The Gifts that Keep On Giving
Ephesians 4:7-13
“The Gifts that Keep on Giving”
A traveling salesman was driving down a country road one day and suddenly spotted a barn with targets painted all over it and an arrow right in the center of every single target. He had to find out how that was possible so he drove up to the farmhouse, knocked on the door and asked, “Who shot all those arrows into the side of your barn?”
“I did,” answered the farmer.
So the salesman responded, “That’s amazing! How in the world were you able to hit the center every time?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” said the farmer. “I shoot the arrow first, then paint the target around it!’
The farmer’s marksmanship seemed perfect, but it was just a sham. There’s always a trick, isn’t there? It isn’t really possible hit the target every time, is it? No one could possibly achieve a perfect standard, right? Well, perhaps we shouldn’t rush to judgment!
God has called us through the pen of Paul to live in a manner worthy of a perfect salvation. And he told us what qualities are required in order for us to do it (2-3)—humility, gentleness, patience, and forbearance with one another that is rooted not in gritty determination, but in genuine love. He has also told us why we should strive toward that standard: we should be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace—because there is only one body of Christ, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, indeed one God and Father who is both transcendent over all his creation and intimately present within it (4-6).
That was last week’s passage. But as Paul continues on the same theme he gives us even more input that suggests we should actually strive to attain the perfect standard of Jesus Christ himself. But if that is what it means to live in a manner worthy of our calling, how is it even possible to do it? Once again it is only possible by the diamond of God’s grace—and Paul opens our eyes to three new facets of that grace in vss.7-13 of Eph.4.
The Ground of Grace – 7-10
Vs.7, “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. We each have grace according to the measure apportioned to us by Christ. And the word here is grace, not grace gift as Paul used in Rom.12 and 1Co.12; but the idea is the same. Interestingly also, the whole trinity is involved in giving it: Christ is the giver here in Eph.4 while God is the giver in Rom.12 and the Holy Spirit is the giver in 1Co.12, but in all these passages the grace or grace gifts are apportioned as the Giver determines.
And it is because Christ has apportioned this grace, Paul wrote (8), that it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.” Paul is quoting Psa.68:18, but not verbatim according to either the Hebrew text or the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the OT; it poses an interesting challenge to understanding exactly what he meant. The portion of the verse quoted here actually reads, “You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men….” The pronoun You is referring to God; the event being referred to is his ascent of Mt. Bashan, which some equate with Zion; and the image is one of God ascending the mount as a king or general, victorious in battle, leading the captives in procession, and receiving gifts from men. The meaning is summarized well by F. F. Bruce (341). He wrote, “One may picture a military leader returning to Jerusalem at the head of his followers, after routing an enemy army and taking many prisoners. The victorious procession, with the captives in its train, makes its way up to the temple mount, preceded by the sacred ark, which symbolizes the invisible presence of the God of Israel. To him a sacrifice of thanksgiving will be offered when the procession reaches the temple precincts, and the tribute received by the victor from the vanquished foe will be dedicated to him.”
How, then did Paul transition from received gifts from men in Psa.68, to gave gifts to men here in Eph.4? Well, first we should note that this word choice was not entirely unheard of: the Syriac Peshitta, a first century rendering of the OT, as well as the traditional Aramaic Targum both used given rather than received as they translated Psa.68:18. Further, we should keep in mind that Paul was not writing a commentary on the Psalms here; rather, he was illustrating the point he was making. He could well have been referencing a tradition that also showed up in the targumic renderings. And it was perfectly appropriate, under the inspiration of the Spirit, to do just that. But it is also possible that there was an understanding that there was both a giving and a receiving going on in the sort of event described in Psa.68—even to the extent that, as Bruce (342) put it, either was an “acceptable interpretation in the first century A. D.” He went on to write, “It might be said that a conqueror, having received ‘gifts’ from the defeated enemy, bestows them as largesse on the spectators lining the processional route.” Further, the fact that the gifts given by Christ here in Eph.4 are understood to be spiritual gifts, gifts of the Spirit, a passage like Act.2:33 from Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost offers some help: he said, “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” Jesus received the Spirit from the Father and in turn gave him to the church. There are one or two other good suggestions that could lend some help to understanding Paul’s word choice here, but they are beyond the scope of a Sunday morning sermon to trace out. Suffice it to say that there are several satisfying possibilities for why Paul wrote what he wrote here that make it entirely unnecessary to suggest that he either misquoted Psa.68 or intentionally sought to change or correct it. He simply used it as an image of winning a battle and distributing the spoils of victory.
