SSL 8 - Eph. 4:11-16
LAST WEEK: In Eph. 4:1-10 Paul gave us some very specific guidance on how unity can be achieved and preserved. We need to approach those verses with the understanding that the purpose in Paul's instructions is not to avoid conflict but to learn how to deal with it so that unity will prevail. We came away with four major points of application: (1) To preserve the unity of the Spirit, we must under-stand its importance. There were three vital reasons for its importance: (a) Paul suffered for it-for the truth that Gentiles were fellow members of the body of Christ; (b) Christ died to secure it-the cross broke down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles and brought them together as one entity, the church; and (c) We are called unto it-we are to walk "worthy' of the calling into which we have been called by behaving with godly conduct that preserves the unity of the Spirit. (2) To preserve the unity of the Spirit, we need to live out the personal characteristics that preserve unity. There are five characteristics we need to live out: (a) humility, (b) gentleness, (c) patience, (d), tolerance, and (e) love. (3) While the seven bonds of unity-One body, One Spirit, One hope, One Lord, One faith, One baptism, and One God-between believers already exists, it requires lots of hard work to preserve them. To overcome inevitable differences and conflicts, we must understand how important unity is to our Lord, Jesus Christ and focus on the bonds that unite us. (4) Your spiritual gifts are important only if you use them. God gave us these gifts for the purpose of serving and benefiting other rather than bringing notice to ourselves.
THIS WEEK: In Eph. 4:11-16, Paul explains both the gifts of spiritual leaders and the importance of a mature, loving, and unified body of believers in the church. Paul's focus here is not on the gifted individuals he specifies but on what Christ does through any gifted individual. Christ gives spiritual gifts so that He may equip the church through all of the individuals (i.e., the "saints") as they exercise their gifts. According to this passage, when gifted individuals exercise their spiritual gifts, the church is built up to maturity in Christ Jesus. That maturity is demonstrated when the church is not carried away by false teaching and when the church works together in the unity of the Spirit-each person working as Christ gifts them - to build up the body in love. Again, love is brought into the working of spiritual gifts, and note that this isn't an add-on but an important aspect of working together in unity. A mature church is a healthy church, and a healthy church is far more powerful than a "big" church.
Read Eph. 4:11-14 - VARIOUS GIFTS FOR THE PERFECTING OF SAINTS
11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 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. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
v. 11: "And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers" - This is one of five lists of spiritual gifts in the NT (see, Rom. 12:6-18; 1 Cor. 12:8-10 and 28-30; 1 Pet. 4:10-11). None are the same, and there is substantial overlap, with some gifts being found only on one or two of the lists. We'll review those listed in v. 11 one at a time:
(1) "Apostles" (Gk. apostolos) lit. one who is sent and similar in meaning to an ambassador who is empowered to speak for a king or a ruler. Paul may be referring to two groups here: the original 12 of Acts 1 (including Matthias) and very possibly, others after them who were endowed with this gift. The original 12 were eyewitnesses to the resurrection and were gifted with powers to perform signs miracles and convey the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. They were the first teachers and pastors of the church and went on to establish the church both in Jerusalem and as far as Corinth, Macedonia, and Rome. Others, by historical tradition, are thought to gone as far as Parthia (former Persian Empire) and India establishing churches. Are there apostles today? It's debatable.
(2) "Prophets" (Gk. prophétés) lit. one who speaks by inspiration of God. This differs from OT prophets like Elijah, Jeremiah, Malachi, and others who functioned as the lone spokesmen for God in their day. In the NT context, this is generally interpreted to mean a person empowered to speak for God and unfold the mind of God. In the early church, before the New Testament was written down, prophets spoke directly by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, uttering the truths that are now recorded in the New Testament. They interpreted God's word so that it became very clear and applicable.
(3) "Evangelists" (Gk. euaggelistés) lit. a bringer of good news. Although the term could certainly apply to Paul, Peter, and other important church figures mentioned in Acts, in the early church it generally applied to itinerant preachers who went from place to place proclaiming the Gospel. Today, evangelistic teams travel to non-Christian locations all over the world doing the same thing.
