Bible Commentaries

I urge you, then. "I have showed you the secret Plan of God and the glory of Christ and his church to make you aware of who you are!!! What I am about to say is based on the fact of who you are in Christ!!!" A prisoner because. "I am a prisoner because I serve the Lord. My Jewish enemies have put me here because I insist on telling God's Good News to you Gentiles without forcing you to submit to The Law." Live a life. "As sons and daughters of God, you have been called to the highest standards and privileges with which man has ever been honored!!!"

Be. "Christian ethics call you to be humble, generous, and patient always! Show that your love is real by being helpful to one another in the problems and sorrows of life."

Do your best. "As Christians you all have unity in the one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13), and by the peace which grows out of love and that binds you together, do your best to preserve this unity!!!" Compare Colossians 3:14.

There is one body. Not one kind of body, but ONE BODY composed of every one who is IN FACT a son or daughter of God! Even though each congregation is the body of Christ (see note on Ephesians 2:22), and Christ is the head of each congregation in that sense, yet Christ is the head of the ONE BODY into which he unites both Jew and Gentile and brings them back to God (Ephesians 2:16). One Spirit. See note on Ephesians 4:3. Lipscomb says: "There is but one Spirit to give life, to guide, and direct that one body." One hope. The hope of eternal life created in each one who hears God's call (through the gospel, John 6:45) and responds to it!

One Lord. Jesus Christ (Acts 2:36), who by his bloody-death bought men for God and is head of the church which he built (Matthew 16:18). One faith. One living, life-giving confident trust which centers in God's finished work in Christ. Our creed is Christ!!! One baptism. The one baptism which combines water and the Spirit is the promise made to God from a good conscience (1 Peter 3:21). Lipscomb says: "One burial [in the liquid grave] of him whose heart is purified by faith, who has been crucified with Jesus Christ to sin, that he may rise [from that liquid grave] to walk in newness of life with the risen and glorified Savior."

One God and Father. Not many "gods," but ONE God for all men, both Jew and Gentile, whom the Spirit gives the right to call Father (Romans 8:15). Who is Lord of all. See 1 Corinthians 15:28. Works through all. MacKnight views this in the sense of Romans 8:28. Is in all. See Acts 17:28. The whole point of this verse is: what God is to the Christian!

Each one of us. "In addition to the gifts which I have just mentioned, which each and every Christian receives, I now mention the special gifts which Christ has for us individually. Each receives what Christ has to give them, in proportion to what Christ himself has given, some more and some less, but each from the same Hand and for the same purpose!" Christians are all equal in promises and privileges, but they are not equal in abilities and responsibilities. See Luke 19:11-27 and notes.

As the scripture says. Psalm 68:18 Septuagint. "When Christ went up to the very heights of heaven itself, he took many captives with him (the evil spirits and powers who had made slaves of men by using sin, the curse of The Law, and the fear of death); and he gave spiritual gifts to all men, both Jew and Gentile!"

Now? "Because the Jews deny that Jesus is The Christ because of his shame and death, I show you that ‘he went up' can have no other meaning but that he first came down to earth from heaven. This must be true, if the one who went up is divine, as the Psalm shows!" [Lower depth of the earth = the lower (in relation to heaven) earthly regions. If Paul had meant the world of the dead, he would have said it differently. The point-of-view is the identity of the one who came down, went up, and gave gifts to men. ]

So he. God's throne is said to be above the heavens, since God is above all! As Christ sits at God's right side, he has been raised above all! Paul declares that all the gifts working in the church at Ephesus, whether normal or supernormal, have their origin in the Christ who went up to heaven!

It was he who. Paul identifies the gifts as specific services performed in the body of Christ. Apostles. If we take this in the strict sense, it means the Twelve and Paul. Their work was complete and not one can or did take their place. They belong to the first generation of the church. Prophets. These also belonged to the first generation. They preached the Good News (God's message) which they were taught directly by the Holy Spirit. Agabus, Judas, Silas, the four daughters of 2 Timothy 4:1-5), to water (1 Corinthians 3:5-9), to train other workers (2 Timothy 2:1-2), to put things in order (Titus 1:5), and in general to teach the true meaning of the Good News (Titus ch 2). Pastors = shepherds, bishops, church elders, church leaders. In the early church, all these titles described the same men. These spiritually mature men, called by the congregation to supervise the spiritual life of the group, and to assist each member to fulfill his or her service to Christ. Teachers. Every pastor is a teacher, but not every teacher is a pastor. The church is on-the-job training for Eternity!!!

To prepare all God's people. Christ gave the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 to prepare the believing Jews and Gentiles, who are God's people, for the ordinary work of Christian service (both telling others the Good News, Acts 8:4; and benevolence), to build up the body of Christ (in spiritual strength and in numbers).

And so. The work of the leadership is to bring each Christian, man or woman, to the highest degree of spiritual maturity possible! By doing this, Christians come to a oneness in faith and knowledge of Christ. Lack of oneness implies spiritual immaturity. Of Christ's full stature. The Expositor's Greek Testament says: "The CHRISTOU is the poss. Ephesians 1:23), and when these are in us we shall have reached our maturity and attained to the goal set before us." This must be the aim of all our teaching and all our living!!!