Vss.9-10 then pick up on that word ascended from Psa.68 and tie it to Christ. Here it is not God ascending Zion, but Jesus ascending far above all the heavens to fill all in all, just as Paul had already written back in 1:23. Again there is much discussion surrounding this verse. Does the descent refer to the incarnation? Could it refer to Jesus descending into hell following his death on the cross? Might it even refer to the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, at Pentecost? The clearest reading suggests that the lower parts of the earth are referring to the earth itself in contrast to the heavens, not to some lower region of the earth. I favor the incarnation. Paul uses this two-fold cosmology of heaven and earth several times in this letter and vss.9-10 here seem to be one example. And Jesus’ ascension following his descent, or his incarnation, in the spirit of Psa.68, seems to be referring to all that was acceptably accomplished between these two brackets of his life—his sinless life fulfilling all righteousness, his sacrificial death as our substitute, his resurrection in victory over death—and then his ascent to reign over all things in full revelation of the mystery.
The Gifts of Grace – 11
It was this Jesus (11) who gave gifts of grace to the church according to the measure he determined. And some of those gifts are intended to accomplish a special purpose. Apostles and prophets have already been identified (2:20) as the foundation of the church; those on whose testimony we all believe. The word apostle is used in three different ways in Scripture (Foulkes, 126): (1) simply a messenger, as is spoken of Epaphroditus in Phi.2:25; (2) uniquely of the twelve apostles often; and (3) several times with a meaning that seems to be somewhere in between these two, for instance, it is used of Barnabas, in addition to Paul, in Act.14:14—he’s called an apostle—and it is insinuated of James, Jesus’ brother, in Gal.1:19 and of Silas and Timothy in 1Th.1:6; Andronicus and Junia are numbered among the apostles in Rom.16:7, although the esv gives a bit of a different flavor to the translation of that verse. And the wording of 1Co.15:7 at least suggests the possibility that there may have been more than the just the twelve. Regardless, Act.1:21-22 suggests that an apostle was one who became a witness of the life and ministry of Jesus having been an eyewitness from the time of his baptism to the time of his ascension. As such, then, the apostles could only have been present during the first generation of the church.
Prophets are a bit tougher to define but, as one commentator put it (Foulkes, 126), “They stand out clearly from the New Testament as people of inspired utterance, whose ministry of the word was of the utmost importance for the young church.” Some foretold the future, like Agabus in Act.11 and 21 and perhaps the daughters of Philip, also mentioned in Act.21. But there also seems to have been a ministry, as with OT prophets, of bringing sin to light and calling forth repentance; 1Co.14 makes mention of this. In that sense there may be some today who speak with a prophetic voice. But there are no longer any who speak truth on God’s behalf that has not already been revealed in Scripture—none who can introduce a wholly new message with, “Thus saith the Lord.” We believe the canon is closed and that which God has purposed to communicate to people has been communicated. It is now our responsibility to hear it and obey, enabled by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
These apostles and prophets, then, were gifts from God which graced the first generations of the church to lay the foundation on which we are even still being built today. Evangelists are the preachers of the gospel; they are the pioneers or the missionaries. Essentially they are the ones who carry on the work of the apostles. As important a gift as this is, though, the word appears in noun form only three times in the NT: here, 2Ti.4:5 (where Paul told Timothy to do the work of an evangelist), and Act.21:8 (where Philip is said to be an evangelist). The verb form, however, is used fifty-five times and ranges in meaning from proclaiming the gospel to planting churches to building Christians and establishing settled congregations (O’Brien, 299). Evangelists spread the word and see results—results like we witnessed in our youth coffee house ministry this past Wednesday. Four young men prayed to receive Christ during that event, and my daughter had the privilege of praying with her friend of her to receive Christ in our car on the way home. I think we have an evangelist among us. Bruce wrote (347), “But for the evangelist’s ministry, the church would speedily die out. … The evangelists given by the ascended Christ continue to exercise the gospel-preaching aspect of the apostolic ministry, so that the church might grow in succeeding generations by the adhesion of new believers”—a necessary gift.
Pastors and teachers come next; they are grouped together insinuating that they may be complementary, or may even inhere in the same person. In fact, it would be hard to pastor, or shepherd, without teaching, and it would be equally hard to teach without shepherding. The word pastor is used only here in the NT but the term refers to a ministry in the church and, as O’Brien (299) put it, “The verb form ‘to shepherd’ appears several times in this sense.” He continued (299-300) on to say, “Pastors, whose functions are similar to those of overseers and elders, exercise leadership through nurture and care of the congregation.” The whole image is a continuation of the ministry of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Teaching is exposition of Scripture, the explanation and reiteration of apostolic injunctions targeting application. It is not enough simply to know the truth; teachers urge obedience to it in thought and deed. These are the special gifts of God’s grace to the church—people who are enabled by God to serve as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And the purpose or goal of this giving of grace is precisely what you’d expect to be the goal of a holy, omnipotent, and loving God.
The Goal of Grace – 12-13
The goal of God’s grace is “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Each of these people—apostles, prophets, and the rest—have contributed to the purpose of God to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. To equip means to outfit, or to furnish completely, to prepare or train to the point of full qualification. It is also conveys the idea of restoration—it is the word used to refer to the setting of a broken bone. A teacher equips his students to excel in his field of study. A coach equips his team to excel on the field of competition. He brings them to a state of full readiness. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are gifted by God to bring his people to a stated of full readiness in the field of ministry—in the collective exercise of their portions of grace from Christ, their spiritual gifts, in the work of the ministry. The focus of the exercise of these gifts, then, is more corporate than individual. This is truly a team, a body. As each member is equipped to use his or her gifts to minister, the whole body of Christ is built up—the work of the ministry, then, is constructive, not destructive. We’re building something, not tearing something down. This building up, however, is not just some empty, feel-good sort of encouragement. It’s not vain flattery or a situational affirmation. No, this building up has a target in view. And that target is unity—unity of faith and unity of the knowledge of the Lord, just like there was one Lord and one faith back in vs.5 that was the rationale for the eager maintenance of the unity in vs.3
And just as commentators on those verses differed on whether faith was subjective or objective, so it is with both faith and knowledge in this verse. Are we talking about a personal experience of faith or a body of beliefs, like a statement of faith? Are we talking about personal knowledge of Christ—like the experiential knowledge of the love of God back in 3:19—or are we talking about consensus on an accurate and thorough Christology? I believe the best answer is, yes! I don’t believe there is any good reason to diminish either side—the objective knowledge or the subjective experience. God has graced certain ones in his body to equip the rest to exercise their gifts in such a way as to build up to whole toward complete unity in their under-standing and experience of the faith and the Savior. They become a fully mature body—and that reference to maturity is descriptive of the collective body more than of the individuals within it. But then, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link—one failing spark plug and the whole engine runs rough. The individual’s responsibility to the maturity of the collective body cannot be ignored. And what is the measure to determine whether maturity has been attained? The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Conclusion
When Paul wrote that we should live in a manner worthy of our calling, this is what he meant. With humility, gentleness, patience, and forbearance, rooted in love, we need to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, not only because there is only one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God uniting it all, but also because unity in knowledge and experience of Jesus and of salvation is the very definition of spiritual maturity—of living in a manner worthy of our calling. God set up the whole system so that no one can reach that maturity alone—it is a corporate effort. Everyone has a measure of grace from Christ, a gift—and the gifts given to some are for the specific purpose of helping all the rest to use there gifts for the good of the whole body. And it is only when they do that they actually grow toward that unity which is maturity. But when they do, there is also no limit to the unity, the maturity, they can experience—even up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ! That is the goal of our efforts toward unity: the very perfection of Christ himself. F. F. Bruce wrote, “The glorified Christ provides the standard at which his people are to aim: the corporate Christ—I like that—cannot be content to fall short of the perfection of the personal Christ.”
So what can we learn from this? Let’s crystallize three observations in conclusion. First, our eagerness to maintain the unity of the body is fueled by the exercise of our spiritual gifts in for the building up of the body. We may not automatically see the connection between these two—spiritual gifts and maturity. The first thing we think of when we’re told to maintain the unity of the Spirit may not be that we should get busy using our gifts for the good of the body, but that is part of what we’re told in this passage. It’s easy to see: we’re far less likely to criticize a people whom we’re working to build up.
Second, it is impossible to become truly spiritually mature if we are not unified with the body of Christ as described in this passage. In our rabidly individualistic American society, we’re just not accustomed to believing that our greatest personal achievements result from corporate efforts. But in this passage Paul doesn’t really draw a clear distinction between individual and corporate maturity. And if the exercise of our grace gifts for the good of the body, and unity in belief and experience with the body, are what make us mature, how are we supposed to become mature on our own? It is a group project!
Third, the perfection at which we aim cannot be fully realized in this life, but we should still strive toward it. The question of whether sinless perfection is attainable in this life has some important theological implications and ramifications. Therefore I will answer it in one word. No. Sinless perfection is not attainable in this life. But that does not mean that we should ease up in striving toward the maturity that Paul describes here in Eph.4—maturity that attains to the measure of the stature—some translations say the perfection—of the fullness of Christ. We may not become a perfect archer—able to hit the bull’s eye with unalterable perfection—but we should die trying! Do you remember Michael Jordan’s workout regimen? … Likewise, we may not be able to live perfect obedience, but it shouldn’t be due to lack of effort. Indeed we should make every effort to keep the unity that results in maturity; and we should pursue is as though it were life itself.
I am reminded of a passage from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, book 3 in The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis. The Dawn Treader was a ship on which Caspian, the King of Narnia, and his consorts were sailing east to the end of the world where at least some believed they would find Aslan’s country. Aslan, as you know, is a lion, the Christ-figure in this children’s series. One who believed that Aslan’s country was beyond the eastern end of the world was Reepicheep, the valiant and chivalrous mouse. Reepicheep was ever the adventurer, and he had a little rowboat called a coracle in which he could venture out from the ship as needed. There came a time in the story when there was a decision to be made whether the ship and crew would continue sailing east toward the Aslan’s country or turn back to Narnia. Reepicheep made his plans quite clear; and his plans revealed his heart. He said (179): “My own plans are made. While I can, I sale east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country, … I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise….”
Do you have a passion, like Reepicheep’s, for the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ? Are you willing to give yourself wholly to the virtues and graces that move the whole body toward this sort of likeness to the Savior? Are you willing to lay aside anything of personal worth or value that rivals the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God that begets true maturity? Paul wanted to use every ounce of his energy striving toward that standard of the perfection of Christ, and urged all of us to do the same. Listen to his words to the Philippians from ch.2: “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way.
Let us have a church characterized by maturity. Maturity that results from a unity of faith and of knowledge of Jesus, that flows from grace filled service, and has its eye riveted to the prize of a perfect likeness to the fullness of our Savior. And may we each agree to seize the grace of God to set aside anything that rivals this vision in our minds and hearts?