And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
The ascended Christ Himself gave to His church apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers as His appointed ministers. He gave them for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the building up of the body of Christ until all come into unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God unto full mature manhood in Christ. These gifts were not limited to the early church but must continue until their work is finished, since unity, knowledge and perfection have not yet been reached. God gives different gifts and ways of working to different persons, so no one alone is complete and all are to be respected, blended and labored in concert under one Leader. Those called are to minister more than preach, watching for souls, teaching truth, guarding against error and division, while all believers walk worthy in lowliness, love and holiness, keeping the unity of the Spirit.
Giver and Gifts Given
The ascended Christ, God Himself, gave the church five kinds of ministers: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers. These gifts are to be actively exercised, including at camp meetings where faithful workers serve to perfect the saints. Their work is to equip God's people for ministry and build up Christ's body until believers are united in faith and knowledge of the Son of God and reach mature Christian stature unto the measure of the fullness of Christ. The verse supports the need for skilled workers in every line of God's work, and gives no basis for limiting the prophet's office to the primitive church while retaining the other offices. The gifts' full purpose will be realized when the last generation is prepared by the final warning message and other means God uses for translation to heaven without experiencing death.
The giving happened when Christ ascended up on high to heaven, entrusting His earthly work on earth to His servants and under-shepherds through whom He communicates eternal life. The ascended Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to mature the saints, equip them for service, and build up the body until all come into unity of faith and full knowledge of the Son of God, into complete manhood and the measure of Christ's fullness. By them believers resist deceptive teaching, are no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, but speaking the truth in love grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly framed together makes increase unto the edifying of itself in love. The verse outlines the work to be done in every church, calling God's people into unity with love as the law of Christ's kingdom and to a higher standard revealing love, meekness, and longsuffering that bears many things without seeking to be avenged by word or act, with lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance in love, and keeping the unity of the Spirit in peace.
Christ, who first descended into the lower parts of the earth and then ascended far above all heaven to fill all things, gives grace to every believer according to the measure of Christ's gift by appointing some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. These ministry gifts are imparted by the Holy Spirit, His representative and teacher on earth sent at the ascension to make effective in people's lives what Christ made possible through His death, as He sees fit. No one person is the whole body and no leader is the only one able to bring truth from God, so no one mind, method or gift is sufficient alone. All gifts must be respected, given room, and worked together with prudence and discretion, with no disparaging of another's gift and no self-sufficient refusal to cooperate, each part working in measure to increase and edify itself in love.
The verse deals five years after the earlier teaching with the same gifts, showing that when He ascended up on high Christ gave gifts unto men for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ, till all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, and therefore these gifts must continue in the church till that object is accomplished. Within the list, God gives different work to different workers and all are not given the same work. Medical missionaries come under the head of evangelists, for an evangelist is a teacher who should also be a medical missionary.
Pastors and teachers are gifts set in the church together with helps and governments named in Corinthians, and all the gifts were equally set in the church in the beginning. Pastors, teachers, helps, and governments are acknowledged as still continuing, therefore the others also continue, and no one is competent to draw a line to say what gifts have been set out of the church. Christ provided pastors and teachers to carry on His work on earth after He left, as undershepherds under the Master guiding believers gathered into the church and helping them find spiritual pasture. The Lord calls pastors, teachers, and evangelists to proclaim salvation from house to house and in new places, carrying the news of pardon through Christ to every nation and people, speaking clearly and with power so that those who hunger for truth may respond, while all believers who yield to the Holy Spirit can serve in different ways.
Christ delivers His treasures to the church from age to age, placing gifts in the hands of His chosen ministers, the twelve apostles, eighteen hundred years ago, and those same gifts have descended to His workers in this age from generation to generation. His faithful servants from one generation to another improve the talents lent them, yet few realize their high privileges and true position as ministers of His grace.
Purpose Toward Maturity
The five offices were given to perfect the saints, to carry on the work of ministry, and to edify and build up the body of Christ. Their work is to equip God's people for ministry and to build the church, calling for skilled workers in every line with medical missionary work cooperating with the ministry rather than separating from it. No one line is to be treated as the whole mission or separated from the others, for the different roles are needed together.
That building work continues till all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. It brings believers toward being united in faith and knowledge, helping them resist deceptive teaching, speak the truth in love, and contribute each part to the growth of the body. When Christ ascended He entrusted His earthly work to these servants, and their perfecting and edifying labor lasts until that unity is reached.
Its goal is a perfect man in mature manhood, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That maturity is full Christian stature and complete character won through Christ's merits, a mature likeness to Christ. The gifts equip the saints toward that likeness and toward unity in faith and knowledge of the Son of God.
By them believers are to be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the cunning craftiness and deceit of men. Instead, speaking the truth in love, they grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. From Him the whole body fitly joined and framed together and supplied by what every joint supplies, working according to the measure of every part, makes increase unto the edifying of itself in love. Its manifold instruments and agencies must act in concurring harmony, as a body where even the least member affects the whole, for on that harmonious action depend the prosperity and perfection of the church.
