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No.76.
The Practical Section (4: - 6:).
The Satanic Travesty (4: 14, 15)
and contrast to the Unity of Faith.
pp. 101 - 103
What a measure is set before us in attaining unto the unity of the faith! Nothing less
than the fullness, 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 Heb. 5: and I Cor. 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 Matt. 21: 16 "out of the mouth of infants
(nepios) and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise". So in I Cor. 13: 11 the apostle says
"When I was a child (nepios), I spake as a child".
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 Eph. 4: There the great feature is the "Unity of the Spirit",
those like the Corinthians were more associated with the "divisions of the flesh". Eph. 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 Isa. 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 (II Pet. 3: 6),
and kataklusmos is a flood (Matt. 24: 38), our English word cataclysm. "Carried about"
is periphero. We find the word in Heb. 13: 9, "Be not carried about with divers and
strange doctrines" (though here some MSS read paraphero); and again in Jude 12,
"Clouds are they 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?