Part One

The Grace that God has given you is to be measured out again by you unto the brethren for the increase of the body in the love of Christ.

Ephesians 4:1-16

In Ephesians 4, verses 1 and 16, there is a command and God’s splendid purpose for this section. We are to walk worthy of our vocation, which is to be like Jesus doing the works to which we are appointed. And in Verse 16, there is that purpose; the body of Christ must fit and function to accomplish His goal for the Church on earth until He returns to call His bride unto Himself, judge the quick and the dead, and consummate history.

From verse 17 to the end of the chapter in verse 32, we find a set of commandments that all believers must follow, perhaps broken into sections beginning at verse 25. But if a collection of commands was sufficient, was not God’s holy law handed down through Moses enough? Or further, and more importantly, if a list of commandments was adequate to reach God in His holy hill of heaven, why did Christ suffer and die? So, there must be some attributes, some way to attain not perfection nor salvation but certain things that mark those, sealed of God unto the day of redemption, to actively pursue the mission of Christ using the tools with which God has blessed His people, each one in his way according to the Holy Bible. The law of commandments convicts of sin, but holding to the law of grace makes a believer more faithful to bear fruit for the glory of God.

Verses 1-6 tell us how to walk worthy, which is a personal presence of peace by the Holy Spirit in us, Christ being the Prince of peace. God deserves our unity (verse 3), so we have a single purpose in Christ (verse 4), for God is a unified God (Verses 5-6); therefore, being a peculiar people (1 Peter 2:9), we must be suitable men under His command.

Verses 7-16 tell us why we must walk worthy in sharing the measure of God’s grace shown to us (verse 7) because He saved us (verses 8-10) and gave us the gifts to share His grace through us (verse 11) to complete us as a unified people (12-13), showing both positive and negative attributes that require our due diligence (14-16) to walk rightly in service of Him that we might be like Him, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (verse 13).

Nothing, not one single thing in chapter 4 of Ephesians, can be accomplished except by faith. God has laid a sure foundation in Christ, given an Old and New Testament to show God’s purposes in judgment, love in grace, and for instruction in righteousness. And He’s given the indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost of God that we might be reminded of the truth, comforted in it, while training us and showing us the way of Christ. You came to this knowledge by faith; therefore, we continue in this same faith in Christ to attain all that is pleasing in His sight.

Maturing in Christ does not happen by accident; you must follow the plan of God. God wants you to walk worthy of His plan for you. So in Ephesians verses 1 through 15, we find markers of a man walking in the Spirit, serving with purpose, and growing in the faith and knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Since the text shows us indications of what maturing in Christ looks like within the body, we must accept this instruction and follow Christ in prayer and deed to be like Him, who chose us for His eternal purposes.

Some consider that Ephesians 4 is only about unity in the body or just the gifts, but the vocation and calling (verses 1 and 4) is to love as Christ loved the Church. Chapter 4 starts with “I therefore…beseech you…” We should ask what Chapter 3 is about since it’s the precursive point that Chapter 4 instructs us to apply.

The mystery of chapter 3 is the Gospel to the Gentiles; therefore, we, too, like Philip (Acts 8:26-40), Peter (Acts 10:30-48), and as James (half brother of Jesus) commands (Acts 15:13-19), must seek the lost unto the uttermost part of the earth according as Christ has made us witnesses (Acts 1:8). We are witnesses for Jesus Christ our Lord; the purpose of which in Chapter 4 is the building of the Church in the bond of faith. But, indeed, if there is strife, envy, or false prophets sowing discord, the body becomes lame, and any service would do little satisfactory and pleasing to God, showing no good fruit and none that remains to stand against persecution.

“2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling”

The new religion would have you believe that this is how we ought to behave in the face of unrepentant sinners and heathens. But context matters; this book and chapter and our verses are written to believers showing them the functions of the members of the body of Christ and a picture of how that looks if done in the faith of God and love for Him who saved us and washed us in His blood. Verses 2 through 4 give a sense of how the fruit of the Spirit should appear in us among the saints of God. Lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing with patience the weaker members, endeavoring for the unity of Spirit being knit one to another in the bond of peace.

Submit yourselves one to another in love (verse 2), being servants, for there is no chief but he who is a servant of all (Mark 10:44).

