Christ equips His church with diverse gifts so that every believer, working together, can build up the body to reach its full potential in unity, maturity, and Christlikeness.
1. Christ’s Gifts Equip the Body (note: v. 11-12)
- Christ gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherd-teachers (four roles in Greek, with shepherd-teachers as one office) to equip the church.
- Christ has gifted these offices to equip the saints for the work of ministry, and what is the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
2. Christ’s Gifts Promote Maturity (note: v. 13)
- Goal 1 is to attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God.
- Goal 2 is to grow in spiritual maturity.
- Goal 3 says that we become more like Christ.
3. Christ’s Gifts Protect the Body (note: v.14)
- It is maturing in the faith and coming to knowledge of the Son of God that protects us. All these false “Christian” denominations and churches and teachings, they all succeed because of one thing. Christians today are not mature enough to know better.
4. Christ’s Gifts Build Christlikeness (note: v.15-16)
- Our aim is Christlikeness, achieved through truth. By speaking truth in love, we grow into Christ’s likeness in all aspects, including knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, equipped by His gifts to build up the body and glorify Him as our head.
- The body is held together by every joint with which it is equipped. Every office, every member, every role that our Lord has equipped the church with holds us together.
So now what?
* Each of us has to come to an understanding of this question. What’s my role in the church?
