Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ephesians 4:7
But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
7. But unto every one ] A motive to holy union from the opposite side; that of “diversity of gifts.” See Rom 12:3-8; 1Co 12:4, &c.; 1Pe 4:10-11. Harmony of spiritual life and work should be promoted by equal remembrance of the oneness of the source of life and the inevitable diversity of its exercises and applications.
is given ] Was given, in the great ideal distribution at the Lord’s exaltation, and actually when we were each “sealed” (Eph 1:14).
according to the measure of the gift of Christ ] I. e., not indefinitely, or confusedly, but as the great Master, Christ, adjusted, measured, His mighty Gift to His sovereign allotment of each servant’s work. All was mere bounty, free gift; but all also profound design, manifold in detail, one in end.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But unto every one of us – Every Christian.
Is given grace – The favor of God; meaning here that God had bestowed upon each sincere Christian the means of living as he ought to do, and had in his gospel made ample provision that they might walk worthy of their vocation. What are the endowments thus given, the apostle states in the following verses. The grace referred to here, most probably means the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, or his operations on the heart in connection with the use of the means which God has appointed.
According to the measure of the gift of Christ – Grace is bestowed upon all true Christians, and all have enough to enable them to live a life of holiness. Yet we are taught here:
(1) That it is a gift. It is bestowed on us. It is not what is originated by ourselves.
(2) It is by a certain measure. It is not unlimited, and without rule. There is a wise adaptation; an imparting it by a certain rule. The same grace is not given to all, but to all is given enough to enable them to live as they ought to live.
(3) That measure is the gift of Christ, or what is given in Christ. It comes through him. It is what he has purchased; what he has obtained by his merits. All have enough for the purposes for which God has called them into his kingdom, but there are not the same endowments conferred on all. Some have grace given them to qualify them for the ministry; some to be apostles; some to be martyrs; some to make them eminent as public benefactors. All this has been obtained by Christ; and one Should not complain that another has more distinguished endowments than he has; compare Rom 12:3 note; Joh 1:16 note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eph 4:7
But unto every one of us is grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Grace determining function
I. The function or office of any Christian in the church depends upon the gift which he possesses.
II. This gift originates in the grace of Christ.
1. It is not merely by nature or education.
2. Nor is it the reward of desert.
3. Still less is it arbitrary or capricious.
III. Therefore the position and task determined by this grace should be accepted with grateful unquestioning obedience.
1. Every Christian has received some gift fitting him for usefulness.
2. Loyalty and faith towards the Head of the Church demands that he should make the utmost use of it.
3. By so doing he is the more certain to receive increase of grace for further and higher service. Every gift of the Spirit is a prophecy of greater gifts. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
The gift of Christ
The gift of Christ is the gift which He confers. That gift is measured, and each individual receives according to the sovereign will of the Supreme distributor. And whether the measure be great or small, whether its contents be of more brilliant endowment or of humbler and unnoticed talent–all is equally Christs gift, and of Christs adjustment, and all is equally indispensable to the union and edification of that Body in which there is no schism. The law of the Church is essential unity in the midst of circumstantial variety. Differences of faculty or temperament, education or susceptibility, are not superseded. Each gift in its own place completes the unity. What one devises another may plead for, while a third may act out the scheme; so that sagacity, eloquence, and enterprise form a three-fold cord, not easily broken. It is so in the material creation–the little is as essential to symmetry as the great–the star as well as the sun–the raindrop equally with the ocean, and the hyssop no less than the cedar. The pebble has its place as fittingly as the mountain, and colossal forms of life are surrounded with the tiny insect whose term of existence is limited to the summer twilight, Why should the possession of this grace lead to self-inflation? It is simply Christs gift. The amount and character of grace possessed by others ought surely to create no uneasiness nor jealousy, for it is of Christs measurement as well as of His bestowment, and every form and quantity of it as it descends from the one source is indispensable to the harmony of the Church. The one Lord will not bestow conflicting graces, nor mar nor disturb, by the repulsive antipathy of His gifts, that unity which Himself creates and exemplifies. (J. Eadie, D. D.)
