Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:15b-Exhortation to Grow to Spiritual Maturity
Lesson # 244
Ephesians 4:11 Therefore, on the one hand, He Himself generously gave some to be apostles but on other hand, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors, specifically, teachers 12 for the purpose of equipping the saints for performing the work of service in order to ultimately build up the members of Christ’s body 13 until each and every one of us as a corporate unit attains to experiencing the unity produced by obedience to the one and only Christian faith. Correspondingly, until all of us without exception attains to the unity produced by an experiential knowledge of God’s Son. Until each and every one of us as a corporate unit attains to experiencing a mature man. Until all of us without exception attains to experiencing proportionately to the full stature of the one and only Christ’s character. 14 In order that each of us as a corporate unit would no longer be children. Specifically, those who are tossed back and forth by waves so as to be carried about from place to place by means of every wind, that is teaching by means of the trickery produced by certain members of the human race because of craftiness according to their program which is characterized by that which produces deception. 15 Instead, on the basis of each and every one of us as a corporate unit making it our habit of practicing the truth by means of the practice of divine-love, let all of us without exception grow with respect to every area of our character into the state of being like Him, namely, Christ, who is the head. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:15 is composed of the following:
(1) Causal participial clause: alētheuontes…en agapē (ἀληθεύοντες...ἐν ἀγάπῃ), “Instead, on the basis of each and every one of us as a corporate unit making it our habit of practicing the truth by means of the practice of divine-love” (Author’s translation)
(2) Hortatory subjunctive clause: auxēsōmen eis auton ta panta (αὐξήσωμεν εἰς αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα), “Let all of us without exception grow with respect to every area of our character into the state of being like Him.” (Author’s translation)
(3) Relative pronoun clause: hos estin hē kephalē, Christos (ὅς ἐστιν ἡ κεφαλή, Χριστός), “namely, Christ, who is the head.” (Author’s translation)
The hortatory subjunctive clause or exhortation in Ephesians 4:15 contains the verb auxanomai (αὐξάνομαι) which is used in a figurative sense for the spiritual growth of the believer.
Specifically, it speaks of the church age believer “growing” spiritually in the sense of becoming more and more like Christ with regard to their character.
The referent of the first person plural form of this verb is of course Paul and the recipients of this epistle.
The subjunctive mood of this verb is a hortatory subjunctive, which expresses the idea of the apostle Paul urging the recipients of this letter to unite with him in growing up spiritually to Christ-like character because of practicing the truth by means of practicing divine-love.
In this exhortation, Paul employs the accusative masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός) and the referent of this word is the holy character of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is indicated by the fact that this word agrees in gender (masculine), number (singular) with its nearest antecedent, which is the articular genitive masculine singular form of the proper name Christos (Χριστός), which appears in Ephesians 4:13.
As we noted in our study of this verse, the proper name Christos (Χριστός) contains the figure of metonymy, which means that the person of Christ is put for His holy character.
The intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός) is the object of the preposition eis (εἰς), which functions as a marker of a change of state, which indicates the state of the believer’s character being changed into the character of Christ.
The basis for this is practicing the truth and the means by which this is accomplished is the practice the love of God as a result of obeying the Lord’s command to love one another as He has love the believer.
Also, in this exhortation, we have the articular accusative neuter plural form of the adjective pas (πᾶς), which pertains not only to the totality of an abstract concept but is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exception.
The referent of this word is every area of the Christian’s character, which is to reflect the character of Jesus Christ whose character reflects perfectly the character of His heavenly Father (John 1:18).
The word “character” in this context pertains to the aggregate features and traits of a person.
Since the believer’s character is to reflect the character of Christ, the word pertains to the aggregate features and traits of Jesus Christ.
The Scriptures assign to Jesus Christ the same divine essence as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit meaning that He possesses all the attributes of deity.
The Scriptures teach that He is sovereign (Matthew 28:18a; Colossians 2:10b), that He is perfect righteousness (John 8:46a; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 7:26; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 2:21b) and justice (John 8:16a; 2 Tim. 4:8; Ps. 9:8; Deut. 32:4; Rev. 15:3b).