The ministry is God's appointed and ordained means for convincing minds, saving souls, and perfecting the saints in knowledge and true holiness. Its work is more than preaching truth; it is to watch for souls as those who must render account to God, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with long-suffering and doctrine, to spread knowledge far and near while laboring for the strength and unity of the church. By this means the church is guarded against diversity and division creeping in and against deceptive teaching, and all who are benefited unite according to ability in working for salvation. When professed believers lack practical religion it reveals a deficiency in the ministry itself, where truth is conveyed without living connection with God, so ministers must live out the self-sacrifice they teach and bring the Word to bear on practical life to produce spiritual fruit.
Continuance to the End
The gifts must continue in the church until their object is accomplished, for the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ has not yet been reached. Because that unity and perfection remain future, the work of perfecting the saints and edifying the body is unfinished, and there is no basis for limiting the prophet's office to the primitive church while retaining the other offices. Division and apostasy disrupted the unity of the primitive church, so the gifts had not completed their purpose there.
The church had not reached that unity and maturity in Paul's lifetime, during its apostasy and wilderness period, or since the time of Martin Luther. When Paul wrote the church was about to be divided by apostasy, and the full unity described in the following verses was still future. The gifts were bestowed at Christ's ascension to continue together toward that future unity and perfection.
Their full purpose will be realized when the last generation is prepared by the final warning message and other means God uses for translation to heaven without experiencing death. They are to be revived in the last days to unite and prepare the church for Christ's return and second coming. Certain gifts of the Spirit have been placed in the church for its edification and instruction to the end of time, and are needed as it enters the perils of the last days more than at any other time.
Since all the gifts were given together for the same purposes and continue to the same endpoint, prophecy continues as long as evangelists, pastors and teachers do. Pastors and teachers were set in the church together with helps and governments, and since pastors, teachers, helps and governments are acknowledged as still continuing and were equally set in the beginning, no one is competent to draw a line to set out faith, healing or prophecy. The visions are one of these gifts placed in the church for its benefit, given for instruction and comfort, and when professed believers oppose and fight them souls are endangered and the weak must be labored with lest they be led astray.
All these gifts — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers — should be manifest in the church today. They are needed to restore unity among God's people in the last days and in the last-day gathering. God gave gifts to live in the church to encourage the desponding and fainting soul and to correct and reprove the erring, and slighting and neglecting them brings His frown while graciously reviving them brings His smile and mercy again.
God's teaching works through these appointed human agents to perfect the saints, equip them for ministry, and build them toward unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, and their teaching ministry is to continue until the close of time. This fulfills Christ's promise to send the Holy Spirit as Comforter and guide to lead into all truth, present in ordinary and extraordinary operation as comforter, teacher and guide as evidence of God's care and love for His people.
Diversity and Mutual Dependence
God Himself assigns different work to different people, giving some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, so that varied agencies meet every case and every emergency and every kind of labor. No one man is a complete whole and no one person is to be regarded as the whole or to carry the work alone, for different minds with different talents and different ways of presenting truth compose the body of believers. No one mind, method, or gift is sufficient alone, no one man's method is to be the rule for all, and no two minds are alike. The offices are to stand each in his own lot and place as laborers together with God according to ability entrusted, working in fellowship and counsel with ministering brethren under Christ the head rather than bearing the whole burden alone. They are given for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying and building up of the body of Christ, till all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Every gift is precious in its place and essential to success, to be acknowledged, respected, given room, developed, and worked together with prudence and discretion. No spiritual gift is to be lost, no gift is to be disparaged or treated as inferior, and no man has authority to hold the various instrumentalities in low esteem while carrying the work in his own way because he thinks it superior. To do so is dangerous for himself and all connected with him, for all the gifts work to one end in expressing the mind and will of God through the perfection of the saints and of His church. These gifts are to work together according to God's order and arrangements, with each person acting a distinct part while working in unity so that the church grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
The varied gifts are to be blended in building upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone, fitly framed together with each acting his respective part unitedly. Workers must labor in concert under one supreme Leader, blending together with one supplying what another lacks, counseling together, assisting one another, and praying together in harmony, so deficiency in one is supplied by another. This requires loving one another as Christ loved and keeping perfect unity in diversity of gifts, with a union of all the gifts, so the work is not one-sided or defective but a complete harmonious whole presenting every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Therefore no one worker has all the wisdom needed, and no one can be a good soldier of the cross who works independently of fellow workers and regards his own judgment as best.
No one is to work independently or alone, claim exclusive territory, claim the highest position, take up another's work or attempt it without training, dictate another's task, forbid work God directed, or decide alone what position to fill. Each worker has a different task and a particular ability, God assigns work according to each person's ability, and no one is required or entitled to take over another worker's work or dictate to those whose work he does not understand. From the lowliest to the most educated all are necessary, people with different gifts can serve together and make up for one another's deficiencies, and one who starts a work may leave its later development to others better fitted. Medical work is ministry in the highest sense and belongs within this diversity rather than outside it.
