“Christians are warned not to be babies, in an open boat at the mercy of wind and wave, driven off course by the roll of the dice!” O’Brien

Ephesians 4:13–16 (NLT) ¹³ This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. ¹⁴ Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. ¹⁵ Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. ¹⁶ He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

Those given by Christ as ‘ministers’ (v. 11), along with the ‘saints’ (v. 12), provide their service so that God’s people might reach three goals:

Three goals, each introduced by Greek preposition (eis, “unto”): literally,

1 “unto the unity of the faith and full knowledge of the Son of God,”

2 “that we will be mature in the Lord,” and

3 “measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ”