Growing up into Christ in All Things

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"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; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, even Christ." Ephesians 4:14, 15

In attempting, with God's blessing, to open up these words, I shall direct your attention–

To that state of religious childhood, out of which we are by divine grace to be brought—"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."

Secondly, to the means which God employs to bring us out of this childish state, namely, "speaking the truth," or adopting, as I intend to do, the marginal reading, "being sincere in love."

And thirdly, to the result of these means—"That we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, even Christ."

I. The stateof religious childhood,out of which we are by divine grace to be brought—"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 blessed Spirit has selected the figure of a little CHILD and used it in various ways, but chiefly in two—He has selected certain features in a child which we may call favorablequalities, though still connected with the very imperfection of childhood; and He has used these favorable qualities as emblems of a certain state of soul spiritually corresponding with them. Again, He has taken certain (what shall we call them?) unfavorable qualities in the child, and used them as figures of instability, weakness and imperfection in the divine life. And yet the foundation of the figure in both aspects is the same; the natural tenderness, immaturity, and lack of growth, which is visible in the child. Let me explain myself a little more clearly and distinctly.

A. First observe the favorable qualities which the Holy Spirit has used as emblems of certain distinctive features of divine teaching. A child is naturally simple. The tenderness of its ideas preserves it from deceitfulness of speech or conduct. The Holy Spirit takes this quality, and uses it as an emblem of that spiritual simplicity and godly sincerity of which He is the author. We must become simple as little children. Again, the child is inexperienced, ignorant of many things which it has afterwards to learn, and the innate consciousness of this renders it teachable. So the child of God is teachable, willing to learn, to gather spiritual instruction where he can.

The child again is humble. It knows little or nothing of worldly distinctions; the child of a noble will play with the child of a peasant as readily as with one of its own class. This external, visible humility is made a figure of that spiritual humility which clothes, or should clothe a child of God. The Lord Himself has used the figure of a little child in this point of view as simple, teachable, and humble, when He declared, "Except you are converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3).

B. Unfavorable qualities. But, on the other hand, there are things in a child of nature which are representatives of what is to be avoided in a child of grace.

1. A child is inexperienced, unacquainted with the world, with business, with any serious or useful occupation, with the deceits and crafts of men, with the way in which the battle of life is fought and won. So in grace. There is a state and stage in the divine life through which everyone passes, in which he has little experience of himself, of the evils of his heart, of the dreadful nature of sin, of the strength of temptation, of the power and subtlety of his unwearied foe; and, on the other hand, little experience of the abounding grace of Christ, of the efficacy of His atoning blood, and the manifestations of His dying love.

2. Again, a child is weak. Mind and body alike are naturally and necessarily feeble from its being a transition state, and neither having yet grown into their intended maturity. We can bear with this in childhood. Their very weaknesses, especially in our own children, are engaging; their very lack of maturity, like a rose-bud, or a lamb at play, has something beautiful about it. But we would not wish our children to be lambs and rose-buds all their lives. We would not like them to be dwarfs, lest perhaps they degenerate into idiots. We expect them, as years pass on, to grow out of this state. Were they always children, we would infer the presence of some disease. We would say there was something fundamentally wrong in their constitution, which stunted and starved their growth.

So in heavenly things. It is pleasing to see the work of grace in its first commencement on the soul. The doubts, the fears, the earnestness, the zeal, the simplicity of those in whom the Spirit of God is first at work is a sight beautiful to witness, and when seen in any near and dear to us, unspeakably heart-gladdening; but we expect them to grow out of this weakness and feebleness, so as in due time to attain to a ripeness and maturity in the life of God, and not be children all their days.

3. Another feature of childhood is to be changeable, vacillating, pleased with a toy one day and throwing it aside the next; not knowing its own mind, but flitting like a butterfly from flower to flower. This fickle, unstable, changeable mood of a child, the blessed Spirit uses as an emblem of a similar state of mind too often visible in the professing Church of Christ.

Reproving and condemning this childish instability, he bids us "henceforth be no more children." It was well enough to be children once, for in grace as in nature none are born men, and during spiritual as during natural childhood childish ways are borne with; but we are not to be children all our days, ever vacillating, unstable, undecided, carried away by every impulse, and moved by every breath, ignorant and inexperienced, knowing little of ourselves, and less of the Lord's mercy and love. There is a 'growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ'. We are, therefore, by divine teaching, to grow out of childhood into manhood, to forget those things which are behind and reach forth unto those things which are before, and thus attain to some ripeness in the life of God.

4. But the Apostle shows not merely the weakness of a state of childhood, but the dangers to which this state is exposed—"tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine." He rather changes the figure here; for his heart was so full of the things of God, that like a workman with a number of tools before him, who puts down the one in his hand and catches up another more suitable for a particular part of his work; he drops one figure to take up another more adapted to convey his meaning.

He does not carry out the figure of childhood, but at once adopts another—that of a SHIP in a storm. How unstable is a ship at sea, how tossed up and down by every wave, and driven to and fro by every wind, especially if there be not much ballast in the hold! While then we are in a childish, immature state in the divine life, we are like a ship at sea with little ballast, tossed to and fro by every wind that blows. Now that is a very dangerous position, because if the ship has not a good amount of ballast in the hold, it is liable to be capsized, founder, and go down in the deep waters. Not that the child of God can or will go down in the deep waters; his soul, his immortal soul cannot be lost. The ship itself may not sink, yet much of the cargo may be lost, the passengers get wet, and their clothes and goods spoiled. So we, from instability and inexperience, like a lightly ballasted ship in a stormy sea, may, without losing our souls, lose much of our comfort and peace; and if we escape drowning, may not escape a thorough good wetting.

