Ephesians 4:13 - We and Jesus vs the infinite abyss

"...until the all should arrive unto the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, unto a man complete, unto a measure of stature of the fullness of Christ..."

-Oneness.  Remember - oneness of the Spirit, one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God Who is in all.  Our serving and building continue unrelentingly towards this goal of oneness, cooperating precisely with and enhancing what the Spirit is already producing around the clock.  Our serving in the Body ultimately results (or should) in oneness.  One and the same Body, same faith, same Lord - oneness of knowing the same One True Son of God, coming to really and truly and more fully know Him together.

-So what does this look like?  Oneness does not mean uniformity.  Rather it is diversity expressing itself in unrelenting love.  Faithfulness.  Encouragement.  Sharing.  Sticking together and doing life together.  Oneness of faith is inextricably tied to knowing Christ better, as He is the Object of our faith.  The better we know Him, the stronger our faith.  And so we are journeying on together with the faithful, faithful to one another because we are all faithful to Him, and making it our highest goal to know Him (John 17.3, Philippians 3.8-10).  Yes, we are pressing on together to know Jesus.  We are not getting caught up in fine points of Greek grammar or eschatology or sidetracked by carpet colors or music styles.  We are not engaged in an intellectual study of facts about this only begotten of the Father - there are places for these things (or most of them anyways), but they are never to supplant the supreme priority of oneness and of knowing Christ.  The better part, this.  We are steadfastly striving together to know Him on a deep, personal level.  Just like Mary (Luke 10.39-42).  I.e. as we come together whenever we come together one of the things we do, we MUST do, is to point one another to Jesus.

-Paul describes this oneness in the body as a place of completeness and perfection, of fullness, the fullness of Jesus Christ manifested and made real in our world.  Because let’s be honest, everything else is emptiness, right?  That’s what the preacher said.  All of life is emptiness, vanity, and this fact is the vanity of vanities (Ecclesiastes 1.2), a fragile flower that blooms for a brief season and quickly fades.  It’s the Law of Futility (Romans 8.20) - nothing in this world ever satisfies, ever fills the bottomless hole in my soul (Ecclesiastes 4.8, 5.10).  It is the infinite abyss.  All is empty - apart from our Creator.  Life lived to the full, as it was meant to be, will only be found within the full and complete expression of the Body of Christ in communion with Him.  We’re not talking about me and Jesus.  Not ever.  It’s we and Jesus.  A communal shared experience of life so rich, so joyfully full and inexplicably intoxicating that it looks to those outside like so much drunkenness (cf Acts 2.12-13), and if you ever manage to get a really good draught you will be hooked forever.