Workers must appreciate every gift of God and use the gifts in their different places, recognize and value God's gifts in one another, and give fellow workers a place to work while encouraging one another. Narrowness and envy, jealousy, evil thinking, evil speaking, rivalry, pride, contempt, and holding another's gift in low esteem are to be kept out, for they break unity and endanger souls. The different workers, each to do a special work and impress people in different lines, are not to separate themselves and confine their labors to the few they brought to a knowledge of the truth, nor claim souls as their own to work and train alone, but all who hold forth the Word of Life, whatever their office, are to work together. No one man's ways are perfect to be adopted exclusively in any congregation, for Christ is the example, and ministers must keep an uplifted Saviour before hearers so converts do not attach themselves to a man and bear his mold and copy his ways.
When all draw near to God and are one with Christ, Christ's grace brings their differing gifts and work into unity, love, and harmonious action for maturing believers, carrying on ministry, and building up the body. Each person needs the help that other minds can give, for God works in minds other than our own, and the various gifts blend together in unity, love, and holy fellowship under the special influence of His grace and divine direction. The work calls for broadminded workers with quick discernment who work according to God's plan for the good of the whole body under the same Spirit, so that no more children are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and deceit but all grow up into Christ the head as a whole body joined and held together with every part working.
Work of the Ministers
Those called to preach and teach are divinely appointed representatives through whom Christ continues His own work on earth under His direction and oversight, urging people in His stead to be reconciled to God, which they can do only by wisdom and power from above. They are workers together with God, established by Christ Himself as the great Head of the church with its work and order, and as such they are to be respected and honored and loved and accepted. They are not to be treated as subordinate to local elders, but the work is to be done unitedly under the Lord's supervision as He sends evangelists, pastors, and teachers from place to place.
Their work is more than preaching, for preaching is only a small part; they are to minister and to educate the people to be examples of piety rather than fighters. They are to watch for souls as those who must render account to God, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with long-suffering and doctrine, to spread the knowledge of truth far and near while laboring for the strength and unity of the church and guarding against diversity and division creeping in. All who are benefited by their labors are to unite with them according to ability in working for the salvation of souls.
A divine commission requires readiness and fitness for the work, a heart right with God, and true conversion and sanctification through the truth. Mere human commission and theory and skill in debate do not qualify anyone, but only make debaters who educate themselves as debaters and leave the churches under their care showing that fighting character. The great issue so near at hand and the approaching crisis will weed out and expose those whom God has not appointed, while He will have a pure, true, sanctified ministry prepared for the latter rain.
The gifts are to be actively exercised by faithful workers fitted for the work, including at camp meetings, to perfect the saints. Wise laborers should recognize talent in every church, large or small, and train members in practical missionary work, awakening the church to use its gifts and workers in building up the church and reaching unbelievers. All kinds of skillful workmen with different callings are needed, so all cannot be medical missionaries in the full sense; some must be qualified to carry the last message of warning to all cities, towns, and parts of the world without spending years in medical training, while others must train themselves to be faithful ministers and skillful shepherds of the flock who bring meat in due season for sheep and lambs. Pastors, teachers, and evangelists are called to proclaim the message of salvation and pardon through Christ to every nation and people, speaking clearly and with power from house to house and in new places so that those who hunger for truth may respond, and this work does not depend only on highly educated, talented, or prominent people.
The different kinds of workers are needed together, and no one line of work should be treated as the whole mission or separated from the others. Medical missionary work is to cooperate with the ministry rather than separate from it, for medical work is ministry in the highest sense, and skilled workers are needed in every line so the whole advances in balance. Each worker has a different task according to ability, and no one is required to take up another's work or attempt it without training, nor to claim the highest position or work independently, but those with different gifts can serve together and make up for one another's deficiencies. The diversity of office allows no neglect of duty; both the one who first presents the truth and the one who follows up the interest must give faithful and plain instruction on tithing and urge obedience to all the requirements of God, so the people see that in all points the laborers teach the same truth and are of one mind.
When professed believers are not complete in Christ, do not take Christ as personal Saviour, follow Jesus far off, and lack personal religion and practical godliness because they have not been educated in vital principles, it reveals a deficiency in the ministry itself. That deficiency comes when human instrumentalities convey truth without a living connection with God and fail to maintain that connection. Ministers must therefore live out the self-sacrifice and Christian principles they teach, bringing the Word to bear on practical life so it produces spiritual fruit.
To neglect or despise the appointed leaders is to reject God's ordained means for the help, encouragement, and strength of His people, and to disparage ministers of the gospel given their work by Jesus Christ is opposition to Christ Himself. To pass them by and think light must come through no other channel than directly from God repeats the insubordination by which angels who were very beautiful and very glorious, yet dependent on God for happiness and for light and intelligence, fell from their high estate through wanting to become independent of God, and it places a person where he is liable to deception and to be overthrown. The gifts live in the church to encourage the desponding and fainting soul and to correct and reprove the erring, and slighting and neglecting them brings God's frown while graciously reviving them brings His smile and mercy again. The visions are one of these gifts, given for instruction and comfort, so when professed believers oppose these gifts and fight against the visions, souls are in danger through their influence, and it is time to labor with them so the weak will not be led astray, without cringing and yielding and giving up liberty to such opposers. God has given experienced leaders to anchor and steady less experienced workers, and younger workers must lean upon the judgment of those who have experience to steady their course and keep from drifting in confusion, so they remain useful in the last great work of preparing God's people.