Gifts differ–be natural
Now you that have lately been converted, do not go and learn all the pretty phrases that we are accustomed to use. Strike out your own course. Be yourself. But I should be odd. You need not mind that. All the trees that God makes are odd. The Dutch chip them round, or make them into peacocks, but that style of gardening is not to our mind. Some people say, What a lovely tree. I say, What a horribly ugly thing it is. Why not let the tree grow as God would have it. Do not clip yourselves round or square, but keep your freshness. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Use your own gift
It is said that in Derby resides Mr. Thomas Eyre, a veteran in the temperance cause, for forty years an abstainer and an earnest worker, but unable now to go out and labour, being paralyzed. In his window is hung a small board, with the following notice: A temperance pledge kept here. All who are weary of drinking, come in and sign. Yesterday, said our aged friend, one who has long been a slave to drink, and in great distress, came in, and for the first time signed the pledge. This example is worthy of being imitated.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. Unto every one of us is given grace] Grace may here signify a particular office; as if the apostle had said: Though we are all equal in the respects already mentioned, yet we have all different offices and situations to fill up in the Church and in the world; and we receive a free gift from Christ, according to the nature of the office, that we may be able to discharge it according to his own mind. So the free gift, which we receive from Christ, is according to the office or function which he has given us to fulfil; and the office is according to that free gift, each suited to the other.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But unto every one of us is given grace; either by grace he means gifts which are not common to all believers, but proper to some, according to their various functions and places in the church, Rom 12:6; 1Co 12:11. Or rather, more generally, it comprehends also those graces which are common to all believers as such, faith, hope, love, zeal, &c.; which though they are of the same kind in all, and have the same object, yet they are received in different degrees and measures.
According to the measure of the gift of Christ; in that measure in which it pleaseth Christ to give them, who gives to some one gift, to some another; to some one degree of grace to some another: all have not the same, but need the help of those that have what they want.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. ButThough “one”in our common connection with “one Lord, one faith, c., oneGod,” yet “each one of us” has assigned to him his ownparticular gift, to be used for the good of the whole: none isoverlooked none therefore can be dispensed with for the edifying ofthe Church (Eph 4:12). A motiveto unity (Eph 4:3). Translate,”Unto each one of us was the grace (which wasbestowed by Christ at His ascension, Eph4:8) given according to,” c.
the measuretheamount “of the gift of Christ” (Rom 12:3Rom 12:6).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But unto everyone of us is given grace,…. Which may refer to the saints in common, and may be interpreted of justifying, pardoning, adopting, sanctifying, and persevering grace, bestowed upon them all, freely and liberally, not grudgingly, nor niggardly, and without motive and condition in them; or to the ministers of the Gospel, and so design gifts fitting for the ministry, which every one has, though differing one from another, and all of free grace:
according to the measure of the gift of Christ: either according to the gift of grace to Christ before the world began, and the measure of it, which he communicates to them in time, even grace for grace; or according to that measure of gifts which Christ received from men at his ascension: it may be observed that every member of Christ, and minister of his, receive more or less grace and gifts from him; and that what they receive is all of free grace, and in measure; and though they may have gifts differing one from another, yet all are useful; so that there is no room for pride, envy, and contempt, which would break in upon the unity of the Spirit; for what is said from Eph 4:3 contains so many arguments to stir up the saints to endeavour to preserve that.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
According to the measure of the gifts of Christ ( ). Each gets the gift that Christ has to bestow for his special case. See 1Cor 12:4; Rom 12:4-6.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Every one [ ] . Rev., each. From the Church as a whole, he passes to its individual members. In the general unity the individual is not overlooked, and unity is consistent with variety of gifts and offices. Grace [ ] . The article, omitted by A. V., is important : the one grace of God, manifesting itself in the different gifts.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
SPECIAL SPIRITUAL GIFTS TO THE CHURCH
1) “But unto every one of us is given grace” (eni de hekasto hemon edothe he charis) “But to each one (individual) of tis was given grace.” The gift of grace is doled out to every man, sufficient to meet every person’s need to overcome carnal sins of pride, envy, jealousy, etc., sins so destructive to the Christian walk and influence. Where sin abounds, grace is available, Rom 5:15; Rom 5:20.
