The Prophecy Series: Ephesians 4 – The Gifts of the Son (Part 1)

THIS IS PART OF AN ONGOING SERIES ON THE GIFT OF PROPHECY
Click here for the rest of the series

An example of an instructive work in the past 30 years on the gift of prophecy that obfuscates the difference between the three primary lists of gifts we have been dealing with can be found in Graham Cooke’s book Developing Your Prophetic Gift:

““Prophecy is not for some people more than others. It is not a reward for faithful years of service; it cannot be earned; it is a gift given freely by the Holy Spirit. There will inevitably be some people to whom he entrusts this gift on a regular basis. Those who are moving in an increase of revelation anointing can be said to be moving into a prophetic ministry, rather than just an extensive use of the gift. When that ministry begins to impact whole people groups, nations and governments; it will signify the change from prophetic ministry to the office of a prophet.””

— Graham Cooke, Developing Your Prophetic Gift

Just for clarity’s sake, I have great respect for Graham Cooke. This is in no way a comment on Graham Cooke’s legacy or ministry, rather, it is an indication of how we as a church have understood the nature of prophecy. According to this passage, the gift of prophecy is simply degrees of the same gift. Eventually, with enough time and maturity, any prophetic gift has the potential to become a prophetic ministry and then an international platform. The quote equates 1 Corinthians 12-14 (all can prophesy), Romans 12 (prophesy according to the faith given to you), and Ephesians 4 (prophecy as building up and equipping the church). 

When we understand the different ways the Bible talks about spiritual gifts, we can begin to address the scope of the call of each individual.

If every gift is just varying degrees of the same thing, how do we account for the bounds of the call God gives to each person? God can give someone a prophetic gift that was never intended for international use. Also, if we see the highest use of the gift of prophecy as being pointed towards national and governmental words, how does that take into account the bride of Christ and the revelation of the kingdom of God? We must re-contextualize the gift of prophecy from a biblical and historical perspective.

Not every prophetic gift is intended to have a national or international platform, in fact, I think very few are. But when that is the assumption, it becomes necessary to build a ministry with a national call.

However, we often fail to simply discern the nature of the call on our life.

The internet, social media, and marketing strategies afford anyone with any modicum of a gift from God to amplify their voice beyond the scope of their call. We have never really had to address this problem before in Christianity.

Understanding the different ways the Bible approaches the nature of these gifts will help us to find guiding principles to navigate the new reality of our contemporary society. We must be more hesitant than passionate to build a following or ministry. Patience is key to developing a heart that is only moved by God. We ought to be more passionate about being hidden rather than being seen.

The way the last generation interpreted the various lists was through the lens of prophets, not through the lens of interpersonal ministry. It was not an inherently biblical viewpoint, but rather parsed out biblical passages to understand why prophets operated the way they did. We have attempted to correct some of the fundamental misunderstandings throughout this series. Now we turn our eye to Ephesians 4 and what has been modernly identified as the five-fold ministry gifts.

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The first thing that can be said about these gifts is that at no place in the history of Christianity has this list been referred to as five-fold ministry. Looking at these gifts as leadership positions is an invention of modern authors. Scripture does not treat them positionally and history does not as well. They are graces given to the body of Christ to affect the equipping of the saints. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Before we dive in, we should at least cover what the letter has addressed so far. 

As an example of the flow of concepts that Paul addresses in the first 3 chapters of Ephesians, some of the topic titles used in study bibles are: The Blessings of Redemption (Ch 1), The Administration of the Son (1:7-14), Prayer for Revelation (1:15-23), Made Alive in Christ (Ch. 2), Transfiguration by Grace (2:1-10), The Means of Union (2:13-18), Prayer for Deification (3:14-19), Unity of the Spirit (Ch 4).

The thrust of what Paul addresses is broadly seen as a transformation in Christ and the effects of that union, both corporately and individually. Everything is tied back into the effective working of Christ in the inner man. Paul prays such things as:

• “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (3:17)

• That you would “know the love of Christ with passes knowledge” (3:19a)

• “That you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (3:19b)

• That you would receive “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him (God)” (1:17)

• That you would know “what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe” (1:19)

This should give you some context for what Paul is talking about. The main topics are the one new man, union with Christ, the joining of Jew and Gentile and the working of Christ’s power within. What follows from that, as a sort of natural progression is the primary concepts found in Ephesians 4: unity, the effect of Christ’s ascent, and the working of various gifts given to the church.