Secured by the Spirit in unity (verse 3), there is no way a Christian may be bound, one man to another, except in Christ. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 6:14). God the Spirit knows His own because those born of the Spirit are His. The mark of unity is the cement of peace, for Christ is the Prince of Peace. There is no war among the members. If Christ has saved a man, the lust of the flesh is enmity with God and causes, therefore, strife one another; all others are tares cast into eternal fire.

There is a calling on your life, and the work of God starts in the house of God through diligence to make your calling and election sure. Like mind and spirit in these things are next shown.

To be one (verses 4, 5, 6), you must submit yourself to God because that is how to be submitted to one another, as verse 2 indicates. The sin of pride seeks to make us our own god and the controller of others.

“5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

There is one God, common faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and one baptism of the believer as evidence of the fear of God in you, Christ, the head of His Church, and Holy Father God is the head of all. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God (1 John 5:7). Therefore be ye one people in Christ to serve in faith with love, blessing, and edifying the saints and proclaiming the truth of the Gospel to all men. Why? Because of the grace of God poured out from heaven when the King of saints made His covenant with you.

“7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.”

The Grace that God has given you is to be measured out again by you unto the brethren for the increase of the body in the love of Christ. If you’ve received the grace of God (verse 7) and have no measure of it for your fellows, you do err. What is the gift of grace? Forgiveness of the debt we could never pay to have eternal life in Christ. How is there a war in one body except by sin; does Christ have sin? Then go and sin no more, shedding grace abroad among the saints.

Please make sure to take benefit of the point here. We are not to thus sit down and attempt to define or measure this gift in us. Many confuse themselves looking for gifts before walking in the confidence of Christ. “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” – James 2:17. Everything starts with faith; the blessings you have from God to share are only evident by trust, not by your own might.

The measure of the miracle in us is found not in receiving but also in executing the mission or calling of God on us. The effort will be reckoned at Christ’s throne one day; walk therefore to fill up to overflowing, service upon service, even in sacrifice to our Lord. If you mark the sacrifice of Christ worthy, then so too be worthy of acceptance in service of Him. Pass the time of sojourn here in fear; “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:16.

Want to know your vocation and calling; read all 5 of these short posts and do, by faith, the four things God commands and you will discover the works He’s ordained for you.

Jesus died for your sins and rose again from the grave, this is a marvelous gift indeed; what of you now, what offering shall you give to Him but yourself because that’s what He wants (Romans 12:1-2), that ye may prove the will of God for you. What is a holy man that hides his light under a bushel basket? None of Christ’s.

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Part Two

“8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)”

Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is His death for our sins, burial, and resurrection unto eternal life (verses 8-10), by God’s grace, come the gifts.

“11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”

Pray about these, but with all confidence, I can tell you that your gift is found in the doing. Often, two years and halfway through a service, you may see God’s hand of perfecting your works unto Him; why stand ye gazing up into heaven? Pray with all seriousness at length and not only for yourself and your family. Study your Bible like your life depends upon knowing and doing those things. Assemble with other believers regularly provoking each other unto love and to good works. And tell lost sinners about how Christ paid the ultimate price for them that they might go free, condemned to eternal death no more. In these, you will find your calling.

Believe God will use you. You don’t need a new book, a guru, or today’s most popular up-and-coming Christian star; you must do what Christ says in His book. Your contributions will become evident and kept alive if you stay in faith. These four services of God will not bind you as the law would but will free you in the ordinance of grace that is in Christ Jesus, walking worthy of your calling. Faith is the currency of God that runs the economy of the believer.

Treasure. Talent. Time. Testimony.

From the beginning, Christianity was commissioned under the New Covenant as a campaign of witnessing (Acts 1:8, Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:18-20). Christianity has been turned into a lifestyle add-on to appease our sinful thoughts, but the Christian worker is primarily a witness, a teller of the truth of soul salvation through the story that never gets old. It’s outrageous, scandalous even, that the religion, ceremony, rites, and rituals are of no lasting effect, but that’s of God’s design; it’s the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by word of mouth that builds His Church by converting those called through faith and always has been.

The dying of the light is not for lack of talent or treasure but for lack of time and testimony; modern Christianity is failing, in large part, because men won’t give what’s plainly needed. Heaven forbid the idea that you can buy off God with your meager trinkets of fiat! And, you can’t outsource the work of Christ to a few paid men, woe unto us for such a thought found nowhere in Scripture. What has a professional class of “expert” Christianity done for the world?