2) “According to the measure of the gift of Christ” (kata to metron tes doreas tou christou) “According to the measure of the gift of Christ.” God gives not the Holy Spirit “by measure,” for the Holy Spirit is a person (undivided) who dwells in and seals the believer forever; but grace, the unmerited favor of God, is measured out or doled out, daily, available according to man’s need; Re the Spirit, Joh 3:34; Joh 14:17; Eph 1:13-14; Eph 4:30; Re. His Grace — It is manifold, 1Pe 4:10; It is sufficient, 2Co 12:9; 2Co 3:5; It is a field in which one may grow, 2Pe 3:18; It is a teaching favor from God, Tit 2:11-14. Through God’s grace, special charismatic gifts were given to members of the New Testament church to help them in confirmation of their testimony of Christ. These gifts continued until the Bible was completed as the full revelation of Jesus Christ in God to the world and the church, at which time all special charismatic gifts of grace ceased except three: 1) faith, 2) hope, and 3) love (1Co 13:13).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
7. But to every one. He now describes the manner in which God establishes and preserves among us a mutual relation. No member of the body of Christ is endowed with such perfection as to be able, without the assistance of others, to supply his own necessities. A certain proportion is allotted to each; and it is only by communicating with each other, that all enjoy what is sufficient for maintaining their respective places in the body. The diversity of gifts is discussed in another Epistle, and very nearly with the same object.
“
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1Co 12:4.)
Such a diversity, we are there taught, is so far from injuring, that it tends to promote and strengthen, the harmony of believers.
The meaning of this verse may be thus summed up. “On no one has God bestowed all things. Each has received a certain measure. Being thus dependent on each other, they find it necessary to throw their individual gifts into the common stock, and thus to render mutual aid.” The words grace and gift remind us that, whatever may be our attainments, we ought not to be proud of them, because they lay us under deeper obligations to God. These blessings are said to be the gift of Christ; for, as the apostle, first of all, mentioned the Father, so his aim, as we shall see, is to represent all that we are, and all that we have, as gathered together in Christ.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Eph. 4:7. But unto every one of us is given grace.The distributing Spirit (1Co. 12:11) leaves no humblest member of the body of Christ without his endowment.
Eph. 4:8. Wherefore He saith.What follows is a quotation of Psa. 68:18 with free alteration (Meyer), adapting the return of the hero-king to his own city to that most magnificent of all triumphsover Hades and Deathachieved by Him who was dead and is alive for evermore. Being by the right hand of God exalted He hath poured forth this abundance, as a conqueror scatters his largess.
Eph. 4:9-10. Now that He ascended that He might fill all things.The exaltation, in His case, presupposed the humiliation. From the throne of the universethe glory which He had with the Fatherto the profoundest depths where any poor lost piece of humanity that is redeemable can be found, and thence again to the throne He relinquished. The same also.Exalted, to be confidingly and adoringly loved; humbled, to be worshipped no less as the Son of man who is in heaven.
Eph. 4:11. And He gave some to be, etc.Christ gave the persons, and the community gave to them the service (Meyer). Apostles prophets evangelists.We cannot accept the order as significant of rank. It would grace an angel to be the evangelist of such a salvation. As apostles they went forth sent by their Master to men in their need; as prophets they spoke out what He had taught them; as evangelists they were the messengers of good tidings. They were apostles that they might be evangelists (Mat. 10:5-7), going about heralding the kingdom and gathering men into it. Pastors and teachers.Shepherds and instructors of those gathered together by men of another order. These are the true bishops, whatever other name they bear (1Pe. 5:1-4).
Eph. 4:12. For the perfecting of the saints.Saints, whilst a title of the highest honour, is often expressive of the ideal rather than the real life of those who bear it; the perfecting is the rendering into actual life of what is implied in the term of honour. For the work of the ministry.R.V. into the work. If the end of all Christs gifts so far as the saints are concerned is their perfect equipment, so far as His messengers are concerned they go forth unto service first, honour afterwards. For the edifying of the body of Christ.Practically the same as the foregoing, but with an ultimate reference to Christ. The double figure of a building and of a body is familiar to our own speech, as when we speak of building up a strong frame.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Eph. 4:7-12
The Gifts of Christ to His Church
I. That each member of the Church possesses some gift from Christ.Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ (Eph. 4:7). All are not alike talented, but each one has some gift of grace. Every gift is not from earth, but from heaven; not from man, but from Christ. Look not down, then, as swine to the acorns they find lying there, and never once up to the tree they come from. Look up; the very frame of our body bears that way. It is natures check to the body. Graces are what a man is; but enumerate his gifts and you will know what he has. He is loving, he has eloquence, or medical skill, or legal knowledge, or the gift of acquiring languages, or that of healing. You have only to cut out his tongue, or to impair his memory, and the gift is gone. But you must destroy his very being, change him into another man, obliterate his identity, before he ceases to be a loving man. Therefore you may contemplate the gift separate from the man; you may admire it and despise him. But you cannot contemplate the grace separate from the man (F. W. Robertson).
