Austin Bible Church
At salvation, the soul is saved, but has no stability yet. The daily intake of Bible doctrine stabilizes the soul and gives endurance of soul and removes the brittleness. This is the construction of the edification complex of the soul.
Men who have the communication gifts of evangelist and pastor-teacher have three purposes in teaching the Word. In Ephesians 4:11-12, “equipping of the saints” is καταρτισμός (katartismos) in the Greek and means face to face teaching for the purpose of perfecting or training and equipping for combat in the Angelic Conflict. “Work” is ἔργον (ergon) and means inner unseen production of divine good from the right lobe of the soul. The Word of God dominates the soul more and more as the believer grows spiritually.
“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;” (Ephesians 4:11-12, NASB)
In Ephesians 4:11-12, “service” is διακονία (diakonia) means spiritual service and refers to the universal ministry of the believer. The grace apparatus for perception is the basis for taking in the Word, building of the edification complex of the soul, and the production of divine good. “Building” is οἰκοδομή (oikodomē) and means edifying or to build a structure, the edification complex of the soul, to spiritual maturity. This is for all Church Age believers or the entire Body of Christ.
The corrected translation of Ephesians 4:12 becomes, “Face to face (teaching) for the equipping and training of the saints for combat, for the production of the ministry (inner and overt) for the edification of the Body of Christ.”
“until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13, NASB)
These three purposes involved in the ministry of the pastor-teacher have three objectives as summarized in Ephesians 4:13. “Until” means the objective is now summarized, until all believers attain. All believers must be under the authority of some pastor-teacher in a local church to grow spiritually. When you find organizations floating loose who are not under local churches where the pastor communicates doctrine, you are looking at the flotsam and jetsam of the spiritual life.
In Ephesians 4:13, “attain” is καταντάω (katantaō) and means to reach a goal, to arrive at a destination, to arrive at an objective. The three objectives are unity of the faith, full knowledge of God (completion of the edification complex of the soul), and spiritual maturity. “To the unity of the faith” is not brotherhood unity. It refers to the fact that everyone arrives in the same way. The pastor communicates doctrine and the congregation takes in the Word under the grace apparatus for perception and erects their edification complex in the soul. That is unity. It refers to the objective of the faith or Bible doctrine as a system of categorical epignosis in the heart or right lobe of the soul. Epignosis is believed Bible doctrine or full knowledge of the Son of God. This includes the application of rapport love toward God.
“To a mature man” is τέλειος (teleios) and means spiritual maturity, completion of the edification complex. A Christian in spiritual maturity is a part of Christian nobility. “Measure” is μέτρον (metron) and means to the standard. “Stature” is ἡλικία (hēlikia) and means full age or prime of life of the fullness of Christ and refers to His edification complex, Christ’s maturity. “Fullness” is πλήρωμα (plērōma) and is Jesus Christ having an edification complex of the soul as the result of His function of the grace apparatus for perception. Luke 2:40; Luke 2:52; John 1:14.
“The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” (Luke 2:40, NASB)
“And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” (Luke 2:52, NASB)
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, NASB)
The corrected translation of Ephesians 4:13, “Until we all arrive at the objective (through the faithful teaching of the pastor-teacher) with reference to the unity of the faith (system of doctrine) and the epignosis (full knowledge) of the Son of God unto the mature nobleman, unto the standard of the prime of life of the full development of Christ.”
Missionaries must have the last characteristic, to have iron in his soul, a soul of endurance, a soul free from any brittleness, a mature soul. Paul is an illustration of spiritual endurance in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 and Hebrews 11:32-40.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8, NASB)
“And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated ( men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:32-40, NASB)
The enemy of spiritual endurance is brittleness of the soul. Hardship is a vocabulary term for spiritual endurance or having iron in the soul. 2 Tim. 2:3; Prov. 27:17; Jer. 13:14.
“Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 2:3, NASB)
“Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17, NASB)
““I will dash them against each other, both the fathers and the sons together,” declares the LORD. “I will not show pity nor be sorry nor have compassion so as not to destroy them.”‘““ (Jeremiah 13:14, NASB)
In the ancient world, they understood the concept of the shattering of a dried out wineskin. In Jeremiah 13:14, “I will dash” is the piel imperfect of נָפַץ (naphats) and is very strong. God indicates destruction of soul at the end of the verse “to destroy them.” This is talking about the disintegration of the soul, the shattering of the soul, the destruction of the soul of an individual as in Proverbs 6:32.
“The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; He who would destroy himself does it.” (Proverbs 6:32, NASB)
The soul becomes brittle, in the context of Jeremiah 13, when the believer fails to respond to doctrine and either goes into idolatry where religion is substituted for Christianity or into sexual sins. There is a fundamental type of religion, a conservative religion, and a liberal religion.
When the believer goes liberal to Bible doctrine, they may be prospered by the devil, although they attribute it to the blessing of God. As such, they conduct a frantic search for happiness. For example, Solomon, even though out of fellowship was prospered materially, yet in his frantic search he found nothing to satisfy him. The Book of Ecclesiastes covers this in great detail.
In this context, when you drink the from jug of this life, not only does the jug shatter in your face, but so does your soul. This is called the sin unto death. 1 John 5:16.
“If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.” (1 John 5:16, NASB)
Brittleness of soul can become a way of life for the believer. When enough believers in a nation are in this shape, the country goes into terrible divine judgment as did Judah in Jeremiah 13:19.
“The cities of the Negev have been locked up, And there is no one to open them; All Judah has been carried into exile, Wholly carried into exile.” (Jeremiah 13:19, NASB)
This is the pursuit of happiness apart from divine provision and divine design. Brittleness of soul is the antithesis of the edification complex of the soul. A brittle soul is an unfulfilled soul. It must be fulfilled by spiritual growth in epignosis Bible doctrine. Instead of grace orientation, the brittle soul of a believer has legalism, human viewpoint, self-righteousness, self-justification, pride, is a hypercritical irritable character, is hypersensitive, and accepts no authority but their own. See category on Reversionism.
Instead of the mastery of the details of life, the details master them. This leads to using cheap substitutes. Instead of a relaxed mental attitude, a brittle soul has mental attitude sins of bitterness, jealousy, hatred, and cruelty. Instead of capacity to love, a brittle soul has pseudo love, a sticky-sweet love, boredom and instability. Instead of perfect happiness, the brittle soul has depression, frustration, and instant stimulation followed by constant misery. See category on Cheap Substitutes.