(καταρτίζω) Restoration - The Church's Test continued...

There is a wonderful word in the book of Ephesians about how the church is to function and the role of certain gifted people within the church. It is described in Ephesians 4:11-13:

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's 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.

The key word I would like to focus on is this wonderful word "prepare." The passage says that there are those who are to do the work of "preparing" God's people so that they can do works of service. In the New American Standard version of the Bible the word used is "equip." I like that word even better! That God's people are to be "equipped" for works of service. The word that is being translated prepare or equip is from the root word: καταρτίζω. Kä-tär-tē'-zō and is translated in several ways in the bible. I would like to explore some of the ways katartezo is translated and used in the context of the Scriptures. This will take several entries. Hopefully through this exploration we can gain a better understanding of what it means for us to be equipping people or doing the work of discipleship. I see this as a significant test for the church; do we "katartezo" well?

The first occurance of this word in the New Testament is early in the gospels. Jesus sees James and John in their boat and they are mending their nets (Mark 1:19). The word for mending is καταρτίζω. The idea here is that the disciples are mending the holes in their nets so that the nets could be put back into use. When thinking of the work of discipleship in this context, it is like saying that part of the work of the church is helping repair the holes in people's lives so that they can be put back into service.

What an image! I love it. The Church, mending people's lives. Think about all the various ways people tear holes in their lives or how people tear holes into the lives of those around them. The repairing, or mending of these holes, is the work of the church. Discipleship, it seems, is about this work of mending. 1 Peter 2:11 says, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul." When a soul has had war waged against it the damage is significant, whether it is self-inflicted or inflicted by another. The work of the church is to help those holes be filled or mended so that that life, an individual made in teh image of God, can again bring glory to Him.

Maybe as we think of whether a church is doing what God has designed her to do we should do more than ask whether they have "this or that" program. Maybe we ought to ask "how are they doing at mending lives.

a partner in the gospel,

Pastor Paul