If facts allure thee, think how BACON shined,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.
Pope.
The humblest member of the Church of Christ is not without his gift. The grace of the gospel elevates and sanctifies all his powers and opportunities, and turns them into noblest uses.
II. That the gifts of Christ to His Church are distributed with the lavish generosity of a conquoror returning from the field of victory (Eph. 4:8-10).We have read of the profuse gifts of victorious warriors:of Gonsalvo, the great Spanish captain, whose unselfish prodigality was proverbial. Never stint your hand, he was accustomed to say: there is no way of enjoying ones property like giving it away;of Alexander the Great, who on one occasion gave a blank draft to one of his generals with liberty to fill in any amount he chose. When the treasurer, surprised at the enormous sum inserted, asked his imperial master if there was not some mistake, he answered: No; pay it, pay it: the man honours me by assuming the inexhaustible resources of my empire;of Belisarius, whose victories were always followed by liberal and extravagant largesses. By the union of liberality and justice, writes Gibbon, he acquired the love of his soldiers, without alienating the affections of the people. The sick and wounded were relieved with medicines and money, and still more efficaciously by the healing visits and smiles of their commander. The loss of a weapon or a horse was instantly repaired, and each deed of valour was rewarded by the rich and honourable gifts of a bracelet or a collar, which were rendered more precious by the judgment of Belisarius. He was endeared to the husbandmen by the peace and plenty which they enjoyed under the shadow of his standard. Instead of being injured, the country was enriched by the march of the Roman armies; and such was the rigid discipline of their camp that not an apple was gathered from the tree, not a path could be traced in the fields of corn. Victory by sea and land attended his arms. He subdued Africa, Italy, and the adjacent islands, led away captives the successors of Genseric and Theodoric, filled Constantinople with the spoils of their palaces, and in the space of six years recovered half the provinces of the Western empire;and of Aurelian, whose triumphant entry into Rome after his victories in the East was the longest, most brilliant, and imposing of any recorded in the annals of the empire, and was signalised by rich donations to the army and the people; the Capitol and every other temple glittered with the offerings of his ostentatious piety, and the temple of the sun alone received above fifteen thousand pounds of gold. But who can measure the munificence of the ascended Saviour, the divine Conqueror, who, as the fruit of His unparalleled victory, has scattered His gifts among men, to enrich them for ever? He gives not grudgingly and sparingly, but after the measure of His own great nature. He gives not for display but for blessing, and His smallest gift out-values the most lavish donation of the richest earthly benefactor.
III. That the gifts of Christ qualify men for special work in His Church (Eph. 4:11).The apostles, prophets, evangelists linked Church to Church and served the entire body; the pastors and teachers had charge of local and congregational affairs. The apostles, with the prophets, were the founders of the Church. Their distinctive functions ceased when the foundation was laid and the deposit of revealed truth was complete. The evangelistic and pastoral callings remain; and out of them have sprung all the variety of Christian ministries since exercised. Evangelists, with apostles or missionaries, bring new souls to Christ and carry His message into new lands. Pastors and teachers follow in their train, tending the ingathered sheep, and labouring to make each flock that they shepherd, and every single man, perfect in Christ Jesus.
IV. That the gifts of Christ furnish the full moral equipment of the members of His Church (Eph. 4:12).Christs gifts of great and good men in every age have been bestowed for a thoroughly practical purposethe perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, the edifying of the body of Christ. No one man has all the gifts requisite for the full development of the Church; but it is the privilege and honour of each worker to use his special gift for the general good. The combination of gifts, faithfully and diligently employed, effects the desired end. The Church must be built up, and this can be done only by the harmonious use of the gifts of Christ, not by mere human expedients. We may have eloquent preaching, crowded churches, magnificent music, and all the superficial appearance of a great religious movement, whilst the vaunted revival is only a poor galvanised thing, a corpse twitching with a strange mimicry of life, but possessed of none of its vital energy and power. Gifts are dangerous without the grace and wisdom to use them. Many a brilliant genius has gone down into oblivion by the reckless abuse of his gifts. Christ endows His people with gifts that they may use them for the increase and upbuilding of His Church, and they must be exercised in harmony with the rules and purpose of the divine Architect. Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.
Lessons.