(4) "Pastors" [Shepherd] (Gk. poimenas) lit. a feeder, protector, and ruler of a flock. The word "pastor" is a Latin transliteration of shepherd. The meaning closely mirrors that of a shepherd over a flock of sheep: the shepherd leads the flock, protects it from predators, guides it to places where there was grass to eat and water to drink, and heals them when they are injured. By spiritual analogy, this describes pretty well a resident pastor does for a church or a congregation.
(5) "Teachers" (Gk. didaskalous) lit. one who instructs in a field of learning. In the early church the pastor and teaching roles often went side-by-side. In any case, it's the teacher's job is to ground the people in truth, what Paul frequently refers to as "sound doctrine," and to help them to understand and apply the truths learned in their day-to-day lives-their "walk"-inside and outside of the church.
v. 12: "for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ" - This is the purpose of the ministries identified in v. 11: Christ specifically gave these gifts to individuals so that they would use them for the "equipping" (Gk. katartismon) lit. to make ready or put in order, "the saints," an early church expression for an ordinary Christian believer. They are to be equipped for the "work of service" (Gk. diakonias) lit. serving others with a willing attitude, notice willing. We get the term "deacon" from this word. And all of it works together "to the building up of the body of Christ." This, folks, is the way that the church should be built up. Not by the leaders doing everything themselves, but by leaders who equip the rest of the members to serve and work in the various ministries of the church. A healthy church is one in which the leaders succeed in encouraging, training, and organizing its members in a variety of ministries according to the gifts of each one. This will bring about the subject of the next verse-maturity.
v. 13a: "until we all attain to the unity of the faith" - The word for "faith" (Gk. pistis) lit. means to be persuaded, certain of the truth. And in this context, "faith" has to do with doctrine. The purpose of nurturing believers in the revealed truth (i.e., "sound doctrine") is so we may be united in belief, what Paul calls "the unity of the faith." (Like a glue that bonds us together in strength-not Gorilla glue, not super glue, but Holy Spirit "glue"!)
v. 13b: "and of the knowledge of the Son of God" - The word "knowledge" (Gk. epignōseōs) lit. knowledge of the truth, means that we know Christ personally and understand His teaching.
v. 13c: "to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" - the word for "mature" (Gk. teleion) means to be completed, and adding to that, "to the measure of the stature which belongs to Christ," is to be complete in our Christian character, to be Christ-like. The goal: to bring every member of the body to this level of maturity. This is the life of a church.
v. 14: "As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming - Here, Paul contrasts the maturity described in v. 13. Immaturity in Christian doctrine makes a church like a group of gullible and naïve children being tossed back and forth by the false teaching and apostasy that has crept into and weakened so many modern churches. We need to remember that errors and false teaching come into the church by people who profess to be Christians but are motivated by demonic forces that Paul labels as "trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming." The entire goal of Christian instruction, teaching, and nurture in sound doctrine is to help believers grow into spiritually mature people. If we are spiritually mature, we can stand our ground-preserve the "unity of the faith"-when others seek to derail us.
TRUTH 1: A healthy church is one in which the leaders succeed in encouraging, training, and organizing its members in a variety of ministries according to the gifts of each one. This is how a church, any church, our church, should be built up. Not by the leaders doing everything themselves, but by leaders who equip the rest of the members to serve and work in the various ministries of the church. You can write this down: a healthy church is far more powerful than a "big" church.
TRUTH 2: In order to be mature, both as members and as a church body, we must (a) achieve the "unity of the faith" and (b) the "measure the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ." Unity of the faith is accomplished by the instruction, teaching, and nurture of believers in "sound doctrine," and real maturity is achieved when we measure-up to the "stature" of Christ, which is to be complete in our Christian character, to be functionally Christ-like. It requires leaders to lead and church members to follow their leaders into the exciting task of seeing before our eyes the church begin more and more to feel and sound and love like Jesus Christ Himself in this world.
