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\u2026until we all reach unity\xa0in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God\xa0and become mature,\xa0attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13)

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Much of the letter to the Ephesians has to do with living worthily into the hope to which we\u2019ve been called as we grow up to maturity in Christ, together.\xa0

It seems a good place to cap off a conversation on how the enemy of our flesh becomes a redeemed new creation in Christ then.\xa0

There are different descriptors for this process of transformation that our fleshly desires go through: redemption, discipleship, sanctification.\xa0 The term used here in Ephesians for it is to \u201cbecome mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.\u201d\xa0 Being conformed once again to his likeness.

And while there\u2019s a lot of daily practice that goes into this process on our end, it is not something that we do alone.\xa0

The church, says Paul, is where a lot of this happens.\xa0 Not the church in terms of the church building, per se, but the church in terms of the community of Christ.\xa0 The community of those who continue to intercede for us in prayer and who we continue to intercede for.\xa0 The community of those who encourage and disciple us more deeply into our relationship with Christ, and among whom we practice, practice, doing the same for.\xa0 We\u2019re not on our own, we grow to maturity in Christ together in community.

It is within this Christian community that our desires and so much more of our fleshly existence is conformed slowly and deliberately to the likeness of Christ.\xa0 It\u2019s here that we are equipped for Christian service, equipped for discerning maturity, held together as a body by the loving, serving ligaments of our fellow Christians, and where we come to a deeper, more mature knowledge of Christ ourselves.

When that happens, says Paul, then we\u2019ll no longer be infants tossed and blown about by the wind and waves of people\u2019s deceitful scheming.\xa0 And that\u2019s good news.

The reality of actual \u201cfake news\u201d in our world today tells us that the wind and waves of deceit are just as strong today as they ever were.\xa0 And not just in politics, but also in terms of our sexual lives, our relational lives, even our vocational lives.\xa0 Each of these being examples of places where our desires can not only be misaligned to begin with, but also knocked further out of whack daily by the push and pull of the cultural forces howling around us.\xa0 \xa0\xa0

Thanks be to God though\u2014because we don\u2019t enter into that crazy wind storm alone.\xa0 We go with a community.\xa0 And, we go with the equipping power of Christ Himself.\xa0 Because it\u2019s not just the community that helps us to maturity either.

It is Christ Himself who has given grace to each one of us in the form of skills, talents, and the church\u2019s leadership roles to equip the whole body of His church for service and growth into discerning maturity.\xa0

In days when it\u2019s easy to get blown about in following political parties, entertainment personalities, media analysts, and facebook friends, we need these gifts of God\u2019s grace and of community to help us find rooting in truth and in our first, foundational calling: to Christ.\xa0

It is there where we and our fleshly desires are transformed and matured into the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

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