Equipped for what?
This week's study is on Ephesians 4:11-16:
How often do we actually think about why God has provided pastors, teachers, evangelists, prophets and apostles? We know what they do: apostles start Christian groups, prophets share God's living word with people who don't hear it themselves, evangelists tell people about God who have never accepted Him before, pastors keep an eye on people and help them to not get into trouble as they grow, and teachers share truth. But why? Is it to make the church more money? Is it to build a name for ourselves? Is it to be able to look down on other churches and denominations and religions? No!
They're to equip God's people for service. Do just the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers serve? No! Does everyone but those people serve? No! God's people do works of service. Remember the fruit of the spirit? That's what those people are given to us for. They're to help us attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. They're to bring us into unity with one another and with God. They help us to become mature and united, growing the body of Christ individually and as a worldwide church.
As individual people, when we grow because of people God has sent us, we're less likely to be manipulated by people who are out for themselves. How could we be? We've seen God! We've experienced his love. We've come to know and trust his character. When you've seen the real thing, the counterfeits become obvious.
We're no longer naive children, doing things only because someone has manipulated us into doing them. As we mature, we're not just in the whole Christianity thing for the emotional high, skipping from experience to experience, sermon to sermon, conference to conference, church to church, without being changed inside. The Holy Spirit dwells within us and changes us. The fruit of the Spirit becomes evident. We are filled with love and speak the truth freely. We begin to resemble Christ Himself in character. We represent Him and His kingdom, on Earth.
Christ is the head. He is the source from which all action comes in the body. From Him, the church is filled with love and carries out His plan for the world. We are built up in love, and do the work that God had for us to do from the beginning.
It would be some comfort to say that it's just God and us versus the sinful world, but that's where the workers He sends come in. How humiliating it is to not be able to take credit for our own spiritual growth, even as collaborators with God! Even other flawed human beings play a role. Maybe some alcoholic apostle established the first Christian community in your town years ago. Maybe some prophet who overstayed his visa told one of the people in that community God's plan to make him an evangelist. Maybe that evangelist had just cheated on his wife and was in the bar feeling guilty when he ran into you and shared the gospel. Maybe he pointed you to a church where the greedy pastor was embezzling money from the congregation in order to help his boy start a business. Maybe that pastor listened to you and comforted you when your wife left you, and helped you to understand God's plan more through the teachings of a guy who used to sell drugs and was responsible for countless deaths in your area.
The illusion that it's all about you obeying God is now shattered. You now have to share the credit for your obedience not only with God but with all of these dirtbags! They may have been deeply flawed, but God sent them into your life for a reason, in order to help you to become who he wanted you to be. Ultimately all of the glory is God's, but the fact that other people play such a role in our lives, and that God actively sends people to do that, means that we can't claim to be responsible.
That's not to excuse people's flaws. You can't buy forgiveness and righteousness with obedience. Only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ can buy that kind of thing. But the body of Christ is a sort of organic thing, made up of various flawed parts all converging on christlikeness, being made perfect through the Holy Spirit. We shouldn't be indignant that he sometimes uses flawed pieces to shape us. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are all made out of meat. But aren't we made of meat too? How can we see God use them and not also see the potential he could use us?
So God Himself sends these people into our lives, some of whom are nearly perfect and others of whom are anything but. Through their obedience, or despite their flaws, God's perfect will is done. We are led closer to Him and His Holy Spirit changes us. Together with others, we mature. The Holy Spirit does his work in us and we are filled with God's love. We then represent that to others and God's kingdom is represented to mankind. We are equipped, not to retire or enrich ourselves, but to serve. If we needed to be perfect, God would have nobody to send.
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
How often do we actually think about why God has provided pastors, teachers, evangelists, prophets and apostles? We know what they do: apostles start Christian groups, prophets share God's living word with people who don't hear it themselves, evangelists tell people about God who have never accepted Him before, pastors keep an eye on people and help them to not get into trouble as they grow, and teachers share truth. But why? Is it to make the church more money? Is it to build a name for ourselves? Is it to be able to look down on other churches and denominations and religions? No!
They're to equip God's people for service. Do just the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers serve? No! Does everyone but those people serve? No! God's people do works of service. Remember the fruit of the spirit? That's what those people are given to us for. They're to help us attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. They're to bring us into unity with one another and with God. They help us to become mature and united, growing the body of Christ individually and as a worldwide church.
As individual people, when we grow because of people God has sent us, we're less likely to be manipulated by people who are out for themselves. How could we be? We've seen God! We've experienced his love. We've come to know and trust his character. When you've seen the real thing, the counterfeits become obvious.
We're no longer naive children, doing things only because someone has manipulated us into doing them. As we mature, we're not just in the whole Christianity thing for the emotional high, skipping from experience to experience, sermon to sermon, conference to conference, church to church, without being changed inside. The Holy Spirit dwells within us and changes us. The fruit of the Spirit becomes evident. We are filled with love and speak the truth freely. We begin to resemble Christ Himself in character. We represent Him and His kingdom, on Earth.
Christ is the head. He is the source from which all action comes in the body. From Him, the church is filled with love and carries out His plan for the world. We are built up in love, and do the work that God had for us to do from the beginning.
It would be some comfort to say that it's just God and us versus the sinful world, but that's where the workers He sends come in. How humiliating it is to not be able to take credit for our own spiritual growth, even as collaborators with God! Even other flawed human beings play a role. Maybe some alcoholic apostle established the first Christian community in your town years ago. Maybe some prophet who overstayed his visa told one of the people in that community God's plan to make him an evangelist. Maybe that evangelist had just cheated on his wife and was in the bar feeling guilty when he ran into you and shared the gospel. Maybe he pointed you to a church where the greedy pastor was embezzling money from the congregation in order to help his boy start a business. Maybe that pastor listened to you and comforted you when your wife left you, and helped you to understand God's plan more through the teachings of a guy who used to sell drugs and was responsible for countless deaths in your area.
The illusion that it's all about you obeying God is now shattered. You now have to share the credit for your obedience not only with God but with all of these dirtbags! They may have been deeply flawed, but God sent them into your life for a reason, in order to help you to become who he wanted you to be. Ultimately all of the glory is God's, but the fact that other people play such a role in our lives, and that God actively sends people to do that, means that we can't claim to be responsible.
That's not to excuse people's flaws. You can't buy forgiveness and righteousness with obedience. Only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ can buy that kind of thing. But the body of Christ is a sort of organic thing, made up of various flawed parts all converging on christlikeness, being made perfect through the Holy Spirit. We shouldn't be indignant that he sometimes uses flawed pieces to shape us. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are all made out of meat. But aren't we made of meat too? How can we see God use them and not also see the potential he could use us?
So God Himself sends these people into our lives, some of whom are nearly perfect and others of whom are anything but. Through their obedience, or despite their flaws, God's perfect will is done. We are led closer to Him and His Holy Spirit changes us. Together with others, we mature. The Holy Spirit does his work in us and we are filled with God's love. We then represent that to others and God's kingdom is represented to mankind. We are equipped, not to retire or enrich ourselves, but to serve. If we needed to be perfect, God would have nobody to send.
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