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So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

How do these diverse living stones of God\u2019s creation\u2014that is, his people\u2014fit together into a unified whole that we call the church, a spiritual house, or the body of Christ? \xa0

The diversity of humanity across the ages and different continents and languages and personalities is, itself, a good gift of God\u2019s creation. \xa0Like with the altars the Israelites were to build\u2014no tool ought be used to deface the diversity of this God-created humanity as was done, for instance, through the tool of residential schools applied to indigenous persons. \xa0No: each person created in the image of God is to be treated as a person. \xa0That is, personally. \xa0Never abstractly. \xa0That is, never in such a way that someone is reduced to a uniform, mono-cultural \u201cbrick\u201d of our own determination. \xa0

Lest we think this kind of issue only crops up at a governmental systems level in empires like Egypt or dominions like Canada, we should be mindful of the fact that there are a thousand ways de-personalization happens in everyday life, too. \xa0Whenever we treat someone as an object to be utilized, as a task to be checked off, or as a resource we must get something from\u2014we have treated them abstractly. \xa0It happens when we treat the grocery store clerk as their role, rather than as a person with a name. \xa0It also happens when we merely transact actions and activities with our spouse, parents, or children, but don\u2019t give time to seeing and hearing them as persons in the unimportant, unproductive, silly anecdotal experiences of their lives. \xa0Persons are not something to be used (and therefore to be molded into a form more amendable to our use), but people to be seen, known, and loved. \xa0They are not bricks, but "living stones."

So if we cannot coerce a useful uniformity out of this mess of diverse people\u2014how does a coherent church ever get built? \xa0The answer is the gifts Christ gives. \xa0

While some of those gifts are named here, not all of them are (other lists can be found in Romans and 1 Corinthians, for instance). \xa0But the larger point is that all of Christ\u2019s people are gifted in diverse ways and are called to use those gifts to serve the purpose of building up this body of \u201cliving stones\u201d until we become the unity that in truth, we already are in Christ. \xa0This is our \u201cgrowing to maturity,\u201d the final goal of which, is attaining the fullness of Christ which again, in truth, is already ours.

The use of these gifts are the means by which we become what we already are. \xa0It is the way that we \u201ckeep\u201d the \u201cunity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace\u201d that have already been given. \xa0It is the way we work out what Christ has already worked in. \xa0

What you will note about this work of growing to maturity and building one another up as living stones into the singular building of Christ\u2019s church, is that it is a work of becoming more human and therefore, more Christlike. \xa0He is after all, the example we\u2019ve been given of humanity in its \u201cfullness.\u201d \xa0

To do this work: we must begin by treating one another personally. \xa0Seeing one another not firstly as projects to be worked on or problems to be solved, but as the person who bears a unique gift and calling from Christ to build me up; a uniquely created and gifted person that I and the church are incomplete without. \xa0

The only way to receive that gift from the person I encounter, is through a personal relationship. \xa0That is, encountering them as the living stone they are and wondering together how we might build one another up and discover the unique places in the body we each hold. \xa0In this way, the body of Christ matures, our humanity is deepened, and not only the person in front of us, but also the person we ourselves are, grow together into the fullness of Christ.

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