Back and Forth, Here and There (Ephesians 4:14–15)

In contrast to the maturity and growth we as Christians are to have in Christ Jesus, Paul warns believers that they should not be immature, unstable, and gullible.

In this message from Ephesians 4:14–15, Nathan Johnson talks about how easy it is to be tossed back and forth while being blown here and there, how such a life is not fitting for Christians, and the solution so that we never have to.

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Key Passage: Ephesians 4:14–15

… so that we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ …
– Ephesians 4:14–15

The Goal and Focus for the Body of Christ

• Ephesians 4:13– … until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ …
• The FULLNESS of Jesus is the stature (qualification, expectation, that which is to be recognized) in us as believers

The Contrast

• Positive (be like this) 4:13 … Negative (don’t be like this) 4:14 … Positive (be like this) 4:15–16
• Ephesians 4:14– … so that we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming …
• Ephesians 4:14 (NLT) – 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.

Stop being a child!

• NO LONGER (mēketi) – no longer, no more, not for any more time, not ever again
• WE ARE (eimi) – be, to exist (state of being)
  • main verb
• CHILDREN (nēpios) – infant, child, metaphorically used to talk about someone who is immature
  • a play-on-words with the 4:13 “mature”
  • corporate unity (community) vs individualism (“children” – plural) ⁽¹⁾

Tossed Back and Forth … Blown Here and There

• TOSSED HERE AND THERE (klydōnizomai) – be tossed by waves, fluctuate, be tossed here and there by waves, frequently change the way one thinks and believes
  • From klydōn (surf, rough water) – where the idea of flood and stormy seas comes from (see: Luke 8:24; James 1:6)
  • James 1:6 – But he must ask in faith, doubting nothing, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
  • Picture is a small rudderless boat that is flung around by the waves
    • Paul knew about being shipwrecked (2 Corinthians 11:25)
  • D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – Nothing is so characteristic of the sea as its restlessness, its constant motion and change. … The condition reminds us that one of the most prominent characteristics of the child is fickleness and changeableness. How quickly a child can change from smiling to crying! … Another thing which characterizes this condition of childhood is a lack of self-control. It is because of this that older people have to control them. Children are creatures of impulses and moods; they know little about self-discipline, and are not able to master and to control themselves and their own spirits. … Another characteristic of a child and one which follows from the previous ones is that the child always reacts excessively and violently to things that happen to it. The child acts as a whole, and does so with an element of violence and excessiveness. A child is either very fond of something or else it hates it; there is nothing in between. … A further characteristic of the child is that it holds its views violently and tends to change them from one extreme to another. We are all familiar with the dogmatism of a child; and what makes it yet more difficult is that when it changes its views completely it holds the new view equally dogmatically. Further more you never know when the change is going to take place. The result of all this is that the child is in a state of perpetual turmoil and mental agitation. … All this should lead us to ask whether we are manifesting these characteristics of the child, this instability, this constant motion and agitation, this tendency to be violent in these different respects; this lack of discipline and of self-control and especially this inability to control our reactions to the things which happen to us. In other words the child life is a life that is lived on the surface. ⁽²⁾
• CARRIED ABOUT (peripherō) – carry about, carry around, carry here and there, carry from one place to another
  • Similar to parapherō (to be driven off course) 
    • Hebrews 13:8–9– Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings …
• DOCTRINE (didaskalia) – doctrine, instruction, teaching; content of what is taught
  • 2 Timothy 4:3–4 – For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
  • sounds like people always looking for the new diet plan

Cunning, Crafty, and Deceitful Teaching

• The destructive teaching is described by three prepositional phrases: cunning and craftiness for the purpose of (deceitful) scheming
• Ephesians 4:14– … so that we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming …
• TRICKERY (kybeia) – craftiness, trickery, cheating, playing at dice (“loaded dice”) … any type of misrepresentation intended to take advantage of a person in some way
  • From kubos (a “cube”, i.e. die for playing)
• CRAFTINESS (panourgia) – craftiness, trickery, cunning … deceitfulness usually characterized by an especially wicked character
  • From: ergon (work, deed)
  • Same word used to describe Satan’s deception of Eve (2 Cor 11:3)
• For the purpose of …
  • IN (pros) – indicates a goal … a movement toward something
• SCHEMING (methodeia) – scheming, craftiness, method; a way of doing something (deceptive), especially in a systematic way; implies an orderly logical arrangement (usually in steps)
  • 2x (Eph 4:14, 6:11)
  • Wile E Coyotee 

