From him the whole body grows, fitted and held together through every supporting ligament. As each one does its part, the body builds itself up in love.

We cannot leave Christ to pursue another agenda. He is the focal point, the end point, and in Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17).

He is the vine (John 15:5), the shepherd (John 10:11), the door (John 10:9), the teacher (Matthew 23:8), the master.

There can be growth in size. We see that growth throughout the book of Acts: Growth in number, growth in ethnic composition, and even geographical growth. And then there is growth in knowledge as the people were taught, which equates to growth in understanding.

There is personal growth, or you might say, growth in worldview, as we saw with Peter, who started in Jerusalem preaching to Jews, then was called to pray for half-Jews, half-Gentiles, Samaritans, to receive the Holy Spirit, then to preach to the full-blown Gentiles in Cornelius’ house.

Jesus had said You shall be my witnesses, begiining in Jerusalem, then Samaria and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). That is a form of growth.

And when you look at Apollos, you see growth from knowing the baptism of John the Baptist to being properly taught the word of God (Acts 18:24–26).

And ultimately the growth is becoming like Christ (Romans 8:29).

To show that the church advances by divine design and not human desire or wish, we see Paul, who wanted to pursue a ministry objective, but the Holy Spirit restrained him (Acts 16:6–7).

The same Spirit that ordered His separation together with Barnabas for a multi-location preaching trip (Acts 13:1-3) said “No” when he wanted to move into a particular territory, and there was no apparent reason why.

“Fitted” could be about where you are positioned for greatest effectiveness.

In all these, we still have the call to unity; there has to be connection with other believers for us to be part of what Christ is doing. That is the truth. When Jesus said Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst (Matthew 18:20), it means there is something about being connected to other believers.

And the writer of the book of Hebrews takes it further, saying that we should not neglect the assembling of ourselves together so that we can be spurred to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24–25).

Is this the idea of the parachurch ministry? Where one part touches several parts in different locations?

Paul could be regarded like that. He may not be associated with one particular church body, and maybe also Apollos, but they and many others were like traveling ministers, not settled in one place? Maybe. Think about it.

These served a supporting role. I know there could be many things said wrongly about some parachurch ministries, and there are people who want to say that everyone must operate within a local church, etc. But rather than ban itinerant ministers, John said only that we should not welcome people who are not of sound doctrine (2 John 1:10). Think about it.

This is like an orchestra; for the right sound to come out, every musician must do their part. One beautiful sound emerges from many sub-sounds contributed by people with different skills.

We have our part, which must exist in harmony with the other parts, like the analogy of a boat where every rower is rowing in the same direction. The point is that there is a job to be done.

This is the second time in as many verses that we have the mention of love. I know in the busyness of serving God, we might forget to love.

In the business of a goal-oriented minister, focused on the task at hand, we might forget Paul's admonition about love in 1 Corinthians 13.

Based on this verse, it seems that there is no building up without love, just as Paul wrote that without love I am nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2). We might do many other things, but there may not be any building up.

The body is also seen in this phrase as building itself up. Meaning there has to be a focus on growth, on building up.

“Fighting itself” is not in this picture, just building itself. And it seems to me that a focus on Jesus, a focus on love, a focus on each part doing its part, busy doing that, is what is needed to ensure that is the case.

It’s about doing your part and respecting what others can do, and, as the previous verse tells us, focusing on growing up into Christ. You should not disdain your part, no matter how insignificant you might think it is, even when it's as simple as putting out chairs for others to sit on, though it is not as flashy as the preacher’s role.

This focus verse tells us Christ is the means, showing us that the method is also important as the goals, or maybe the method is the goal.