1. Christs estimate of His Church is seen in the spiritual riches He has lavished upon it.
2. The gifts of each member of the Church are for the benefit of all.
3. The gifts of Christ to His Church are the offerings of a boundless love.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Eph. 4:7. The Gospel according to Mark.The writers of the four gospels completed their work not for the sake of making a literary reputation for themselves, or of adding to the literary masterpieces of the world, but for the spiritual benefit of the Christian Church. Christ our Lord sitting in the heavens, seeing exactly what was wanted in the apostolic Churches, and in the Church of all time, seeing what was wanted in the evangelists themselves if they were to supply the Churchs wants, measured out His gifts to the evangelists. Accordingly, to each evangelist He gave that special gift which was needed in order to do his particular work. What was the grace that was given to St. Mark? It has been said that St. Marks gospel has no special character, that it is the least original of the four, that it is insipid, that it might have been dispensed with without loss to the harmony of the evangelical narrative. Even St. Augustine has spoken of it as an epitome of St. Matthew; and his deservedly great authority has obtained a currency of this opinion in the Western Church. But in point of fact, although St. Mark has more in common with St. Matthew than with any other evangelist, he is far from being a mere epitomist of the first gospel. He narrates at least three independent incidents which St. Matthew does not notice. He has characteristics which are altogether his own.
I. St. Mark is remarkable for his great attention to subordinate details.He supplies many particulars which evangelists who write more at length altogether omit. From him, for instance, we learn the name of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, and of Bartimus, the blind man healed by our Lord. From him we learn how Simon of Cyrene was related to well-known Christians of the next generationAlexander and Rufus. He it is who tells us that the woman of Canaan whose petition our Lord so indulgently received was a Syrophenician, and that our Lord was popularly spoken of as the carpenter. He is careful to point out more minutely than do others the scenes in which our Lord took part on four occasions. He describes particularly our Lords look. He notes the express affections of our Lords human soul, His love for the rich young man, His anger with the Pharisee, His pity for the leper, His groaning in spirit on two separate occasions. And here we have something more than a literary peculiaritythan a style of writing which corresponds to those pre-Raphaelite artists who render every leaf and every blade of grass with scrupulous accuracy. I say that we are here face to face with a moral and spiritual excellence which forms part of the special grace given to St. Mark. Close attention to details in any workman means a recognition of the sacredness of fact. Where details are lost sight of, or blurred over, in the attempt to produce a large, general, indistinct effect, there is always a risk of indifference to the realities of truth. The very least fact is sacred, whatever be its relative importance to other facts. But in a life like that of our Lord, everything is necessarily glowing with interest, however trivial it might appear to be in any other connection. This care for details is thus the expression of a great gracereverence for truth, reverence for every fragment of truth that touched the human life of the Son of God.
II. St. Mark is remarkable for the absence of a clearly discernible purpose in his gospel, over and above that of furnishing a narrative of our Lords conflict with sin and evil during His life as man upon the earth. The three other evangelists have each of them a manifest purpose in writing of this kind. St. Matthew wishes to show to the Jews that our Lord is the Messiah of the Jewish prophecy. St. Luke would teach the Gentile Churches that He is the Redeemer whose saving power may be claimed through faith by the whole race of men. St. John is, throughout, bent upon showing that He speaks and acts while in the flesh as the eternal Word or Son of God, who has been made flesh and was dwelling among us. And it has been said that St. Marks narrative is an expansion of those words of Peterthat Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him. Probably this is true; but then these words describe not a purpose beyond the narrative, but the substance of the narrative itself. St. Mark simply records a sacred life as he had learned it from the lips of Peter, not for any purpose beyond the narrative itself; but whatever it might prove beyond itself, it was to a believing Christian unspeakably precious.
