he connects both “waves” and “every wind” with “of doctrine”. What is “doctrine”? It just means teaching, and it is teaching that acts like waves and winds that both toss back and forth, and carry around, spiritual children. The word “tossed” doesn’t just refer to a gentle toss, but to a violent throw by waves, and spiritual children are said to be thrown back and forth by waves of doctrine. In other words, just as a ship is directed by waves on the sea, so spiritual children are directed in differing directions by teaching, and driven off course. In a similar way, Paul says that they also are directed by every wind of teaching, so they always believe, or follow, every teaching they hear in some measure.

The third thing that believers leave behind when they become spiritually mature is gullibility:

“. . . that we may be no longer . . . tossed to and fro and carried about with . . . doctrine . . . by the [trickery] of men, in craftiness [in deceitful scheming] . . .”

So, why are spiritual children tossed and carried about by teaching? Because this teaching is the “trickery of men, in craftiness [in deceitful scheming]”. Here, Paul begins with the direct source of this powerful teaching, and moves on to how it comes about.

First, this teaching is done by the trickery of men. In other words, the whole goal of the teaching is to trick the listener into believing something false. The word “trickery” is translated from the Greek word that literally means “dice”, so what Paul is describing may be likened to the host of a dice game who puts out the hope of gain to the gambler, or player, and tricks the gambler into giving up his money to the host, since the game is rigged. That’s always how deceivers deceive their victims — by making the teaching look good, when in reality, it’s meant to deceive.

Second, this trickery is done “in craftiness”. This is similar to the words “cleverness” and “cunning”, but clearly the intelligence and knowledge in craftiness is used to deceive people. This word tells us that these deceivers are smart, and they know exactly how to deceive people.

Finally, this trickery is done “in deceitful scheming”. In other words, the crafty trickery is planned out, and isn’t just done by accident. The deceivers Paul is talking about make deceitful schemes to craftily trick spiritual children.

Now that Paul has said what is going to be given by all believers when the whole church is Christlike, he moves on to how believers are to grow up by truthfulness:

“. . . that we may be no longer children . . . but speaking [the] truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ . . .”

First, Paul says that this spiritual growth is mainly to be achieved by “speaking the truth in love”. The Greek word translated “speaking” actually literally means “holding”, or “holding to”, so it’s not just about speaking the truth, but believing the truth that will lead to spiritual growth. However, as most good translations show, “speaking” is the overwhelming emphasis of the word, since Paul is now contrasting the “trickery of men . . . in deceitful scheming” with “speaking the truth in love”.

So, what does Paul mean by this phrase? First, it’s the truth that’s to be spoken, and nothing else. This doesn’t mean that mature believers don’t utter anything but Scripture, but that everything they say is consistent with Scripture, and is truthful. Second, the truth is to be spoken. It isn’t enough just to believe it, or to live according to it, but it must be spoken to help believers to grow. Finally, it’s to be spoken in love, or through love. This means that the motivation, or the reason for speaking the truth, must be love for the person who’s being spoken to. This doesn’t mean that the person is just likable to the speaker, but that the speaker wants what’s best for the other’s relationship with God. The goal of speaking the truth must be to help the listener become more like Christ.

The second thing Paul says in this verse is how believers grow up spiritually:

“. . . that we . . . speaking [the] truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ . . .”

First, Paul says that believers need to grow up in all things into Christ. That is, everything about them needs to become like those aspects of Christ’s character — their thinking, beliefs, desires, will, feeling, and behavior. The goal of every spiritual child ought to grow up to be like Christ in all things.

Second, Paul extends this growth of individual believers to the entire body of Christ by calling Him “the head”. With this title, he’s saying that the reason that spiritual growth inevitably makes the growing Christian like Christ is because Christ is the head of the body of which the Christian is a member. In other words, if the Head of the body is full grown, then the body itself ought to be full grown.

After describing how the spiritual children grow up, Paul finishes this passage with the group effort of brotherliness that’s required for this growth of the whole church on earth:

“. . . Christ; from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each [individual] part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.”

What about the group effort of the church does Paul teach here?

First, he teaches that this group effort of growth comes from Christ Himself:

“. . . from whom all the body . . . maketh the increase of the body . . .”

If you carefully read this verse, you’ll see that this is exactly how the beginning and end of it are connected. Paul’s main point in this clause is to say that the life and growth of the body come from Christ Himself. He is the One who “maketh the increase”, or growth, of the body through “all the body”.

Second, Paul says that this group effort is inevitable:

“. . . all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth . . .”

The words “fitly framed” speak to the harmony and teamwork that exists among believers, and the words “knit together” tell us that each member of the body is intimately connected to every other part. And how are they joined and held together?

“. . . through that which every joint supplieth . . .”

Clearly, what Paul is imagining is a human body, with differing parts, that are all connected by the support of its joints. Here, Paul is being very free in his analogy, and goes on to imply that each member of the church is represented by these joints that supply stability and unity “according to the working in due measure of each [individual] part . . .”  In other words, the harmony and connectedness of the body of Christ is only maintained by the proper “working” of each member. To put it another way, the work of each member of the body is necessary for the harmony and unity to function so as to result in the growth of the church.

In fact, Paul says that this is the result of the harmonious and unified working of each member of the body: that the whole body working in this way because of Christ’s power “maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love”.

There are two main results of this group effort.

First: “the increase of the body”, or the growth and maturity of the body.

Second: This growth leads to “the building up of [the body] in love”, or “through love”. Again, the building up, or strengthening, maturing, and growing, of the church, can only be accomplished through the love that the members of the body have for one another. And this love isn’t just concern for the spiritual well-being of one another, but a brotherly affection that comes from being brothers and sisters in the family of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Both of these types of love are necessary for the building up of the church — love in deed and in truth, and brotherly love — and together they cause the growth, strengthening, and maturing, of the church as each member of the church grows into Christlikeness.

So, are you serving your brethren in Christ to attain “the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”?

Are you serving your brethren so “that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the [trickery] of men, in craftiness [in deceitful scheming]”?

Are you “speaking the truth in love” to your brethren so that we all “may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ”?

Do you live as if the whole body of Christ on earth is “fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each [individual] part”?

Are you properly working in the body of Christ for the purpose of “the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love”?

If you aren’t trusting in the Son of God, His death for our sins, and resurrection from the dead, for God’s forgiveness of your sins, then you are worse than a spiritual child — you’re a spiritual corpse, since you’re spiritually dead because of your unChristlikeness. Because of your guilt before God, He’s your enemy, and He’s going to judge you eventually for everything you’ve done, said, and thought, and punish you forever in a place of unimaginable torment for your crimes against Him. But he sent His divine Son to earth to become a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die on a cross to be punished by Him for our sins, to rise from the dead, and to ascend into heaven as the King of the universe. He’s now commanding you to change your mind and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, His death for our sins, and resurrection as the only grounds of His forgiveness because He’s going to send Him to judge people like you. Please repent and trust in Him. He promises to forgive all your sins and be your Father if you will change your mind and trust in His crucified and risen Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.