One of the major tenets of Ephesians is summed up here:

Ephesians 2:14-15 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace…

Christ, within himself, has united the divine and human, thus affecting transformation to all of humankind. This concept permeates the writings of Paul and was the way the early church fathers understood the nature of Christ, that of union between human and divine. We will have more to say of this later.

With that all established, let us take a look at Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner [a]of the Lord, [b]beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.

The first admonition of Paul is that we would walk in a way that evinces the life of Christ being shed abroad within our hearts. Of utmost importance to Paul was protecting the bond of unity. Simply put, our mutual love and our mutual submission are one of the first places people will see our love for one another and our love for them. Mutual submission is the stress test of any community. Find a place of disagreement and you will see how far your community is rooted and grounded in love.

Furthermore, our mutual love and submission is an incredible indicator of the unity found in the Godhead. This does not mean that we are perfect, it means that we love one another and submit to one another in spite of our imperfections.

This bond was practiced in deeply practical ways. Paul does not make the practice of the spiritual life an esoteric thing.

This is how we demonstrate that we are walking worthy of our calling. In this walking worthy of our calling we will preserve unity, which is a catalyst for the equipping of the saints.

We are to walk with:

• Self-worth found in Christ (walk worthy)

• All lowliness (recognizing our standing before God, He is everything we are nothing)

• All gentleness (our interaction with each other governed by tenderness)

• Longsuffering (patience during trials)

• Bearing with one another in love (patience with each other and uplifting one another as necessary)

This sets the stage for the manner in which each of these gifts is to be demonstrated within community life. The gifts should be used with all the requisite characteristics seen here. Those claiming some right to these gifts should be model characters of lowliness, gentleness, longsuffering, and bearing with one another in love. The bar has been set in the first few verses of Ephesians 4. In fact, none of the primary passages dealing with how God gifts the church allow for a lack of character, let alone a lack of love. Divisiveness, lack of submission, pride, brazenness, lust for wealth, desire for prominence, power grabs, gossip, tearing down another, and back-biting are all indications that we should not listen to that person, regardless of how gifted they appear. Unfortunately, these characteristics are far too common amongst leaders in the church, both on a local level and a national level. If any kind of reformation is in-bound for the 21st-century church, it ought to be a reformation of integrity.

John Paul Jackson has said, regarding verse 4 (one body and one spirit), that he would translate that verse in this way:

““You don’t have a hope of fulfilling the call of God on your life outside of the body of Christ.””

Too much of what constitutes contemporary “5-fold” ministry happens outside of the context of the body of Christ. The church is one, and Christ is passionate about His bride. These gifts are distinctly given to the church to effects its growth. These gifts are meant to speak directly into church affairs. Unfortunately, in today’s day, prophetic ministry is known more for its political/national component and less for its interest in the development of the church and the maturation of its members. This is an aberration as it pertains to the use of the gift of prophecy as laid out in Ephesians 4. And the use of the gift of prophecy in Ephesians 4 is distinctly different than what we explored in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12.

While these gifts tend to be most visible in the most visible people, the fact of the matter is that Ephesians 4:7 states that grace is given “to each one of us”. These gifts were not to establish a special class of leader or a type of positional authority. They are dispersed amongst the church to affect the equipping of the saints. They must be seen in the context of service. 

Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

This point cannot be emphasized enough.

This passage is not about positions, titles, or even gifts given to only certain individuals.

The list in Ephesians 4 is the outworking of Christ’s gift. What was Christ’s gift? Broadly speaking, the gift is the Holy Spirit (we have covered this at great length elsewhere - link to Manifestation of the Spirit part 2 – Acts 2:38). Grace is given to each person (each one of us) in order to serve the kingdom of God in the capacity according to the call of God on our life (Ephesians 4:1 – walk worthy of the call).

Furthermore, no one should take special pride in his gift as it was only metered out according to the measure that Christ has determined. How can you take pride in something you had nothing to do with? Similarly, none should be envious of another’s measure as their own cup has been filled according to the goodness of Christ’s measurement. While each of us has graces given by Christ, in some those graces will centralize in certain individuals. Not everyone will be an apostle. In fact, I think very few will be.

The gifts are not really gifts but graces given by Christ.

As it says, “to each one of us grace was given.” A major misreading of Ephesians 4 says that gifts serve to create a certain special class of people. Christlikeness determines the effectiveness in the kingdom of God, not giftedness. The passage only speaks of graces that have been afforded to impact the growth of the church.

Our next blog post will explore the second major misreading of Ephesians 4.

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