1. We all start as children

• We all start the Christian life as children … but we are not to stay as children but rather to grow up unto maturity
  • John’s first epistle suggests the same with “children, young men, fathers” (1 John 2:12–13)
• William MacDonald – [When we live and mature in light of 4:13] three dangers are avoided—immaturity, instability, and gullibility. ⁽³⁾
• Ephesians 4:15– … we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ …

2. The Days are Deceptive

• 1 Timothy 4:1–3 – But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by the hypocrisy of liars, who have been seared in their own conscience, who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God created to be shared in with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
• 1 Timothy 4:7 – But refuse godless myths … On the other hand, train yourself for the purpose of godliness …
• 2 Timothy 3:1–5 – But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, without gentleness, without love for good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Keep away from such men as these.
• Are we not like this today?
  • we are so easily swayed (tossed around) by public opinion
  • we buy the message the world gives us
  • we listen to the culture, news, the people around us and live accordingly
  • every movie, TV show, magazine, etc has an agenda
  • we would rather listen to a preacher than study the Word for ourselves
  • we shape our lives around the opinions of those near us
  • The very thing Paul says we are NOT to be in E4:14

Our great need: Discernment

• Illustration: Fools gold … looks like the real thing but is worthless
  • Pyrite is an iron sulfide mineral
  • California gold rush was mid 1800s
• DISCERNMENT underscored by sound doctrine and biblical truth
• Paul to Ephesians elders
  • Acts 20:29–31 – “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be watchful …”
    • Also to Corinthians: 2 Corinthians 11:4, 13, 20
  • In Ephesians, Paul isn’t specific about what kind of false teaching to be guarded against (like he does in Colossians 2:8–23) … but his letter earlier reminds the Ephesians that they were saved from the deceitfulness and disobedience of the world (Ephesians 2:2) and must be firmly clothed with God’s armor (Ephesians 6:11–18)
  • Yet later we learn they have drifted from their first love (Revelation 2:4). We are not immune to the deceitfulness of the times outside of Jesus and growing up into Him.
• Philippians 1:9 – And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in full knowledge and all discernment …
• Hebrews 5:14– But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern both good and evil.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:21–22 – … but examine all things; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.

Am I a child or am I growing up?

• Ephesians 4:14–15 – … so that we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but … we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ …
• Am I growing and maturing each year?
• Does my life look more and more like Jesus? 
• Am I increasing in love, godliness, joy, peace,  holiness, kindness, goodness, purity, righteousness, patience, faithfulness, humility, self-control
• Am I growing up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ? (Ephesians 4:15)
• Am I becoming more discerning in spiritual wisdom and understanding (see Colossians 1:9–14)
• Don’t wrongly mistake movement (splashing about, tossed back and forth, blown here and there) for growth. ⁽⁴⁾

FOOTNOTES

(1) Not only do the [children’s] ignorance and instability stand over against the knowledge of the mature adult (cf. 1 Cor. 2:6; 3:1; Heb. 5:13, 14), but also the use of the plural ‘children’ (with its implications of individualism) stands in contrast to the one ‘mature person’ who is a corporate unity. // Peter Thomas O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 308.
(2) David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Christian Unity: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:1–16 (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1972), 225–227.
(3) William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1936.
(4) We can wrongly value movement over growth; mere movement is being tossed to and fro, but God wants us to grow up in all things. // David Guzik, Ephesians, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Eph 4:13–16.

Photo Credit: Julie

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In Our Next Study Together …

I invite you to join me on this journey from the book of Ephesians to discover God’s eternal purpose, His plan for your life, and learn how to practically live out an abundant and fruitful Christian life. 

• The focus of our next study: Ephesians 4:15
  • We are going to talk about the motives and manner of the message and how we are to live lives of truth.
  • I encourage you to read through Ephesians a couple of times this week and focus specifically on Ephesians 4.