11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ …
Gift giving comes by God’s nature, the inherent outflow to the His image-bearers. Spiritual gifts, of which we have four mentioned in our passage (for other spiritual gifts see Rom 12:6-8, 1 Cor 12:8-10, 1 Peter 4:10-11) are planned by God as essential to the Church. They are part of the design, the blueprint. They are essential to all else in the church, like wings are to an airplane or air to a balloon.
We can see this more clearly when we realize that spiritual gifts are not only supernatural abilities, but the gifts are also the people God raises up to do specific things. The person becomes the gift! The gift is only of value when the person so gifted uses their gift in a way that is a gifting of themselves to the church. That is grace in full operation, building up the Church. We each are God’s gift to each other!
The four gifts in our passage today are the equipping gifts. The underlying Greek word for equip means “to make someone completely adequate or sufficient for something.” These four gifted kinds of people are designed to make all the other believers adequate or sufficient for doing the ministry of the local church. “The work of service” (NASB, NIV) is translated as “ministry” (NKJV, ESV, NET). Unfortunately, in modern Christendom, ministry is thought of as being what the paid, professional staff does. However, it is something all Christians are to be involved in. The four gifts here are necessary only insofar as they equip others to do the actual work of ministry. All gifts are ministry, not just these four. In a very true sense these four gifts are really support services, not “The Ministry” of the church. The real ministry is what everyone else does.
Too much emphasis is given today to the preacher or teacher or the paid staff of the church. The four gifts are like the personnel trainers in the company, the swing coach for a professional golfer, a psychologist for marital counseling. The real work is done by the personnel of the company, the golfer and the married couple. So also in the church, these gifts support the real work being done by the rank and file who are the real workers, the true ministers of the church.
Having said all this, blessed is that church with equippers who are committed to building up others and not receiving glory for themselves.
Lord, You are the master builder of the Church. Help me to humble myself to serve others. But also let me exult in the truth that I am Your gift to others.
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