It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13, NIV)

God gave (granted) these positions to the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Without getting too much into these positions (although such a study if fascinating), why did Jesus give these to the church?

(verses 12-13) “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

So why did Jesus give the church these offices? To equip God’s people! Equip them to do what? “Works of service”

“Works of service” is a translation of the Greek phrase εργον διακονιας (ergon diakonias). The translation is quite literal. Another acceptable translation might be “work of ministry”. Either way, the thought hear is clear: the church is to do the ministry to the world and each other. A pastor’s job is not to do it alone (a pastor is still part of the church and therefore has his responsibility as well)–as a matter of fact, his job is to prepare the church to do the work. He is to teach the church how to do ministry.

Where then do we get the idea that only the “professional Christians” (pastors) have to be the only ones who teach the Bible, visit the sick, pray for others, serve on the all the committees, clean the floors, etc?


While we think on that…next time we will deal with verse 13…