No More Tossed to and Fro Ephesians 4:14

Paul the apostle wrote how Jesus gave to the church “apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers” to “perfect” “the saints”, “for the work of the ministry”, and “for the edifying of the body of Christ”. He desired for all of them to be “unified” in “the faith”, and “of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”. In chapter four and verse fourteen of his letter, Paul gave not being “tossed to and fro” as another reason for ministers to serve within the church where we read:

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

The verse begins, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine,...” Paul began with the words, “That we henceforth be” which means “Paul and the Ephesians may, can, could, would, should and must” “no more” or “no further or not hereafter” “children” which refers to “infants, minors and not of age”, “tossed to and fro” which means “agitated like waves mentally”, “and carried about with” or “bear about everywhere both here and there, to be driven and transported hither and thither” “every” which means “each, every, any, all, the whole and everyone” “of doctrine” which means “instruction, teachings and precepts”. With the ministers fulfilling their work within the church, the members would “grow up and mature” and no longer believe every “teaching” that comes along.

The verse continues, “...by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” Paul added, “by the sleight” which means “with, among, at and through dice playing, deception of men because dice players sometimes cheated and defrauded their fellow players” “of men” which refers to “human beings whether male or female”, “and cunning craftiness” or “in, with and among crafty ones who have specious or false wisdom” “whereby” or “to the advantage of, at, near, towards, with and with regard to” “they lie in wait” or “cunning arts, deceit, craft and trickery” “to deceive” or “wandering, straying about, led from the right way, roams hither and thither, error, wrong opinion relative to morals or religion”. Those who were “deceived” were “led into error, wrong and fraud” by “deceitful” teachers.

When we think through these words of Paul, we understand the importance of being instructed by leaders within the church. They have a great responsibility to teach and enjoin church members toward “maturity” in the word of God and it's doctrine. When we become “mature” “in the faith”, we are less likely to believe every “doctrine” that comes along, particularly those which are presented “by deceitful men” who take advantage rather than promote maturity. May the Lord Jesus help us to discern the importance of His “ministers”, and may we never be led astray by those who would “spoil” us as their next victims.

Next time Paul shares about “speaking the truth in love”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.