Ministers are given to build up the churches, and some ministers lack the qualifications needed for this work. Those who serve should give themselves wholly to God's cause, with undivided interest, steady zeal, untiring patience, and perseverance; when these qualities are exercised, the churches are kept in order.
Life in Unity
Ephesians 4 is a practical lesson to be lived by walking worthy of the calling with lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, and keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher are given to bring the church into that unity of faith and full knowledge of the Son of God unto complete manhood measured by the fullness of Christ, so that believers are no longer immature children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by deceitful craftiness but speaking the truth in love grow up into Christ the head, from whom the whole body fitly joined and compacted by what every joint supplies works effectually in every part and increases unto self-edification in love. When each person finds the place God has for him and does the work God has given him in concert under one supreme Leader, with one supplying what another lacks and no one working independently by his own judgment, there will be perfect unity. That unity calls God's people to love as the law of Christ's kingdom and to a higher standard revealing love, meekness and longsuffering that bears many things without seeking to be avenged by word or act, refusing dissension stirred by Satan, refusing to spend time talking over defects of brethren, and refusing to be brought down to negative working.
The same gifts call believers no longer to walk as Gentiles in vanity of mind, darkened understanding, alienation from the life of God, ignorance, blindness of heart, past feeling, lasciviousness and uncleanness. They are to learn Christ as the truth is in Jesus by putting off the old man corrupt in deceitful lusts, being renewed in the spirit of the mind, and putting on the new man created after God in righteousness and true holiness. That change is shown in putting away lying and speaking truth as members one of another, being angry without sin and without letting the sun go down on wrath, giving no place to the devil, stealing no more but laboring honestly to give to the needy, allowing no corrupt communication but only edifying speech that ministers grace, and not grieving the Holy Spirit by whom believers are sealed unto the day of redemption. It is shown further in putting away bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking and malice, and in being kind, tenderhearted and forgiving as God for Christ's sake forgave, so that the conversation of those converted to God becomes different from what it was before conversion. This ministry of transformation is to be carried to all nations and peoples in meekness and lowliness of spirit.
Believers are not to be at variance, one believing one thing and another holding entirely opposite views, each moving independently of the body and insisting on his own peculiar views of Bible truth and pressing them upon others. Such a course breaks the harmony that existed between Christ and His Father which Christ prayed might exist among His brethren, and each is rather to regard the opinions of his brethren and to labor in harmony rather than contend over one another's roles. Those who serve in different ways may differ on points of doctrine, yet can be united in seeking to win people to Christ, and meekness, mutual forbearance and charity can reconcile them. Every faithful worker ministers for the perfecting of the saints, and all true believers, ministers and people alike, share the work of laboring for the salvation of souls, each filling his proper position in the church and working together in order, harmony and love, spreading the knowledge of truth far and near while laboring for the strength and unity of the church, because the religion of Christ is not selfish or narrow but diffusive, aggressive, bright, saving and transforming.
God gives to every man his work in fulfilling his part of God's great plan, appointing each person work according to ability, so the work of ministry is shared rather than left to a few while others carry no responsibility. No one person is meant to manage everything or bear so many responsibilities that mind and body are worn out, and no one is to shirk responsibility or labor for supremacy, but everyone is to show devoted zeal to do his best, so that burdens are shared and not one carries a heavy load while another goes lightly loaded, one eased and another burdened. Each gift is precious in its place and all are to act a part in the perfecting of the saints, using entrusted abilities to serve others to honor God rather than treating those abilities as personal property or turning them toward work God has not assigned. All who have been benefited are to unite according to their ability with God's servant, keeping the grand object ever in view.
The chapter plainly reveals God's appointed means to keep unity in His church so its members may reveal to the world a healthy religious experience. That unity is kept through obedience to the commandments of God, unity in the faith of the Scriptures, and oneness in Christ Jesus with lives hid with Christ in God. Those so united practice the golden rule, become partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust, cooperate as laborers together with God, use heaven's provision made at infinite cost to draw souls to obedience to God's law, and bear a living testimony that the Father loves them even as He loves His Son with powerful influence upon the unbelieving world. By consistent Christian lives of courtesy, fidelity, justice and mercy they magnify the law of God as perfect to convert the soul and make it honorable before the world.
The chapter is to be read most solemnly and impressed upon the minds of hearers because its instruction means much. It calls for a great reformation in the lives of believers, in words and works and spiritual understanding, away from hard-spiritedness as strangers to the working of the Holy Spirit, toward daily breathing the atmosphere of heaven and catching the inspiration of the angels in the heavenly courts. Instruction in present truth alone does not replace the delegated ministers God uses to do His work, and without their ministry the work of ripening God's people may be superficial.