You must give up your time and your testimony in the field; tell somebody your conversion story; tell them today! God doesn’t need another building (obviously, in fact, He’s abandoning your old ones) or a new program; the works of Christ require us (time and testimony) to elucidate the body and tell the Gospel to those who Christ would make His people, planting seeds and watering with purpose.

The Christians in the first century abandoned their former lives with glee and set about to build His Church. John Mark left the field (Acts 15:38), but he later returned to the battle as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 4:11); if you’ve left the war, rejoin the fight, God’s people need you. They weren’t the most talented (have you read the Bible?), and most surely were not rich; they gave their time in faithful service to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the known world. It will cost you something to follow Christ; is eternity worth more than your time and testimony?

Christianity is not a mountaintop monastery religion. The perfecting (completing) work of Christ in you does not come by self-centered seeking; it comes by outward giving in service, just as all the saints, by numerous examples walking in faith, have shown in the word of God. Joy is found in Christ not by inward reflection but by being like Christ to others.

How Christ was to His disciples: He taught them exhaustively what they must do upon receiving the Holy Spirit. How Christ was to the lost: He told them of their broken, sinful condition and need for salvation. It’s not complicated unless you overthink it or outsource it to create a learned class of leaders with marginal effectiveness in the Kingdom of God.

Modern Christianity is fractured because it’s not doing what God said a disciple of Christ must do. Unity of faith comes from times full of Christ, reading His word, telling two or three folks the Gospel, sharing fellowship with the body, and praying for the saints and sinners alike.

“13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”

Unity in the faith is not found among us but only in Christ! Stop looking for agreement in men, for any such thing shall never be seen, but we are all one in Christ by His will, or we are none of His, and no accord will be found! If you do the works of Christ, you will be one with Him and with each other; otherwise, is endless activity to no perfecting purpose nor glory to God before His throne; hopeless is the man seeking to please men with pious sounding agendas that are found nowhere in the Scriptures.

God gave you a battle plan and the tools to win. Please stop wandering up and down with no direction, a soldier of Christ with no battle implements, supposing there is no land to conquer in the name of King Jesus. The measure of Christ is in Him! The more you do what Christ said to do and in the manner that He said to it, the more your stature looks like He who loved you and bought you with a price. The more you serve, the greater the gift of the Holy Spirit becomes in leading you, pillowing your head at night full of the knowledge that you’ve done well as a good and faithful servant.

“14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive”

You must read and study God’s word. But that you do as Christ commands, you are lost sheep gone astray, without a master, gnawed on by wolves, having your pastures spoiled by the dung of ungodly men. We are so prone to sin that except you be steadfast in Christ, seeking to be full of the Spirit of truth at all times as a doer of the word, you will be led away by sleight of hand with cunning craftiness under Christian-sounding speech and service to no effect, bringing the judgment of God upon you. You don’t need an outside consultant to explain false doctrine; read chapter four of Ephesians and be a doer of the truth.

“And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.” And “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” – Jesus Christ in John 10:5 and 27

The simplicity that is in Christ cannot be duplicated because complications arise from any lying form seeking to deceive (2 Corinthians 11:3).

“15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ”

It’s not speaking ‘truth in love’ as we’ve heard some say. It’s telling ‘The Truth’ in love, for what greater love than to share the Gospel and the word of God, even if it offends? There is only one truth! Not a feeling, not going along with sin, not weakening the righteousness of God’s people; the truth is Jesus Christ (John 14:6)! Lest you thought meekness and longsuffering were the allowances of sin in your midst, we find in verse 15 the command to speak the truth, that the actual body, which are those sanctified by the blood of Christ, grow up in Him, all (good) things, to the glory of Holy God.

Without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6); it’s by continuous diligence in seeking to serve the Lord that our reward comes. Don’t look for the gift or blessings in this life; pray for the faith of the Almighty to be made complete in Him, for Him, and by Him (verses 12-15), and all these things (gifts and blessings) will be added.

Shall you never get started, or worse still, quit the labor of your vocation before receiving the reward of heaven, or will you forsake the calling of Christ to follow another master?

Therefore, the Marks of Christian Maturity treat the confidence Christ has placed in you as a vocation and a calling to form unity among the brethren in dispensing in love the gifts Christ gave you for your service of Him, giving all diligence to make your calling and election sure.

“16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”