Let us heartily

gratefully  respond.

What a measure is set before us in attaining unto the unity of the faith!

Nothing less than the fulness, the pleroma of Christ.  Nothing but the `perfect

man' can reach this standard.  In strong contrast to the perfect or the full-

grown adult is the babe, as we have observed in Hebrews 5 and 1 Corinthians 13.

So we find the apostle immediately turning to the negative:

`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' (Eph. 4:14).

Perhaps we should be more accurate if we translated nepios by `infant',

for the Greek word is derived from ne, `not' and epo `to speak', which thought

is retained in the word `infant', which is from the Latin infans, in, `not' and

fans, `speaking'.  This meaning gives point to the Lord's words in Matthew 21:16

`out of the mouth of infants (nepios) and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise'.

So in 1 Corinthians 13:11 Paul says `When I was a child (nepios), I spake as a

The Corinthians were called infants (babes) by reason of their carnality

and divisions.  They had not grown in grace.  As a result the apostle was

obliged to withhold from them the deeper things of God, `the wisdom of God in a

mystery', which, however, he said he did speak to those who were `perfect' or

full-grown adults.  The fitness of the word `infant' then will be seen in

Ephesians 4.  There the great feature is the `Unity of the Spirit'; those like

the Corinthians were more associated with the `divisions of the flesh'.

Ephesians 4 contemplates the believer as having reached `the perfect man', the

extreme opposite of the infant.  Ephesians throughout is the revelation of a

mystery or secret, and such must be withheld from infants.

`Tossed and whirled about with every wind of doctrine'.  The word `tossed'

(kludonizomai) is used in the LXX of Isaiah 57:20: `The wicked are like the

troubled sea'.  Kludon is used by James, `He that wavereth is like a wave of the

sea driven with the wind and tossed' (James 1:6).  Katakluzo is to overwhelm

with water (2 Pet. 3:6), and kataklusmos is a flood (Matt. 24:38), our English

word `cataclysm'.  `Carried about' is periphero.  We find the word in Hebrews

13:9, `Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines' (though here some

mss read paraphero); and again in Jude 12, `Clouds they are without water,

carried about of winds' (though here again the truer reading is paraphero).

Both instances however serve to illustrate the meaning of the word.  These two

words convey the acme of instability and perplexity.  Such a condition is far

removed from the serene atmosphere of the unity of the faith and the perfect

man.  `Examine yourselves', said the apostle.  Are we carried about by every

wind of doctrine?  Do we not know many who seem to have a new doctrine every

time we meet them?  Such are infants, for them the Mystery remains a `mystery'.

This `wind of doctrine' blows not by chance.  Just as surely as the

purpose of God moves towards its goal, the pleroma, so Satan is ever seeking his

own travesty of truth in opposition.  The winds of doctrine that bring such

confusion are part of a tremendous system of wickedness.  Men may throw the

loaded dice, but the wiles are the wiles of the Devil.  `The sleight of men' is