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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Building the House of God, #4
He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, To prepare God's people for works of service, so the body of Christ may be built up. (Ephesians 4:10-12—NIV)
There has been some teaching that these are four (or five) special ministries whose task is to make ministers of the rest of the believers. We think this is a flawed interpretation.
No passage of Scripture, especially the Book of Acts, tells of four favored ministries making ministers of the other Christians.
There are not four or five especially favored ministries. Notice in the following passage that the Scripture does not support the elevation of four ministries but puts all the gifts and ministries under the same category. We all have been given grace.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. (I Corinthians 12:27,28—NIV)
Can you see, in the above passage, that there are not four "special" ministries?
Second, the clearly stated purpose of all ministry is the building up of the body of Christ. There is to be no confusion over this point.
Let us think of the above passage this way: God has given various gifts and ministries so each member can make his or her contribution to the goal, which is to build the Body of Christ. God has given to some people the gift of apostleship so they may build up the body. God has given to some people the gift of pastoring and teaching so they may build up the body. God has given the ministry of evangelism to some people so they may call out the elect from the world that the elect may begin the process of being built up as part of the Body of Christ.
Does this make sense to you? Does it fit all the pertinent passages, including the twelfth chapter of the Book of Romans and the twelfth chapter of the Book of First Corinthians?
Now look at the passage again in the light of what we have said.
I am going to use the New American Standard since I think it is a bit clearer.
He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, For the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; (Ephesians 4:10-12—NASB)
God gave to Paul to be an Apostle that Paul, as a saint, might be equipped to build the Body of Christ. As we read the Epistles we can see that Paul was not intent on equipping other people with gifts, although he exhorted Timothy to stir up the gift that was given him by the laying on of hands. By far the greatest work of Paul was to build the Body of Christ, to travail in birth until Christ was formed in the believers.
To be continued.