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This is part 5 of my blog commentary series on the book of Ephesians. In this post, we look at Ephesians 4:1-16 verse by verse. Ephesians 4:1 NKJV
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, Paul, who was in prison in Rome, exhorts the Ephesians to walk worthy of God’s call. All of us have been called by God. We have been summoned by the King into His kingdom, into His family, and into His service. However, an ambassador of a nation can’t conduct himself any way he likes. He is representing the country that has sent him. Even so, we are to walk worthy of God’s calling. We are His representatives. So how do we walk worthy? Paul tells us in the next two verses: Ephesians 4:2–3 NKJV 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. These two verses contain a fivefold description of how we should behave: 1. Lowliness - humility 2. Gentleness - we are not to be harsh with people 3. Longsuffering - we are to be patient with people 4. Bearing with one another in love - lovingly tolerate and put up with one another 5. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace - the Spirit produces unity in the Church. We have a responsibility to try our best to keep and to guard that unity. We do it by being at peace with one another; and that peace binds us together. Paul tells us more about this unity in the next three verses: Ephesians 4:4–6 NKJV 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. In these two verses, Paul gave a sevenfold description of Christian unity: 1. One body - the Church, the body of Christ 2. One Spirit - the Holy Spirit 3. One hope - the second coming of Jesus Christ 4. One Lord - the Lord Jesus, the Son of God 5. One faith - Christianity is not each person having their own set of beliefs about God. The faith we are to follow is written for us in the New Testament, which is the final authority on matters of faith and conduct. 6. One baptism - we all receive the same water baptism, and it is baptism into Jesus Christ. Through baptism we we pledge allegiance to Him. 7. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all - we worship the same God, who is our Father. He is above all of us, He works through all of us, and He is in all of us. Having spoken about our unity, Paul goes on to say something very important... Ephesians 4:7 NKJV 7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Notice the word ‘but’. Paul has just told us about our oneness. But oneness doesn’t mean sameness. Despite our unity, Jesus has given us different gifts. But we are all working towards the same purpose. Paul continues... Ephesians 4:8 NKJV 8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.” Paul quotes from Psalm 68:18, which he interprets as referring to Christ’s ascension to heaven. When it says ‘He led captivity captive’ it means that Jesus returned to heaven victoriously. When the Romans won a battle, the general would lead his captives in a triumphal procession through the streets of his city so that everyone could see the evidence of his complete victory. Therefore, this verse is saying that Jesus returned to heaven as the victor having defeated the devil through His death on the cross. Paul’s quotation also says that ‘He [Christ] gave gifts to men’. He will tell us what some of those gifts are in a moment. But first He tells us something more about Jesus... Ephesians 4:9–10 NKJV 9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He first descended to what Paul calls ‘the lower parts of the earth’. I understand this to refer to the fact that when Jesus died, He descended into Hades, which is the realm of the dead. But God raised Him up from the dead, and seated Him at the highest place, giving Him the place of supreme authority. In that capacity, Paul says that Jesus fills all things. In other words, Jesus is present everywhere in the universe, and He is present as Lord. Paul continues... Ephesians 4:11–12 NKJV 11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, Paul now comes back to the point that Christ gave gifts to men, He mentions some of the gifts that Christ has given. The first two he mentions - apostles and prophets - are no longer physically in the Church today. As we saw in Ephesians 2:20, the offices of apostles and prophets were foundational roles, that belong to the beginning period of the Church. Paul said that the church has "been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 2:20). The Apostles and prophets are the foundation upon which the Church has been built. The foundation is the first thing to be laid at the beginning of a building’s construction, and it is only laid once. As such, the offices of apostles and prophets, as Paul uses the terms in Ephesians, belong to the beginning of the Church’s history and are not occupied by any person today. The gift of prophecy is still in the Church, but the lofty offices that Paul is speaking of here are not. The function of these apostles and prophets was to be the stewards of revelation about the new thing that God was doing in the earth through the gospel: Ephesians 3:4–5 NKJV 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: Thankfully, we have their revelation preserved for us in the New Testament, and so in that sense, through the New Testament Scriptures, they still minister to us today. Back to our passage: Ephesians 4:11–12 NKJV 11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, The other gifts Paul mentions here are evangelists, pastors and teachers. Now it must be noted that these ministers are not self-appointed persons. They are mature believers who are recognised by the Church as being called to these ministries. Evangelists are those gifted to preach the gospel. The phrase "some pastors and teachers" likely refers to the same office i.e. a pastor-teacher. This is because in the original Greek, only "pastors" has a definite article before it. The pastor-teacher is someone who oversees a local church and teaches God's word to it. Verse 12 tells us that they are to equip the saints to serve God, and they are to edify, i.e. build-up, the body of Christ. But where is all of this heading? What is God trying to achieve? That is answered in the next verse: Ephesians 4:13 NKJV 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; In other words, God wants us all to be like Jesus. I understand the first word of this verse - ‘till’ - to modify the word ‘edifying’ in the previous verse. He is saying that these ministries are to edify the Church until we come to the unity of the faith and grow to be like Jesus. As already noted, whilst the apostles and prophets are no longer present in the Church, they continue to minister to us through their writings preserved for us in the New Testament. Paul continues... Ephesians 4:14 NKJV 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, God wants us to no longer be children. In other words, we are to be mature sons and daughters. We are not to be ‘tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine’. In other words, we shouldn’t be getting caught up on whatever the latest trend is in the Church, or whatever the latest supposed ‘revelation’ is that someone claims to have received. Instead, we are to be established in the Word of God. Paul then speaks of ‘the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting’. In other words, we shouldn’t naive or gullible. You will remember when I showed those videos of fake miracles and false prophecies and supposed revelations from God that didn’t come true. We must be people who don’t fall for that kind of thing. We should ask God for discernment. Ephesians 4:15 NKJV 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ-- In contrast to the deceitful scheming of false teachers, we are to speak the truth to one another, and we are to do it in love. Furthermore, we see again that we are to grow to be like Jesus, who is the head of the body. Ephesians 4:16 NKJV 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. That’s quite a mouthful, so let me read that to you in the NIV: Ephesians 4:16 NIV 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Jesus is the one who causes His body, the Church, to grow and to build itself up in love. In other words, Jesus causes the Church to come into maturity, to come to a place where it is getting stronger as the members walk in love. But notice that the Church only becomes a mature Church, ‘as each part does its work’. Summary
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Stuart PatticoPastor of Joy Community Church, Milton Keynes. Archives
August 2023
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