Furthermore, the attribute of love is ascribed to Him (John 13:34; Rom. 5:8; Ephesians 3:19; 1 John 4:9-10) as well as eternal life (1 Tim. 1:17; 1 John 5:11), omniscience (Luke 11:17; John 2:24-25; 6:64; 21:17) and omnipresence (Matthew 18:20; Prov. 15:3).
He is also omnipotence (John 1:3, 10; 5:21; 1 Corinthians 1:23-24; Phil. 3:21; Hebrews 1:3; Rev. 1:8) and immutable (Mal. 3:6; Hebrews 1:10-12; 13:8) and veracity (John 1:14; 14:6a; 1 John 3:16).
Of course, there are some divine attributes that the believer can never manifest such as omniscience, omnipresence, sovereignty and immutability.
However, they can manifest the righteousness of God by obeying the command to love God with one’s entire being and fellow human being as oneself, which fulfills one’s obligation to both God and human beings.
Righteousness is one’s obligation to both God and one’s fellow human being, which is accomplished through obedience to both of these commands.
The believer can also manifest simultaneously God’s justice by practicing the command to love one’s neighbor as oneself.
The believer can manifest the eternal life of God by personally encountering the triune God by obeying the Spirit inspired Scriptures since the Lord defined eternal life in John 17:3 as knowing the Father experientially, which is in fact personally encountering Him through experiencing fellowship with Him.
Thus, like the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have a personal experiential knowledge of each other so the believer can possess an experiential knowledge of the triune God.
However, there is a caveat, namely that the knowledge of each member of the Trinity for each is exhaustive.
Such is not the case for the believer because they received the nature of God at justification but are not beings who are eternal by nature like the members of the Trinity.
The believer can manifest the omnipotence of God by appropriating it by faith in the Spirit inspired Scriptures.
Lastly, the believer can manifest God’s attribute of love by obeying the Lord’s command to love one another.
The adjective pas (πᾶς) functions as an adverbial accusative of reference, which would express the idea of Paul and the recipients of this epistle uniting together in growing up to Christ-like character “with reference to” every area of their character because of practicing the truth by means of practicing divine-love.
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:15b-Exhortation to Grow to Spiritual Maturity
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday April 5, 2025
www.wenstrom.org
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:15b-Exhortation to Grow to Spiritual Maturity
Lesson # 244
Ephesians 4:11 Therefore, on the one hand, He Himself generously gave some to be apostles but on other hand, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors, specifically, teachers 12 for the purpose of equipping the saints for performing the work of service in order to ultimately build up the members of Christ’s body 13 until each and every one of us as a corporate unit attains to experiencing the unity produced by obedience to the one and only Christian faith. Correspondingly, until all of us without exception attains to the unity produced by an experiential knowledge of God’s Son. Until each and every one of us as a corporate unit attains to experiencing a mature man. Until all of us without exception attains to experiencing proportionately to the full stature of the one and only Christ’s character. 14 In order that each of us as a corporate unit would no longer be children. Specifically, those who are tossed back and forth by waves so as to be carried about from place to place by means of every wind, that is teaching by means of the trickery produced by certain members of the human race because of craftiness according to their program which is characterized by that which produces deception. 15 Instead, on the basis of each and every one of us as a corporate unit making it our habit of practicing the truth by means of the practice of divine-love, let all of us without exception grow with respect to every area of our character into the state of being like Him, namely, Christ, who is the head. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:15 is composed of the following:
(1) Causal participial clause: alētheuontes…en agapē (ἀληθεύοντες...ἐν ἀγάπῃ), “Instead, on the basis of each and every one of us as a corporate unit making it our habit of practicing the truth by means of the practice of divine-love” (Author’s translation)
(2) Hortatory subjunctive clause: auxēsōmen eis auton ta panta (αὐξήσωμεν εἰς αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα), “Let all of us without exception grow with respect to every area of our character into the state of being like Him.” (Author’s translation)
(3) Relative pronoun clause: hos estin hē kephalē, Christos (ὅς ἐστιν ἡ κεφαλή, Χριστός), “namely, Christ, who is the head.” (Author’s translation)
The hortatory subjunctive clause or exhortation in Ephesians 4:15 contains the verb auxanomai (αὐξάνομαι) which is used in a figurative sense for the spiritual growth of the believer.
