Ephesians;- What God has done to make one body

Paul teaches that the community of believers in Christ is a single body. We are held together in “the unity of the Spirit” (Ephesians ch4 v3). That is, the Spirit is the common factor, the common thread, which links all of us together.

Vv4-6 focus on the word “one”. The fact that there is only one body, held together by the one Spirit, follows on from the fact that we all have the one hope, one faith, and one baptism, which in turns follows on from the fact that we have one Lord, one God and Father of us all.

However, there are differences in the gifts we have been given. He quotes Psalm 68 as saying “When he ascended… he gave gifts to men.” The New Testament application of this verse is that when Jesus returned to his Father he was able to send us the Holy Spirit (John ch16 v7), and the “gifts” which he has for us come through the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians ch1 v7).

V11 is a list of gifts in approximate order of importance for the promotion of the gospel. Apostles, evangelists, prophets, pastors, teachers. Just as the list of God’s “appointments” in 1 Corinthians ch12 v28 begins with the “speaking” functions, namely apostles, prophets, and teachers. Just as the list of “gifts of the Spirit” in 1 Corinthians ch12 v7 begins with “speaking” functions like wisdom and knowledge. As if the most important thing we can do for God is to help people to understand his gospel word.

On the distinction between pastors and teachers. As I see it, the task of a teacher is to explain what God’s word wants to say to us, the task of a pastor is to apply that to groups and individuals. I have seen the dogma that “pastors-and-teachers” ought to be treated as a single office, apparently based on the punctuation of the verse. But the punctuation is not in the original text, and the punctuation rule in question belongs to modern English.

Although we can discern different types of activity in the service of God, we ought not to give these types the status of legal categories. Paul himself had to act as evangelist and pastor in order to be an apostle. Nothing prevents God from enabling the same man to work as pastor and teacher, but that doesn’t mean that he’s always going to do it. That applies in my own case, because there are many people who will avow that I am a teacher, and many others, from congregations that I have known, who will deny that I could be a pastor. I work better with books than with people.

The ultimate purpose of equipping us with these gifts is to “build up the body of Christ”, which is achieved when all of us attain “the unity of faith” (v12).

But this is only possible when EACH of us has been built up, individually. We need, one by one, to attain “knowledge of the Son of God” and “mature manhood” in matters of faith, so that misleading teaching will no longer lead us astray.

The passage ends (vv15-16) with a complicated metaphor about “growing”, which threatens to confuse our minds in a very Pauline way. The starting-point is that we as individuals are to grow INTO Christ. The fact that we believers are “IN Christ” is one of the running themes of Paul’s teaching, especially in Galatians. But Christ is the head of the body, and this body is growing outwards FROM that head. The connection between the two statements is that the body grows as and to the extent that individuals attach themselves to Christ.

This growth process works best when we are building each other up through the ministry of the gifts. That is what is meant by the promise that growth occurs when each part [of the body] is working properly, so that the body is “joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied.”

The Love theme in Ephesians

Ephesians is held together by the theme of God’s love towards us and our consequent love towards each other.

It begins with ch1 5-6. God destined us “in love” to be his sons through Jesus Christ, this being his grace bestowed upon us “in the Beloved One”.

Ch1 v15, he praises their love “toward all the saints”.

Ch2 v4. God acted “out of the great love with which he loved us”

In ch3 vv14-19, Paul prays that Christ might dwell in their hearts through faith, so that they will be “rooted and grounded in love”. They will then be able to know “the love of Christ” (i.e. the love which Christ bears for us), which otherwise surpasses knowledge.

I once did a separate thread Who can measure the love of Christ? on the reason why the love of Christ is given four dimensions, viz. length, breath, height and depth. To cut a long story short, it is because we are standing bang in the middle of it, unable to see any outer limits, rather than objectively measuring it from outside.

In consequence, we4 ought to be “forbearing one another in love” (ch4 v2). We are to be “speaking the truth in love” (ch4 v15), so that the body “upbuilds itself in love (ch4 v16).

We are “to walk in love as Christ loved us” (ch5 v1).

This applies particularly to the relation between husband and wife. Husband need to love their wives as self-sacrificially as Christ loves the church (ch5 v25). Indeed, they should love their wives as much as they love their own bodies, which again is what Christ is doing when he loves the church (vv28-9).

He concludes by wishing “peace to the brethren and love with faith”, and “Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love undying” (ch6 vv23-4).

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