Eph. 4:15, Holding to Truth in Love that We may Grow up Into Christ in All Things for the New Man. Eph. 4:15, But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ
God’s desire is to gain a corporate man who fully expresses Him in His image and represents Him with His dominion. This man in God’s plan is a full-grown man, one who fulfills God’s purpose on the earth. For us as the many believers in Christ to arrive at a full-grown man, we need to grow up into Christ in all things (see Eph. 4:15-16, 24).
On the one hand we need to let the Lord grow in us by spreading into every part of our inner being, and on the other hand we need to grow up into Christ in all things.
There are still so many things in which we didn’t yet grow up into Christ. What about the way we dress, the way we walk, the way we arrange our clothes, and the way we spend our free time?
There are many things in our Christian life in which we didn’t yet grow up into Christ. But when we all grow up into Christ in all things, we will all be one in Christ – we will become the universal one new man!
How do we grow up into Christ in all things? Eph. 4:15 tells us that we grow up into the Head – Christ is the Head, and we need to grow up into Him in all things. Our growth in life by the increase of Christ is the growth of the members of the Body of Christ under the Head.
We all grow together, and my growth in life contributes to the building up of the Body. As we hold to truth in love, we grow up into Christ as the Head in all things, and we arrive at a full-grown man in Christ.
Lord, grow in us! Cause us all to arrive at a full-grown man by growing into You in all things! Lord, grow in us, and cause us to grow up into Christ in all the things of our daily life!
We Need to Grow Up into Christ in All Things
Eph. 4:15 says, But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ. As believers in Christ, we should no longer be babes and infants – we need to grow in life, grow up into Christ. We need to let Christ increase in us in all things until we arrive at a full-grown man.
There are hundreds of things in our life in which we need to grow in Christ. In every little thing of our daily life we need to take Christ as our person and live Him, until He expands in us and every part of our being is saturated and permeated with Christ, so that there would be a corporate new man on earth for His expression.
All the saints in all the local churches all over the earth need to grow up into Christ by having Christ increased in them in all things, until we all arrive at a full-grown man (Eph. 4:13). This is an daily organic process, in which we honestly tell the Lord,
Lord Jesus, we want to cease from all our efforts vain and simply let Your life grow in us and transform us! Lord, grow in us in all the things of our daily life. We are not seeking improvement or self-perfecting – we want to endeavor to grow up into You in all things until we all arrive at the one new man!
We need to grow up into Christ in all things – whether big or small, in all things. And our growth needs to be into Christ, and not into ourselves or anything else. How we need to grow up into Christ in all things!
Holding to Truth in Love we May Grow Up!
The secret of growing up into Christ in all things is “holding to truth in love”. What does it mean to hold to truth? Is it only to memorize the verses in the Bible and hold on to them?
Truth here is Christ Himself – He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). To hold to truth is to hold to Christ – contact Him, touch Him, fellowship with Him, be open to Him, turn your heart to Him, and exercise your spirit to be one with Him. Then, you will grow!
As we hold to Christ as the Head, we will grow in life into Christ in all things. In big things or small things, in significant things or seemingly trivial things of our daily life, we need to grow in Christ. When the Lord shines on our living and all the things related to us, we will realize that there are so many things that are not in Christ but are outside of Christ.
How do you drive? What kind of car do you have? What music you listen to? What books do you read? How do you use your smartphone? How do you communicate with others? What’s the content of your text messages, Facebook chats, google hangouts, skype calls, etc?
In thing after thing, we need to exercise our spirit to be in spirit. Our speaking must be in the mingled spirit, our communications and interactions must be in the spirit, our attire and attitude must be in the spirit, and the way we take care of things or deal with people must be in the spirit!
In all things, we need to hold to truth in love by loving Christ and exercising our spirit to let Christ, who is the Spirit with our spirit today, live in us and grow in us! How much do we live Christ at home? Do our workmates or classmates see Christ in our living and attitude toward things?
You know and I know that in situation after situation and thing after thing Christ is not the One who is expressed through us….how much we need to hold to truth in love and let Christ grow in us!
Lord Jesus, we want to simply hold to truth in love that we may grow up into You in all things! You are the reality – we hold on to You! Lord, we love You! We come to You! We want to live one spirit with You! In all things, Lord, grow in us and live in us!
Growing up Into the Head, Christ, for the One New Man
Eph. 4:24 and put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality
Our growth in life is not “in a general way” but in a very specific way – it is “into the Head, Christ” (Eph. 4:15). Our growth in the divine life by the increase of Christ in us should be the growth of the members of the Body under the Head. And this growing up into Christ in all things is for the practical existence of the universal one new man (Eph. 4:24)!
God’s desire is to head up all things in Christ – the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him (Eph. 1:10). This heading up process takes place first in the church – Christ is Head over all things to the church, and He is the Head of the church.
The more we as believers in Christ grow up into Christ who is the Head, the more there will be the heading up of the Body in the universe. Slowly but surely, Christ grows in us – it is not in “major growth spurts” but in a daily way, Christ increases in us and we grow up into Him in thing after thing. This growth is imperceptible, and ourselves are not aware of it.
Every day we consecrate our day to the Lord, we turn our heart to Him, we open our whole being to Him, we receive His cleansing, we apply Him as the reality of all the offerings, we love Him, we contact Him, we receive His dispensing, we eat Him and drink Him, and we let Him live in us! In this way, little by little and day by day there’s more Christ in us.
This growth of Christ is not for our “spirituality” but for the Body of Christ, under the Head, and our growth together is for the bringing into existence of the one new man! If we grow up today, the one new man will have its practical existence; if we don’t grow up today, we will delay it.
The Lord will get the new man for the fulfillment of His purpose – everything He is doing today is to usher in the practical existence of the new man! May we be those who cooperate with Him and not delay this!
Lord, we open to You. We come to You as we are to simply contact You and love You. We want to let You grow in us. May we grow up into You in thing after thing until in all things we are in Christ. May we all hold to truth in love so that we all may grow up into Christ in all things! Lord, bring in the practical existence of the one new man for the fulfillment of Your purpose!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, The Subjective Truths in the Holy Scriptures (p. 93), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Entering into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose, week 8 / msg 8, Arriving at a Full-grown Man (2) Growing Up into Christ in All Things, Learning Christ as the Reality Is in Jesus, and Being Renewed in the Spirit of the Mind/
- Further reading:
# Recommending msg. 45 in, The Life-study of Ephesians (by Witness Lee).
# Similar sharing on this topic via, holdingtotruth.com (by Tom Smith). - Hymns on this topic:
# But holding to truth in love / We may grow up in all things / Into Him who is the Head / Christ is the Head / Out from Whom all the Body / Being joined together and / Being knit together through / Ev’ry joint of the rich supply / And through the operation / In the measure of each one part / of each one part / Causes the growth of the Body unto the / building up of itself in love, / in love, in love.
# Truth we must be holding, which is Christ Himself, / That we be delivered from the sects of self, / That in all things growing into Christ the Head, / Built will be the Body and to fulness led.
# I would cease completely / From my efforts vain, / Let Thy life transform me, / Full release to gain; / Build me up with others / Till in us Thou see / Thy complete expression / Glorifying Thee.