Specifically, it speaks of the church age believer “growing” spiritually in the sense of becoming more and more like Christ with regard to their character.
The referent of the first person plural form of this verb is of course Paul and the recipients of this epistle.
The subjunctive mood of this verb is a hortatory subjunctive, which expresses the idea of the apostle Paul urging the recipients of this letter to unite with him in growing up spiritually to Christ-like character because of practicing the truth by means of practicing divine-love.
In this exhortation, Paul employs the accusative masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός) and the referent of this word is the holy character of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is indicated by the fact that this word agrees in gender (masculine), number (singular) with its nearest antecedent, which is the articular genitive masculine singular form of the proper name Christos (Χριστός), which appears in Ephesians 4:13.
As we noted in our study of this verse, the proper name Christos (Χριστός) contains the figure of metonymy, which means that the person of Christ is put for His holy character.
The intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός) is the object of the preposition eis (εἰς), which functions as a marker of a change of state, which indicates the state of the believer’s character being changed into the character of Christ.
The basis for this is practicing the truth and the means by which this is accomplished is the practice the love of God as a result of obeying the Lord’s command to love one another as He has love the believer.
Also, in this exhortation, we have the articular accusative neuter plural form of the adjective pas (πᾶς), which pertains not only to the totality of an abstract concept but is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exception.
The referent of this word is every area of the Christian’s character, which is to reflect the character of Jesus Christ whose character reflects perfectly the character of His heavenly Father (John 1:18).
The word “character” in this context pertains to the aggregate features and traits of a person.
Since the believer’s character is to reflect the character of Christ, the word pertains to the aggregate features and traits of Jesus Christ.
The Scriptures assign to Jesus Christ the same divine essence as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit meaning that He possesses all the attributes of deity.
The Scriptures teach that He is sovereign (Matthew 28:18a; Colossians 2:10b), that He is perfect righteousness (John 8:46a; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 7:26; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 2:21b) and justice (John 8:16a; 2 Tim. 4:8; Ps. 9:8; Deut. 32:4; Rev. 15:3b).
Furthermore, the attribute of love is ascribed to Him (John 13:34; Rom. 5:8; Ephesians 3:19; 1 John 4:9-10) as well as eternal life (1 Tim. 1:17; 1 John 5:11), omniscience (Luke 11:17; John 2:24-25; 6:64; 21:17) and omnipresence (Matthew 18:20; Prov. 15:3).
He is also omnipotence (John 1:3, 10; 5:21; 1 Corinthians 1:23-24; Phil. 3:21; Hebrews 1:3; Rev. 1:8) and immutable (Mal. 3:6; Hebrews 1:10-12; 13:8) and veracity (John 1:14; 14:6a; 1 John 3:16).
Of course, there are some divine attributes that the believer can never manifest such as omniscience, omnipresence, sovereignty and immutability.
However, they can manifest the righteousness of God by obeying the command to love God with one’s entire being and fellow human being as oneself, which fulfills one’s obligation to both God and human beings.
Righteousness is one’s obligation to both God and one’s fellow human being, which is accomplished through obedience to both of these commands.
The believer can also manifest simultaneously God’s justice by practicing the command to love one’s neighbor as oneself.
The believer can manifest the eternal life of God by personally encountering the triune God by obeying the Spirit inspired Scriptures since the Lord defined eternal life in John 17:3 as knowing the Father experientially, which is in fact personally encountering Him through experiencing fellowship with Him.
Thus, like the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have a personal experiential knowledge of each other so the believer can possess an experiential knowledge of the triune God.
However, there is a caveat, namely that the knowledge of each member of the Trinity for each is exhaustive.
Such is not the case for the believer because they received the nature of God at justification but are not beings who are eternal by nature like the members of the Trinity.
The believer can manifest the omnipotence of God by appropriating it by faith in the Spirit inspired Scriptures.
Lastly, the believer can manifest God’s attribute of love by obeying the Lord’s command to love one another.
The adjective pas (πᾶς) functions as an adverbial accusative of reference, which would express the idea of Paul and the recipients of this epistle uniting together in growing up to Christ-like character “with reference to” every area of their character because of practicing the truth by means of practicing divine-love.