Read Eph. 4:15-16 - MAKES THE BODY INCREASE
15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
v. 15a: "but speaking the truth in love" - Speaking the truth in genuine agapé love, love that puts the interests and wellbeing of others first, can be a challenge sometimes. On the one hand, you might be tempted to speak the truth so sharply that it wounds rather than heals, but on the other hand, you might be tempted to say nothing to avoid an uncomfortable situation. Here's the point: truth spoken in love stands a chance of being heard and accepted, whereas truth spoken without love is almost certain to be unwanted. One of the goals of Christian maturity is that we come up to the point where we can transparently speak the truth to one another in love.
v. 15b: "we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ" - So what are the "all aspects" to which Paul is referring? Surely the virtues needed to preserve the "unity of the Spirit" that we studied last week in v. 2: humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, and love. And "the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God" stated in v. 13, above, should also apply. None of these things is likely to come to us easily. At best, we spend our lives growing into spiritual maturity. We need to grow, to continue maturing, until the body of Christ is in accord with the head.
v. 16: "from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. The "from whom" is Christ, the head, and the "whole body" is the church, of which MHBC is a part. All of the individual parts of the body are connected by joints that make it possible for all of them to work together. The parts mentioned in v. 11-apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers-are some of the members of the body. Earlier, in 1 Cor. 12:14-17, Paul analogized the church to a human body having many members-feet, hands, ears, eyes, nose-with the truth that each member is vital and important to the church, which is Christ's spiritual body. As members of the body, it's important for us to respect every individual member. Church leaders and those involved in various ministries need to do their part to ensure that each member is encouraged to contribute to the work of the church according to the gifts given them. Every believer has one or more gifts. This way, when all the multiplicity of gifts are "fitted and held together," they function to serve the whole body. The church will not be healthy, will not achieve maturity, if the individual members are not working in harmony. All of us know from experience, recent and past, that working harmoniously is easier said than done. The only way we can accomplish this is by acting in agapé love, selfless love that focuses on the wellbeing of the other person. That kind of love enables us to be humble, gentile, patient, and tolerant-to maintain harmonious relationships even when things don't go our way.
TRUTH 3: If we, as members are to "grow-up" into a mature, Christ-like church, we must "speak the truth" in love. Speaking the truth in genuine agapé love, love that puts the interests and wellbeing of others first, can be a challenge sometimes. It's important for us to understand that truth spoken in love stands a good chance of being heard and accepted, while truth spoken without love is almost certain to be unwanted and disregarded. One of the goals of Christian maturity is that we come to the point where we can transparently speak the truth to one another in love. This love, agapé love, isn't optional.
TRUTH 4: Church leaders and those engaged in various ministries need to do their best to ensure that every member is encouraged to contribute to the work of the church according to the gifts given to him or her. Every believer has one or more gifts (1 Cor. 12:7). When all the multiplicity of gifts are "fitted and held together," they function to serve and strengthen the whole body. The church will not be healthy, will not achieve maturity, if the individual members are not working in harmony. All of us know from experience, recent and past, that working harmoniously is easier said than done. The only way we can accomplish this is by acting in agapé love, selfless love that focuses on the wellbeing of the other person. That kind of love enables us to be humble, gentile, patient, and tolerant-to even maintain harmonious relationships when things don't go our way.
Prayer: Lord God, our Creator and finisher of our faith, we thank You for allowing us another opportunity to meet together and learn the truth of Your Word. We pray, Lord, that we will not only learn it but actively apply it to preserving the unity of this good church you're given us. For each one of us, we ask You to help us to better measure up to the stature of Christ, so that, functionally, we will be Christ-like, not only to the people of this church but to those outside our doors whenever they see us and hear us. Lord, please help us to grow to real maturity in this church by speaking the truth to one another in genuine love that will enable us to maintain harmony and unity of the Spirit. We
ask all these things in the powerful name of Jesus, AMEN.