But there is something striking in the expression, "tossed to and fro." Here, on one side, is a rocky coast; and on the other, the raging sea. Now the ship may be sometimes tossed "to"—approach the rocky coast, and be in imminent danger of being dashed to pieces—and then a contrary wind may suddenly carry it away "from" the rocks, and drive it out half a wreck into the wild, stormy ocean. So in divine matters. Here on one side are rocks—deadly heresies, dangerous speculations, fundamental errors upon grand cardinal points—the Trinity, the Sonship of Christ, the personality and work of the Holy Spirit. Errors of this sort are as sunken rocks lying directly in the homeward track. Suddenly a wind comes from some preacher or author that catches the sails of an unstable ship, and drives it headlong to these sunken rocks, for errors and heresies thickly line the spiritual coast.

But just as the vessel is coming upon the rocks, a land breeze springs up, a gust of despair or some sudden fear and terror, and away it goes right into the boundless sea. Many even of the saints of God, when not established in the truth, are thus "tossed to and fro"; driven sometimes almost upon the rocks of destructive error, and thence hurled back into a stormy sea, where terror stands on the deck, and despair rides upon the wave. How many, who one would hope fear God, are thus tossed to and fro! They wander from chapel to chapel, from minister to minister, from book to book, and can scarcely tell who are right and who are wrong, who are the servants of God and who the servants of pride and SELF; sometimes taken with this man and then with that man; lifted up and carried about with every new scheme and every fresh doctrine that wears an air of plausibility; hurled sometimes well near on the shoals of error, and then driven away to sea without compass or pilot. How many are thus "carried about" all round the compass, "with every wind of doctrine"! No minister can long please them; no people long satisfy them; no doctrine long hold them. They change their place of worship as worldly people their dining place; and love new faces and new voices as much as seaside visitors love new sights and new seas.

But the Apostle adds a remarkable expression—"By the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." He opens a wonderful depth here. It strikes me sometimes with astonishment when I read the Epistles, to see that in those early days, when the power of Christ was so manifest, and men had to carry their lives in their hands, there were such errors and heresies in the Church. Yet I see the wisdom of God in permitting it. There were then men of God, such as the apostles, who could point these errors out and write down the truth, the living truth of God, under the special inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and thus set up a certain standard, and fix unerring landmarks for the Church of Christ for all time.

This tossing to and fro results, the Apostle says, from "the sleight of men." The original here is exceedingly expressive, or I would not mention it. The word translated "sleight" means literally, cheating at dice; the allusion being to the practice of gamblers loading the dice to obtain a favorable throw. I never saw it done myself, but I speak from what I have read. The dice are rightly marked and rightly thrown, but being loaded on one side, they always come up in favor of the cheat who throws them. So errors and heresies resemble loaded dice. They look all right, properly marked with texts and passages, and the minister or writer seems to throw them fully and fairly down before the people. And yet, like loaded dice, there is jugglery and deception at the bottom. As in sleight of hand, things are made to appear what they are not, so jugglers and cheats in religion deceive people by a show of piety and holiness, under the cover of which they hide the most destructive errors. Books, apparently very religious, but filled with infidelity, lie on every railway stall; Jesuits, male and female, creep into families and schools as tutors and governesses, masters and mistresses, to entangle the young with Popish wiles; Puseyites, with the Church of England in their mouth, and the Church of Rome in their heart, steal from house to house undermining all Protestant principles. The friends of truth are asleep, and the enemies awake; simple souls are caught, but still the game goes on. Yet of all gamblers, religious gamblers are the worst, for the throw is for eternity, and the soul is at stake.

But the Apostle uses another expression of great pith and power—"cunning craftiness." The word means literally, "the unprincipled conduct of a deceptive wretch, who will do anything to gain his ends." Such is the nature of error, that when once a man's mind becomes thoroughly imbued with it, he cannot rest, but only as he propagates it. The man who holds error is sure to be ten times firmer in that error than many a child of God is in truth. Amazing, too, is the "cunning craftiness" of these erroneous men, "whereby they lie in wait to deceive." Though so deeply fixed in their errors, yet there is in them an instinctive consciousness that their views will not bear the light, and that the verdict of God's people is against them. "The righteous is as bold as a lion," but these false teachers are as crafty as a serpent. They therefore lie in wait, "as a serpent by the way, as an adder in the path."

David describes them well. "They lurk in dark alleys, murdering the innocent who pass by. They are always searching for some helpless victim. Like lions they crouch silently, waiting to pounce on the helpless. Like hunters they capture their victims and drag them away in nets." (Psalm 10:8, 9). Their delight is to catch some simple-hearted child of God, and under a show of deep experience, or wonderful manifestation, entrench their poisonous errors into his ear and heart. Thus "they lie in wait to deceive," or, as the words may be rendered,they pursue a systematic plan of deception, laying schemes to entrap the unwary, and are never so much pleased as when they can beguile an unstable soul into their net.

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