We noticed that the passage has a circle, it begins talking a lot about unity with a focus on what we are to do in order to maitain a spirit of unity within the gospel community. It then deals with how there is unity in our diversity of giftings. Finally, it describes how we are all growing up into Christian maturity and Christ-likeness as part of His body which He holds together and causes to be unified.
1) Community Unity (v.1-6)
- "walk in a manner worthy of the calling"(v.1): based on all the previous studies unpacking the gospel's meaning, Paul says therefore this is to be our great aim. What an exhortation, but what does that look like? Paul helps us unpack it with some directional instructions in how we should walk:
- in humility
- in gentleness
- with patience
- bearing with one another in love
- eagering seeking unity
- there is one hope
- one Lord
- one faith
- one baptism
- one God and Father of all
2) Community Diversity (v.7-11)
Having emphasised unity so far, Paul introduces this new idea with "But" in v.7 to say that God's grace (charis) gifts (charismata) have been given to each believer in a different way, according to the measure of Christ's generosity.
-v.8 => we had a long discussion about the use of the OT quotation from Psalm 68:18 in the NT. Paul appears to quote out of context (a Psalm about Israel's victory over her enemies and receiving the gifts of spoil and tribute from them) and changing the meaning as he says that there was a giving of gifts instead.
=> God's Word is infallible (it will not lead us astray) and inerrant (it is authoritative and accurate in all it reports)
=> far from having tampered with the Word or quoted out of context (making it up), Paul here has been faithful to be meaning in the Psalm which widely was speaking of having brought a spoil from victory - which meant that the victor both received the spoil from enemies and gave it to their people. The receiving and giving in the Psalm are indissolubly linked, so Paul is being faithful to the original text in rendering it merely giving.
=> So Paul is not saying Psalm 68 was prophetically looking forward to Christ's ascension, giving of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. No he is using an analogy of the triumphany Israel as an illustration to show that Christ having triumphed through His Cross has stormed Satan's dominion, freed captives and given them gifts from His spoil of victory.
v.9 "...he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth" => we had another long discussion about what this meant and concluded it meant that one of the greatest gifts God has given us is Christ having come incarnate into this world. This is not teaching that Jesus descended into Hell, which is an erroneous doctrine arising in the 2nd century and should not have been added later in the Apostles Creed (nor appear in Robin Mark's hymn: The Lion of Judah)
v.11 lists some of the gifts God has given to His community to bless and help them:
- Apostles => the foundational period of the church had these men who were called by the risen Jesus
- Prophets => again the foundational period had prophets who wrote inspired scripture. We agreed any gift of prophecy still continuing is something a bit different, because it is not on-par with scripture and is always having to submit to its higher authority for testing.
- Evangelists => interesting that this is an office, but we are all called to in some part do the work of an evangelist (so we can't use this as an escape clause from evangelising!)
- Shepherds and Teachers
3) The Purpose or Outcome of Community Gifts (v.12-16)
The purposes of these gifts to His church is our spiritual growth in Godliness and maturity in Christ. If we do not keep our focus on these things then we will lose sight of why we are doing anything and what these gifts are for.
- "equip the saints for the work of ministry" => the ministry in focus here is the widest possible one (not just restricted to a clerical class or institutional church) we are all ministers as believers, we all have a work of ministry towards one another, to serving in the church community, to witnessing to others about the gospel. We are a priesthood of all believers.
- "the knowledge of the Son of God" => how important it is that our gifts are not meant to be the focus themselves, but rather are meant to be there to cause us to grow in our knowledge and relationship with the Lord Jesus
- "to mature manhood" => the standard for Christian maturity is not other Christians, instead it is the "stature of the fullness of Christ" => so we've all got a long way to go. But thanks be to God, that it is His work and not our own!
- "no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine" => we need to be equipped with the truth so we know what is right and wrong about the CHristian faith and the world in which we live.
- in contrast to the "crafty and deceitful schemes" of the world; we are to "speak the truth in love". We cannot just tell people the truth (we will only be a clashing gong as in 1 Cor.13) but we must always speak that truth in love. Truth is a person (not an abstract concept), the Lord Jesus and His Spirit and His Word (He is the Word incarnate); and that person is full of love. So if we are to speak of Him we must speak of His whole person of truth and love!
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