The ascended Christ Himself gave to His church apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers as His appointed ministers. He gave them for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the building up of the body of Christ until all come into unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God unto full mature manhood in Christ. These gifts were not limited to the early church but must continue until their work is finished, since unity, knowledge and perfection have not yet been reached. God gives different gifts and ways of working to different persons, so no one alone is complete and all are to be respected, blended and labored in concert under one Leader. Those called are to minister more than preach, watching for souls, teaching truth, guarding against error and division, while all believers walk worthy in lowliness, love and holiness, keeping the unity of the Spirit.
Giver and Gifts Given
The ascended Christ, God Himself, gave the church five kinds of ministers: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers. These gifts are to be actively exercised, including at camp meetings where faithful workers serve to perfect the saints. Their work is to equip God's people for ministry and build up Christ's body until believers are united in faith and knowledge of the Son of God and reach mature Christian stature unto the measure of the fullness of Christ. The verse supports the need for skilled workers in every line of God's work, and gives no basis for limiting the prophet's office to the primitive church while retaining the other offices. The gifts' full purpose will be realized when the last generation is prepared by the final warning message and other means God uses for translation to heaven without experiencing death.
The giving happened when Christ ascended up on high to heaven, entrusting His earthly work on earth to His servants and under-shepherds through whom He communicates eternal life. The ascended Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to mature the saints, equip them for service, and build up the body until all come into unity of faith and full knowledge of the Son of God, into complete manhood and the measure of Christ's fullness. By them believers resist deceptive teaching, are no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, but speaking the truth in love grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly framed together makes increase unto the edifying of itself in love. The verse outlines the work to be done in every church, calling God's people into unity with love as the law of Christ's kingdom and to a higher standard revealing love, meekness, and longsuffering that bears many things without seeking to be avenged by word or act, with lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance in love, and keeping the unity of the Spirit in peace.
Christ, who first descended into the lower parts of the earth and then ascended far above all heaven to fill all things, gives grace to every believer according to the measure of Christ's gift by appointing some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. These ministry gifts are imparted by the Holy Spirit, His representative and teacher on earth sent at the ascension to make effective in people's lives what Christ made possible through His death, as He sees fit. No one person is the whole body and no leader is the only one able to bring truth from God, so no one mind, method or gift is sufficient alone. All gifts must be respected, given room, and worked together with prudence and discretion, with no disparaging of another's gift and no self-sufficient refusal to cooperate, each part working in measure to increase and edify itself in love.
The verse deals five years after the earlier teaching with the same gifts, showing that when He ascended up on high Christ gave gifts unto men for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ, till all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, and therefore these gifts must continue in the church till that object is accomplished. Within the list, God gives different work to different workers and all are not given the same work. Medical missionaries come under the head of evangelists, for an evangelist is a teacher who should also be a medical missionary.
Pastors and teachers are gifts set in the church together with helps and governments named in Corinthians, and all the gifts were equally set in the church in the beginning. Pastors, teachers, helps, and governments are acknowledged as still continuing, therefore the others also continue, and no one is competent to draw a line to say what gifts have been set out of the church. Christ provided pastors and teachers to carry on His work on earth after He left, as undershepherds under the Master guiding believers gathered into the church and helping them find spiritual pasture. The Lord calls pastors, teachers, and evangelists to proclaim salvation from house to house and in new places, carrying the news of pardon through Christ to every nation and people, speaking clearly and with power so that those who hunger for truth may respond, while all believers who yield to the Holy Spirit can serve in different ways.
Christ delivers His treasures to the church from age to age, placing gifts in the hands of His chosen ministers, the twelve apostles, eighteen hundred years ago, and those same gifts have descended to His workers in this age from generation to generation. His faithful servants from one generation to another improve the talents lent them, yet few realize their high privileges and true position as ministers of His grace.
Purpose Toward Maturity
The five offices were given to perfect the saints, to carry on the work of ministry, and to edify and build up the body of Christ. Their work is to equip God's people for ministry and to build the church, calling for skilled workers in every line with medical missionary work cooperating with the ministry rather than separating from it. No one line is to be treated as the whole mission or separated from the others, for the different roles are needed together.
That building work continues till all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. It brings believers toward being united in faith and knowledge, helping them resist deceptive teaching, speak the truth in love, and contribute each part to the growth of the body. When Christ ascended He entrusted His earthly work to these servants, and their perfecting and edifying labor lasts until that unity is reached.
Its goal is a perfect man in mature manhood, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That maturity is full Christian stature and complete character won through Christ's merits, a mature likeness to Christ. The gifts equip the saints toward that likeness and toward unity in faith and knowledge of the Son of God.
By them believers are to be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the cunning craftiness and deceit of men. Instead, speaking the truth in love, they grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. From Him the whole body fitly joined and framed together and supplied by what every joint supplies, working according to the measure of every part, makes increase unto the edifying of itself in love. Its manifold instruments and agencies must act in concurring harmony, as a body where even the least member affects the whole, for on that harmonious action depend the prosperity and perfection of the church.
