“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, which is the head, even Christ:” (Ephesians 4:14-15)
Paul starts this chapter by calling for unity in the body of Christ, “one body and one Spirit” following one Lord – our God. The body of Christ, a.k.a. the church has had problems with unity from its very beginnings. It’s written about often in the New Testament. People, as if blown by the wind, are prepared to preach, teach and follow new doctrine at any time. That’s precisely why it’s written about in the Bible, so we can avoid that sinful pitfall and maintain unity. The unity found only by following the doctrine of God as written in the Bible. There are many people that presume to know what God really meant. They preach doctrines that are not found in the Bible, like evolution, salvation by works, our God is one of many gods and many other false doctrines.
In order for the church (everyone that is born again) to have unity, we must all be on the same page (have a unifying doctrine), this can only be found in the Word of God. This world is full of false doctrines, even within the same denomination. If your preacher is not preaching from the Word, find a new preacher or new church.
Paul continues in this section writing about the gifts God gave us. These gifts help maintain the church and are necessary to carry out Gods work here on Earth. The spiritual gifts include being apostles; prophets; evangelists; pastors and teachers. We are all apostles called by God to witness but some will be held more accountable than others for what they share with the church. I would hate to stand before my Lord and try to explain away false teaching. How embarrassing, humiliating and disgraceful that would be.
Lord, please let me always teach the Word without deviation. Amen!
In order for the church to have true unity, we need those called by God into these positions (through their spiritual gifts) to be true to the Word of God and not deviate either to the right or the left, but stay on the true path laid out by the Word of God – the Bible.