Ephesians: The Magna Carta Wk. 7: Jeremiah Lepasana | “Member-ship": The Benefits of Belonging in an Age of Autonomy: Ephesians 4.7-16

If we are honest, many of us carry a healthy skepticism towards participating and committing to something like a church. We may worry (with good reason from past experience!) about the ways a church could become unhealthy and oppressive! In addition, we may also worry that committing could infringe on our freedom and autonomy in inconvenient ways. So, we have to ask, are there any benefits to joining and committing to a church? Yesterday, I asked three questions: 1) what are the riches you miss by not committing to a church?; 2) how are these riches received?; 3) how are these riches sustained? From Ephesians 4, we saw that: The Church is the chosen container for cultivation of maturity, which is the "experiential appropriation of God's boundless love for you." This maturity, formed within this container, was meant to be an anchor and defender, when things seem unstable and uncertain. The riches of maturity are received within a "member-ship,” a people connected body-like that counterintuitively liberates us to grow deeper in our sense of individuality. These riches are sustained by words, marked by truth and offered in love.