The ministry is God's appointed and ordained means for convincing minds, saving souls, and perfecting the saints in knowledge and true holiness. Its work is more than preaching truth; it is to watch for souls as those who must render account to God, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with long-suffering and doctrine, to spread knowledge far and near while laboring for the strength and unity of the church. By this means the church is guarded against diversity and division creeping in and against deceptive teaching, and all who are benefited unite according to ability in working for salvation. When professed believers lack practical religion it reveals a deficiency in the ministry itself, where truth is conveyed without living connection with God, so ministers must live out the self-sacrifice they teach and bring the Word to bear on practical life to produce spiritual fruit.
Continuance to the End
The gifts must continue in the church until their object is accomplished, for the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ has not yet been reached. Because that unity and perfection remain future, the work of perfecting the saints and edifying the body is unfinished, and there is no basis for limiting the prophet's office to the primitive church while retaining the other offices. Division and apostasy disrupted the unity of the primitive church, so the gifts had not completed their purpose there.
The church had not reached that unity and maturity in Paul's lifetime, during its apostasy and wilderness period, or since the time of Martin Luther. When Paul wrote the church was about to be divided by apostasy, and the full unity described in the following verses was still future. The gifts were bestowed at Christ's ascension to continue together toward that future unity and perfection.
Their full purpose will be realized when the last generation is prepared by the final warning message and other means God uses for translation to heaven without experiencing death. They are to be revived in the last days to unite and prepare the church for Christ's return and second coming. Certain gifts of the Spirit have been placed in the church for its edification and instruction to the end of time, and are needed as it enters the perils of the last days more than at any other time.
Since all the gifts were given together for the same purposes and continue to the same endpoint, prophecy continues as long as evangelists, pastors and teachers do. Pastors and teachers were set in the church together with helps and governments, and since pastors, teachers, helps and governments are acknowledged as still continuing and were equally set in the beginning, no one is competent to draw a line to set out faith, healing or prophecy. The visions are one of these gifts placed in the church for its benefit, given for instruction and comfort, and when professed believers oppose and fight them souls are endangered and the weak must be labored with lest they be led astray.
All these gifts — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers — should be manifest in the church today. They are needed to restore unity among God's people in the last days and in the last-day gathering. God gave gifts to live in the church to encourage the desponding and fainting soul and to correct and reprove the erring, and slighting and neglecting them brings His frown while graciously reviving them brings His smile and mercy again.
God's teaching works through these appointed human agents to perfect the saints, equip them for ministry, and build them toward unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, and their teaching ministry is to continue until the close of time. This fulfills Christ's promise to send the Holy Spirit as Comforter and guide to lead into all truth, present in ordinary and extraordinary operation as comforter, teacher and guide as evidence of God's care and love for His people.
Diversity and Mutual Dependence
God Himself assigns different work to different people, giving some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, so that varied agencies meet every case and every emergency and every kind of labor. No one man is a complete whole and no one person is to be regarded as the whole or to carry the work alone, for different minds with different talents and different ways of presenting truth compose the body of believers. No one mind, method, or gift is sufficient alone, no one man's method is to be the rule for all, and no two minds are alike. The offices are to stand each in his own lot and place as laborers together with God according to ability entrusted, working in fellowship and counsel with ministering brethren under Christ the head rather than bearing the whole burden alone. They are given for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying and building up of the body of Christ, till all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Every gift is precious in its place and essential to success, to be acknowledged, respected, given room, developed, and worked together with prudence and discretion. No spiritual gift is to be lost, no gift is to be disparaged or treated as inferior, and no man has authority to hold the various instrumentalities in low esteem while carrying the work in his own way because he thinks it superior. To do so is dangerous for himself and all connected with him, for all the gifts work to one end in expressing the mind and will of God through the perfection of the saints and of His church. These gifts are to work together according to God's order and arrangements, with each person acting a distinct part while working in unity so that the church grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
The varied gifts are to be blended in building upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone, fitly framed together with each acting his respective part unitedly. Workers must labor in concert under one supreme Leader, blending together with one supplying what another lacks, counseling together, assisting one another, and praying together in harmony, so deficiency in one is supplied by another. This requires loving one another as Christ loved and keeping perfect unity in diversity of gifts, with a union of all the gifts, so the work is not one-sided or defective but a complete harmonious whole presenting every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Therefore no one worker has all the wisdom needed, and no one can be a good soldier of the cross who works independently of fellow workers and regards his own judgment as best.
No one is to work independently or alone, claim exclusive territory, claim the highest position, take up another's work or attempt it without training, dictate another's task, forbid work God directed, or decide alone what position to fill. Each worker has a different task and a particular ability, God assigns work according to each person's ability, and no one is required or entitled to take over another worker's work or dictate to those whose work he does not understand. From the lowliest to the most educated all are necessary, people with different gifts can serve together and make up for one another's deficiencies, and one who starts a work may leave its later development to others better fitted. Medical work is ministry in the highest sense and belongs within this diversity rather than outside it.
