United in Christ

Ephesians 4:1-16 - "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,  with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,  eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—  one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.  But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.  Therefore it says,   “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?   He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,   to equip the saints for the work of 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,  so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,  from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."

Unity among the body is one of the most important characteristics of the body of Christ. With Christ as our head, we should certainly be seeking to accurately and lovingly uphold the commandments He gives to us. Paul, a prisoner of the Lord, acknowledges that in this passage. One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 4:1, where Paul tells us to walk worthy of the calling placed on our lives as Christians. We must be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse two is how we do just that. We walk humbly, gently, patiently, and in love. To be effective workers for the kingdom, we must do all these things well. Of course, we know we cannot do them on our own, but only by the Spirit of God who lives in us. Being humble is viewing the needs of others as more important than our own. Being gentle, patient, and loving is showing grace to others within the body amidst strife or conflict. We do this to glorify God and display peace among His followers. We cannot evangelize well if we are not unified.

But what are we ultimately unified around? We are not unified by the building we worship in, or the style of worship we use, or even by the Bible translation we study. We are unified by what Paul gives us in verses four and five.

1. One body - the Church is universal and is not bound by denominational or congregational separations

2. One Spirit - The Holy Spirit indwells every believer, guiding us, empowering us, and sanctifying us as we faithfully work out our salvation

3. One hope - Our hope is only in Jesus Christ, who is the one and only way to be made right with God, by grace through faith in Him

4. One Lord - Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and Lord of all

5. One faith - the Christian faith is the only true faith

6. One baptism - this refers to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which a genuine believer receives upon saving faith and secures salvation for that believer (water baptism is a symbol of this inward baptism of the Holy Spirit and should be done in an immediate and obedient response to faith in Jesus Christ

7. One God and Father - we worship one God, who exists in three distinct, yet divine persons, who is the Creator of the universe

In a recent podcast episode of The Armory, I addressed a few core doctrines that Christians should believe. They are built around these primary doctrines, which Christians must be united over and not divided on. The Bible warns us to not argue over words or to be divided over doctrine. Why? Because that is not God's desire for His Church, but also because a divided body is unable to effectively evangelize. We must stand firm and be united on these core beliefs.

Moving on to verse seven, Paul explains that Jesus Christ, upon His resurrection and ascension, gave spiritual gifts to all believers. Some are apostles, some are prophets, some are evangelists, some are shepherds, and some are teachers.

Apostles refer to the foundational and original members of the Church. The original 12 apostles plus Paul himself served in the role of being direct, firsthand witnesses chosen by God to establish the Church. They were taught by Jesus and were eyewitnesses of His ministry on Earth. To be an apostle today is not to have the same divine role of the original apostles. Instead, it means one is sent forward by God to be a messenger from God and for God to those who are unbelievers, which as you will see shortly, is actually the role of an evangelist. The original office of an apostle ceased with the original apostles because there are no longer and direct eyewitnesses of the resurrected Lord with divine power to perform miracles, signs, and wonders to validate their message. The message is now validated by the completed Word of God.

Prophets were those who received direct revelation from God to help in establishing the Church and completing the writing of the New Testament canon. Prophets revealed and recorded divine truth from God for His Church. Prophets in these times served as a mouthpiece of God concerning His truth and also were used to predict certain future events for the good of the Church. Today, a prophet is one who is faithful to proclaiming the Word of God. There is a common misnomer that prophets are walking among us able to predict the future of worldly events. Beware of false prophets who focus on sensationalism and world predictions with no regard for actually revealing to us the divine, inspired, and completed Word of God.

Evangelists are gifted by God to reach the lost with the proclamation of the gospel. They are church-planters, missionaries, and believers who specifically seek to go after those who have not yet heard the gospel. Evangelists, however, do not stop at simply sharing the good news, but also continue their kingdom work in the building up of the local churches to carry on their evangelistic mission. Multiplication works faster than addition, and that is what evangelists are doing. They are making disciples who make disciples who make disciples.

Shepherds and teachers are what we would call pastors today. Pastors are not just speakers or preachers but are gifted by God to care for His flock. Pastors certainly lead in their gift by teaching and preaching the Word of God. Whereas evangelists are pounding the pavement to seek and save the lost, shepherds focus on the specific task of ministering to the members of a local congregation. To build them up and to equip them with sound doctrine, so that those church members can carry on their ministry with their unique set of gifts. A shepherd protects the flock from false doctrines and false teachers and prepares the flock to do their own ministry. Teachers have a gift of accurately discerning and effectively communicating the truths of the Word.

All of these gifts to the Church are for the saints (believers) to be equipped with the truths of the Word and to be built up to go and do kingdom work (verse 12). The purpose of a servant of God is to make other servants of God. More servants mean more glory for God. Better servants mean more glory to God. These divine offices exist to equip and build up the saints, which keeps believers from being led astray by false teaching, cultural temptations, and godlessness.

Christ is the head. The pastor is not the head. The elders are not the head. Christ is the head. When every member of the body functions within his or her area of gifting, the body works properly and brings glory to God as it effectively does the work of the kingdom.