We must also grow up into Christ in all things to have the full growth. Function depends on growth. Ephesians 4:13 speaks of arriving at a full-grown man. We need to have not a partial growth but the full growth until we become a full-grown man. Then verse 15 says that we grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ. This is to grow not merely in some things but in all things. This means that we may grow in certain things, but we may not have grown in other things. We need to grow up into Christ in all things.
Verse 14 says that we should no longer be little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching. Darby’s New Translation renders children as babes. If we are still babyish or childish, it is easy to be tossed by waves and carried about. How then can we function? Today in the church life only those who are established can function. The way to be established is by growth. If we are not established, we cannot function properly. We have to be established, but being established is possible only by growing.
Some may ask what they should do before they are grown up, while they are still babyish or childish, to escape from being carried about by every wind of teaching. What they must do is stay with the older ones. Consider children and babes. They are safe when they stay with their parents or their bigger brothers. Sometimes a mother brings some little ones, three or four years old, to the supermarket or a department store, and they get lost. The way for them not to get lost is to stay by their parents. Learn to stay with the older ones, and learn to grow. Then you will have a certain kind of function.
We need to grow up in everything into Christ. In certain things we already may have grown into Christ, but in other things we may not have the mature growth. How much we can function depends entirely on our growth. The more growth we have, the more function we have. We have to stress the matter of our growth. We have to minister life and nourishment to the brothers so that they may grow.
Ephesians 4:16 implies the coordination of the Body. In this verse we do not have the word coordination, but we have the fact, the reality of it. Verse 16 says, “Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” Out from whom means out from the Head, Christ. This verse speaks of being joined together and knit together. It is not enough simply to be joined together. If I stack three books, they are joined together, but they are not knit together. Apparently we are in the church joined together, but we may not be knit together. Being knit together indicates the real building up. We must not only come together but be truly built up together. The apostle was careful to use the words joined and knit because there is a difference between them. If we come to gather together, but we have never been knit together, there is no building. What we have is only a pile of materials. We need not only to be brought together but also to be built up, knit together.
The whole body is joined together and knit together through every joint of the rich supply. In the body there are many joints, and all of these joints are the members of supply; they are stronger and richer. In the church some brothers and sisters are the joints. They are richer and stronger, so they are the members of the rich supply. They always supply something by ministering to all the members. It is by these supplying joints, these joints of supply, that the whole body is knit together. The joining and knitting is through the operation in the measure of each one part. This operation is the function of the members.
The coordination of the members is implied by the phrase the operation in the measure of each one part. If I function according to my measure, and everyone functions according to his measure, we will have the coordination. The operation in the measure of every part is the function of each member in coordination. If one member does not function, we are short of a measure. We all have to function in our proper measure, not too much or too little. When we each function in the proper measure, we have the coordination. The issue of this is the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. It is by the function of life that the church is built up.
Through our fellowship at this time we all have been helped to be clear. However, we need much practice. Pray for these matters, and bring all this into practice in the place where you are. The more we fellowship in this way, the more we see the need for the real function of life. The real function comes from life, not from gift. As we have seen, in Romans the gift is the function given to the members, while in Ephesians the gift is the member given to the Body. The gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 are the miraculous gifts. These only help to lead us to life. The miraculous gifts themselves do not build up very much. Rather, they open the way to bring us into the reality of life. It is by the life supply that a certain function comes out. This causes us to become members qualified to build up the Body.