Are they for today? The Ephesians 4:11 Gifts

Are all of the Ephesians 4:11 gifts for today?

Ephesians 4:11-13

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;

13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

According to verse 13, the gifts listed in verse 11 are given expressly for the unity of the Body.  Instead, this passage in Ephesians has been a great source of division in the church.  The question is:  are all the gifts listed by Paul in Ephesians 4 for today, or have some been replaced or even done away with?

Fortunately, Paul answers this question for us — within this same passage.

First, according to Ephesians 4:8, these gifts are ones given following Jesus’ ascension.  Paul, James (Jesus’ brother), and others listed in the New Testament all received these gifts after Jesus ascended. Remember that this passage was written by the Apostle Paul—one who was not one of the Twelve who were with Jesus before His ascension, but one who was called as an apostle by Jesus after He ascended.

Second, within this passage there is a time locator that describes if/when these gifts should cease:  “until (v. 13).”  The purpose of these four gifts is to equip the saints and to build up the body of Christ.   And, they must keep doing this until the Body attains to the unity of faith—to the full stature of Christ.

We know from Acts and from the Pauline letters that there were divisions within the Church in the first century.  Even a quick study of Church History shows that the Church, the Body of our Lord and Savior, has been divided continually through the ages.  Jesus’ prayer that we “may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You (Jn. 7:21)” has not yet truly been answered.

This should not keep us from striving toward the goal of unity.  To work toward this, however, the Church must remain within the blueprints Jesus put into place for building His Church.  If these gifts were put in place to bring unity, it only makes sense that the rejection of them would bring disunity and disharmony—and we wonder why the Church of Jesus Christ is in the shambles that it is in.  The very thing meant to bring unity has been removed!

Who removed these gifts?  God or man?  The New Testament does not contain any passages that expressly state that these gifts (or those listed in Rom. 12 or 1 Cor. 12, for that matter) have ceased, been removed, or been replaced.  Rather, it seems the Church herself has overlooked and misplaced these gifts.  And in doing so, the Church has unwittingly brought about disunity.  Without these gifts, the Body is severely handicapped — she cannot fully function as the mature Body of Christ.

The Church must restore the Ephesians 4:11 gifts to their proper place and proper use within the Body so we can press on toward the goal of unity and attain the stature of a mature man who has the fullness of Christ.