Ephesians 4:1-16: God’s Pattern for the Church
Under the divine work of Jesus the church was established to carry the gospel until His second coming. Overall, the requirement placed upon church members is that we are to reflect Jesus in our lives and to build the kingdom while we remain here. This is the reason we are not transferred to heaven at conversion. Expectations are arranged for us and in order to do His work, we are to display His virtues, to our best ability. Those virtues are revealed to us in the fruits of the Spirit commanded of us to show as we walk with Him and work for Him.
These are:
LOVE, JOY, PEACE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF-CONTROL
We see quickly the exceptional way ,Paul places focus upon humility and gentleness and encourages us to preserve the unity of the church under those efforts. Unity is a divine gift, but it must be cultivated and cherished as Christians live together in harmony.
Jesus himself tells us that to all whom much is given (spiritual gifts), much is required (Luke 12:48). The greater the gifts, the greater the duty to use them to benefit others. Our deeds cannot justify us or make us righteous in the Father's sight. They do display how strongly we remain in closeness to the Lord. As chapter 4 begins, Paul urges us to "walk in a manner worthy" of our calling. This is exactly the same thought Paul will later give us in 5: 1 describing how we are to imitate God.
We must live in gratitude for our salvation always and make no excuses when we fail to obey the Lord in love. We must confess the failure, repent of it, and begin again. Our walk with Him is a constant walkway of newer beginnings.
The effort Paul teaches is for unity of all believers to rule with all in submission to the Lord in our lives and worship. This unity will not become a full reality until the Lord returns because until then there will always be some part of humanity in rebellion. The second coming will resolve those matters once and for all.
Jesus has done the work to establish a unified church and Christians have the important duty of maintaining this oneness. Verse 4 speaks of one body, one Spirit, and one hope. The body is the unified community of believers. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit which indwells each one, and the hope is the reality of resurrected life in glory, which is given each believer who trusts Christ alone for salvation into eternity.
Christianity encourages and celebrates the contributions of all its members to the one true church. Different graces ( same as different gifts) are given by the Lord to fulfill His purpose (not ours). These varied gifts make it possible to advance the kingdom here.
In verse 11 Paul lists five specific offices, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. Since the foundation of the forever church has been established, there is no need, and there will be no more prophets or apostles.
Evangelists. are needed to spread the Word, and shepherds (pastors) are greatly needed to preach it and help believers to understand it and apply it to their lives. The main duty of the pastor is soul care.
As we view the entire church we must admit that the Christian ministry is basically an "every member ministry" as indicated in chapter 4; verses 12-13. God provides evangelists and pastors to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ.
Our goal is to produce nothing less· than a body of believers conformed to the image of the glorified Christ as we see in verse 13. This goal is a great one for sure and would be impossible to attain if we were not already, in some measure, filled with the fullness of Jesus which is His Holy Spirit indwelling. Still, we are not yet in full conformity to His perfection, and we must strive toward that great goal until He returns.
We must not forget that while we look back with admiration to the early church and its growth, we have many advantages they never had. We have access to the entire inspired writing of the messengers of God, inspired by His Spirit. We also have centuries of teachings that have visited the very depth of those writings and have given us better understanding of revealed doctrine. Until the second coming we cannot neglect those gifts and think we have little left to learn, for at every step of our study and learning, we have a strong and steady adversary.
The attempts of Satan to darken, by his falsehoods, the pure doctrine of Christ, are at no time interrupted and it is the will of God that these struggles should continue as the consistent trial of our faith.
