Growing Up Together To Be Mature
GROWING UP TOGETHER TO BE MATURE
EPHESIANS 4:7-16
Christ has given the church the gifts it needs to carry out its ministry.
As Paul contemplates the unity of the church, he never loses sight of the individuals that make up the church (4:7, “to each one of us”; 4:13, “until we all”). Each believer receives a particular measure of grace as Christ’s gift.
To emphasize his point that Christ is the giver of gifts to the church, Paul quotes Psalm 68:18, which pictures a victorious king ascending the mountain of the Lord followed by a long line of captives. Both the Hebrew and Greek text of Psalm 68:18 state that the king “receives” gifts from men, but Paul uses the Aramaic translation of the Old Testament, the translation that was used in the synagogue, which says “he gave gifts to men.”
4:9-10 are an example of early Christian exposition of the Old Testament in which an application is made to the life of the church. Paul interprets the meaning of “he ascended on high” and “he gave gifts to men.” The king is Christ, whose ascension (see 1:20-23) implies the necessity of his incarnation and death on the cross, where he disarmed the principalities (see 1 Corinthians 2:7-10; Colossians 2:15).
The gifts that Christ gives to the church are individuals who are dedicated to the tasks of ministry. Within the unity of the church it is necessary to have a diversity of gifts in order to achieve the corporate maturity that God intends. The purpose of Christ’s gifts is that each believer may be equipped to fulfill some aspect of ministry (4:12 should be read without a comma after the first phrase: “to equip the saints for the work of ministry”), and no member of the church should be a mere spectator to its worship and involvement with mission. For the whole body to be mature, every believer is to participate. That is the goal Paul holds before his readers (4:13).
What Paul pleads for is a living and vibrant unity within the church, with Christ providing the dynamic for growth and harmony among the diverse members of his body. The marks of Christ’s presence in the church will be patience with one another in love (4:2), truthful speech with love (4:15) and mutual growth in love (4:16).