Workers must appreciate every gift of God and use the gifts in their different places, recognize and value God's gifts in one another, and give fellow workers a place to work while encouraging one another. Narrowness and envy, jealousy, evil thinking, evil speaking, rivalry, pride, contempt, and holding another's gift in low esteem are to be kept out, for they break unity and endanger souls. The different workers, each to do a special work and impress people in different lines, are not to separate themselves and confine their labors to the few they brought to a knowledge of the truth, nor claim souls as their own to work and train alone, but all who hold forth the Word of Life, whatever their office, are to work together. No one man's ways are perfect to be adopted exclusively in any congregation, for Christ is the example, and ministers must keep an uplifted Saviour before hearers so converts do not attach themselves to a man and bear his mold and copy his ways.
When all draw near to God and are one with Christ, Christ's grace brings their differing gifts and work into unity, love, and harmonious action for maturing believers, carrying on ministry, and building up the body. Each person needs the help that other minds can give, for God works in minds other than our own, and the various gifts blend together in unity, love, and holy fellowship under the special influence of His grace and divine direction. The work calls for broadminded workers with quick discernment who work according to God's plan for the good of the whole body under the same Spirit, so that no more children are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and deceit but all grow up into Christ the head as a whole body joined and held together with every part working.
Work of the Ministers
Those called to preach and teach are divinely appointed representatives through whom Christ continues His own work on earth under His direction and oversight, urging people in His stead to be reconciled to God, which they can do only by wisdom and power from above. They are workers together with God, established by Christ Himself as the great Head of the church with its work and order, and as such they are to be respected and honored and loved and accepted. They are not to be treated as subordinate to local elders, but the work is to be done unitedly under the Lord's supervision as He sends evangelists, pastors, and teachers from place to place.
Their work is more than preaching, for preaching is only a small part; they are to minister and to educate the people to be examples of piety rather than fighters. They are to watch for souls as those who must render account to God, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with long-suffering and doctrine, to spread the knowledge of truth far and near while laboring for the strength and unity of the church and guarding against diversity and division creeping in. All who are benefited by their labors are to unite with them according to ability in working for the salvation of souls.
A divine commission requires readiness and fitness for the work, a heart right with God, and true conversion and sanctification through the truth. Mere human commission and theory and skill in debate do not qualify anyone, but only make debaters who educate themselves as debaters and leave the churches under their care showing that fighting character. The great issue so near at hand and the approaching crisis will weed out and expose those whom God has not appointed, while He will have a pure, true, sanctified ministry prepared for the latter rain.
The gifts are to be actively exercised by faithful workers fitted for the work, including at camp meetings, to perfect the saints. Wise laborers should recognize talent in every church, large or small, and train members in practical missionary work, awakening the church to use its gifts and workers in building up the church and reaching unbelievers. All kinds of skillful workmen with different callings are needed, so all cannot be medical missionaries in the full sense; some must be qualified to carry the last message of warning to all cities, towns, and parts of the world without spending years in medical training, while others must train themselves to be faithful ministers and skillful shepherds of the flock who bring meat in due season for sheep and lambs. Pastors, teachers, and evangelists are called to proclaim the message of salvation and pardon through Christ to every nation and people, speaking clearly and with power from house to house and in new places so that those who hunger for truth may respond, and this work does not depend only on highly educated, talented, or prominent people.
The different kinds of workers are needed together, and no one line of work should be treated as the whole mission or separated from the others. Medical missionary work is to cooperate with the ministry rather than separate from it, for medical work is ministry in the highest sense, and skilled workers are needed in every line so the whole advances in balance. Each worker has a different task according to ability, and no one is required to take up another's work or attempt it without training, nor to claim the highest position or work independently, but those with different gifts can serve together and make up for one another's deficiencies. The diversity of office allows no neglect of duty; both the one who first presents the truth and the one who follows up the interest must give faithful and plain instruction on tithing and urge obedience to all the requirements of God, so the people see that in all points the laborers teach the same truth and are of one mind.
When professed believers are not complete in Christ, do not take Christ as personal Saviour, follow Jesus far off, and lack personal religion and practical godliness because they have not been educated in vital principles, it reveals a deficiency in the ministry itself. That deficiency comes when human instrumentalities convey truth without a living connection with God and fail to maintain that connection. Ministers must therefore live out the self-sacrifice and Christian principles they teach, bringing the Word to bear on practical life so it produces spiritual fruit.
To neglect or despise the appointed leaders is to reject God's ordained means for the help, encouragement, and strength of His people, and to disparage ministers of the gospel given their work by Jesus Christ is opposition to Christ Himself. To pass them by and think light must come through no other channel than directly from God repeats the insubordination by which angels who were very beautiful and very glorious, yet dependent on God for happiness and for light and intelligence, fell from their high estate through wanting to become independent of God, and it places a person where he is liable to deception and to be overthrown. The gifts live in the church to encourage the desponding and fainting soul and to correct and reprove the erring, and slighting and neglecting them brings God's frown while graciously reviving them brings His smile and mercy again. The visions are one of these gifts, given for instruction and comfort, so when professed believers oppose these gifts and fight against the visions, souls are in danger through their influence, and it is time to labor with them so the weak will not be led astray, without cringing and yielding and giving up liberty to such opposers. God has given experienced leaders to anchor and steady less experienced workers, and younger workers must lean upon the judgment of those who have experience to steady their course and keep from drifting in confusion, so they remain useful in the last great work of preparing God's people.
