Ephesians 4:16

“From him [Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

in the previous verse we were told that the church is growing up into Christ, the Head. In this verse the church is growing up “from Him”.

Christ supplies the growth for the church, and He is the objective to which the church is growing .

an analogy would be the growth of a plant. Plants generally grow in the direction of the sun or other light source. At the same time, the sun is the source of energy for the plant which enables the plant to grow.

the church, the whole body, is growing into maturity in Christ, the one who directs and grows the church .

this growth is both in number and in quality of relationship. The church is required to constantly engage in mission, going to the world to share the gospel with others. Out of this mission comes a growth in the number of people who identify with the church.

at the same time, the church is engaged in internal growth or quality growth. This is the process whereby each member and the community as a whole, works at becoming more like Christ .

the whole body grows as “each part does it work.”

Part of this is the ministry gifts of 4:11. As each of these church leaders fulfils the call that Christ has placed on them, they are able to lead the church into greater maturity.

however, for real church health, every part of the body must discover its role, or its position in the household (2:19-22). Each believer needs to find out their part of the mission of the church. This might be such things as works of service, deeds of kindness, sharing the gospel at work, and so on. As each person, each part of the Body of Christ, does their work, the ligaments and joints of the body are strengthened and prepared for greater growth .

in the human body, strength is only possible when the heart delivers blood to the various organs, the lungs deliver oxygen into the blood, the digestive system extracts the various nutrients from food to be delivered to every cell, and so on. The whole body must be healthy and do its work in order for the body to be strong and to grow stronger.

The church also requires every part to do its work in order to grow into Christ .

the whole body is joined and held together by every supporting ligament .

Every congregation needs to develop ways of incorporating its members so that they know that they belong together. This is generally referred to as fellowship or in Greek koinonia.

How can we ensure that a person who is part of the body stays connected? How can we ensure a new person feels welcome?

every church will have a number of strategies in place to make these things happen. There are both formal and informal processes that take place, and these evolve over time to reflect the size of the church and the culture of its community.

At the heart of this is the desire to grow in fellowship and in care for one another. A church that just operates on Sunday is no church at all .

the body, Paul tells us, build itself up “in love.” Love of God, and love for one another is the supporting ligament that holds the church together and causes it to grow.

the church grows “in love” and builds itself up “in love” because the church is the Body of Christ. We can only do what we do in love because we do it in Christ, and God is love.

We build one another up in love because we love God and want to love his children as we love him.

Love must be the heart of all that the church does. Sometimes we miss this. We become so invested in the programs and in the activities of the church that we forget that these things are secondary. They are there to proclaim and embody the love of God; they are not there for their own sake.

so as we serve one another in love and work in the part that God has placed us, then the church grows in the grace of Christ becoming more like him .

key points in this verse:

• We are growing from Christ and to Christ

• the church is growing in numbers and in the quality of discipleship

• every part of the body, not just the leaders, must do its work

• the church must work at encouraging every member to feel that they belong