Ministers are given to build up the churches, and some ministers lack the qualifications needed for this work. Those who serve should give themselves wholly to God's cause, with undivided interest, steady zeal, untiring patience, and perseverance; when these qualities are exercised, the churches are kept in order.
Life in Unity
Ephesians 4 is a practical lesson to be lived by walking worthy of the calling with lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, and keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher are given to bring the church into that unity of faith and full knowledge of the Son of God unto complete manhood measured by the fullness of Christ, so that believers are no longer immature children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by deceitful craftiness but speaking the truth in love grow up into Christ the head, from whom the whole body fitly joined and compacted by what every joint supplies works effectually in every part and increases unto self-edification in love. When each person finds the place God has for him and does the work God has given him in concert under one supreme Leader, with one supplying what another lacks and no one working independently by his own judgment, there will be perfect unity. That unity calls God's people to love as the law of Christ's kingdom and to a higher standard revealing love, meekness and longsuffering that bears many things without seeking to be avenged by word or act, refusing dissension stirred by Satan, refusing to spend time talking over defects of brethren, and refusing to be brought down to negative working.
The same gifts call believers no longer to walk as Gentiles in vanity of mind, darkened understanding, alienation from the life of God, ignorance, blindness of heart, past feeling, lasciviousness and uncleanness. They are to learn Christ as the truth is in Jesus by putting off the old man corrupt in deceitful lusts, being renewed in the spirit of the mind, and putting on the new man created after God in righteousness and true holiness. That change is shown in putting away lying and speaking truth as members one of another, being angry without sin and without letting the sun go down on wrath, giving no place to the devil, stealing no more but laboring honestly to give to the needy, allowing no corrupt communication but only edifying speech that ministers grace, and not grieving the Holy Spirit by whom believers are sealed unto the day of redemption. It is shown further in putting away bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking and malice, and in being kind, tenderhearted and forgiving as God for Christ's sake forgave, so that the conversation of those converted to God becomes different from what it was before conversion. This ministry of transformation is to be carried to all nations and peoples in meekness and lowliness of spirit.
Believers are not to be at variance, one believing one thing and another holding entirely opposite views, each moving independently of the body and insisting on his own peculiar views of Bible truth and pressing them upon others. Such a course breaks the harmony that existed between Christ and His Father which Christ prayed might exist among His brethren, and each is rather to regard the opinions of his brethren and to labor in harmony rather than contend over one another's roles. Those who serve in different ways may differ on points of doctrine, yet can be united in seeking to win people to Christ, and meekness, mutual forbearance and charity can reconcile them. Every faithful worker ministers for the perfecting of the saints, and all true believers, ministers and people alike, share the work of laboring for the salvation of souls, each filling his proper position in the church and working together in order, harmony and love, spreading the knowledge of truth far and near while laboring for the strength and unity of the church, because the religion of Christ is not selfish or narrow but diffusive, aggressive, bright, saving and transforming.
God gives to every man his work in fulfilling his part of God's great plan, appointing each person work according to ability, so the work of ministry is shared rather than left to a few while others carry no responsibility. No one person is meant to manage everything or bear so many responsibilities that mind and body are worn out, and no one is to shirk responsibility or labor for supremacy, but everyone is to show devoted zeal to do his best, so that burdens are shared and not one carries a heavy load while another goes lightly loaded, one eased and another burdened. Each gift is precious in its place and all are to act a part in the perfecting of the saints, using entrusted abilities to serve others to honor God rather than treating those abilities as personal property or turning them toward work God has not assigned. All who have been benefited are to unite according to their ability with God's servant, keeping the grand object ever in view.
The chapter plainly reveals God's appointed means to keep unity in His church so its members may reveal to the world a healthy religious experience. That unity is kept through obedience to the commandments of God, unity in the faith of the Scriptures, and oneness in Christ Jesus with lives hid with Christ in God. Those so united practice the golden rule, become partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust, cooperate as laborers together with God, use heaven's provision made at infinite cost to draw souls to obedience to God's law, and bear a living testimony that the Father loves them even as He loves His Son with powerful influence upon the unbelieving world. By consistent Christian lives of courtesy, fidelity, justice and mercy they magnify the law of God as perfect to convert the soul and make it honorable before the world.
The chapter is to be read most solemnly and impressed upon the minds of hearers because its instruction means much. It calls for a great reformation in the lives of believers, in words and works and spiritual understanding, away from hard-spiritedness as strangers to the working of the Holy Spirit, toward daily breathing the atmosphere of heaven and catching the inspiration of the angels in the heavenly courts. Instruction in present truth alone does not replace the delegated ministers God uses to do His work, and without their ministry the work of ripening God's people may be superficial.