III. A few words in conclusion.Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. As no two human souls exactly resemble each other, so no two souls are endowed in an exactly similar way. And for the difference of endowment let us be sure there is always a reason in the divine Mind, for each soul in every generation has its appointed work to do, without itself as within itself; and it is endowed with exactly the grace, whether of mind or heart, which will best enable it to do that particular work. Some may think that they have received little or nothingsome gift so small as to be scarcely appreciable. The probability is that they have not yet considered what God has done for them. They have spent their time in thinking of what He has withheld, instead of thinking of what He has given; of what they might have been, instead of what they are. Certainly the grace which our Lord gave to St. Paul when he wrote his great epistle to the Romans was immensely greater than that which He gave to Tertius, the poor amanuensis, who took it down from the apostles dictation, and who inserts a greeting from himself just at the end of the document. And yet Tertius, too, had his part in the worka humble but a very real part, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. He did not say, Because I am not the eye I am not of the body. He made the most of the grace which was certainly his. And others may think, rightly or wrongly, that unto them very great graces have been given according to the gift of Christ, that they are the hands or the eyes of the holy body, the men who do its work, or the men who discern the truths which support its life. Well, if it be so, this is a reason, not for confident satisfaction, but for anxiety. Such gifts as these are edge tools; they may easily prove the ruin of their possessors. For all such gifts an account must one day most assuredly be rendered; and if self has appropriated that which belongs to God or to His Church, it cannot but entail misery on the possessor. If a man has wealth, or ability, or station; much more if he has cultivated intelligence and generous impulses; most of all if his heart has been fired by the love of God, and the unseen is to him a serious reality, and he has hopes and motives which really transcend the frontiers of the world of sense, then, assuredly, his safety lies in remembering that he is a trustee who will one day have to present his account at the great audit, when the eminence of his gifts will be the exact measure of his responsibility. Eighteen centuries have passed since St. Mark went to reign somewhere beneath his Masters throne whose life he had described; but he has left us the result of his choicest gifthe has left us his gospel. What has itwhat have the three gospelshitherto done for each of us? It is recorded that John Butler, an excellent Church of England layman of the last generation, stated on his death-bed that on looking back on his life the one thing he most regretted was that he had not given more time to the careful study of the life of our Lord in the four evangelists. Probably he has not been alone in that regret; and if the truth were told, many of us would have to confess that we spend much more thought and time upon the daily papers, which describe the follies and errors of the world, than on the records of that life which was given for the worlds redemption. The festival of an evangelist ought to suggest a practical resolution that, so far as we are concerned, the grace which he received, according to the measure of the gift of Christ, shall not, please God, be lost. Ten minutes a day seriously spent on our knees, with the gospel in our hands, will do more to quicken faith, love, reverence, spiritual and moral insight and power, than we can easily think.H. P. Liddon.
Eph. 4:9-10. The contrasted Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ.
I. The circumstances of the Saviours depression from His original state.We say that a person stoops, that he bends, that he sinks. Moral correspondencies to these actions are understood. They are condescensions. Immanuel is the name of our Saviour when born into our world and dwelling in itGod with us. A local residence is thus described. And we are informed of the degree which marks His coming down from heaven, of the manner in which He came into the worldHe descended into the lower parts of the earth. What lowliness is this! Similar terms are employed in other portions of the inspired volume; by collating them with those of the text we shall most satisfactorily determine its sense.
1. The incarnation of Christ may be thus expressed.To what did He not submit? By what was He not buffeted? What insult did not disfigure His brow? What shade did not cloud His countenance? What deep waters did not go over His soul? His was humanity in its severest pressures and humblest forms.
2. This form of language may denote the death of Christ.It is the ordinary phrase of the Old Testament: They shall go into the lower parts of the earth: Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Does it not seem strange that His soul should be commended hence who had often bound death to His bidding and summoned from the grave its prey? He is brought low to the dust of death. The erect figure is prostrated. The instinctive life is arrested. That mysterious framerelated to the infinite and the divine temple of all greatness, shrine of all sanctitythat Holy Thing sleeps in death.
3. This style may be intended to intimate that burial to which He yielded.Lest I become like them that go down into the pit. So must the Son of man be in the heart of the earth. He has made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death! He is put away into darkness. He is held of death in its gloomy chambers. He is as a victim and a prey. It is a prison-keep.
4. The separation of the Redeemers body and spirit may be described in these words.We mark in this departure of His soul the simple requirement of death. It could not be retained. It descended into the lower parts of the earth. This is the reverse of resurrection and heavenward flight. It was humiliation. These are the gradations of His descent. These are the lower parts of the earth to which He declined. This is His coming forth from the Father! This is His coming down from heaven! This is His coming into the world! His measureless surrender of claims! His inconceivable renunciation of honours! Stooping to inferior and still inferior levels of ignominy! Plunging to deeper and still deeper abysses of shame!
II. The glory of His subsequent exaltation.
1. It is in itself an absolute expression of love.
2. It justifies an expectation of surpassing benefits.
3. The act regulates and secures its own efficiency.
4. This act is to be regarded as of incomparable worth and excellence.The mission of Christ contemplated the highest principles which can direct the divine conduct. He came to vindicate that character which to conceive aright is the happiness of all creaturesto uphold and avenge that law which cannot be infringed without an utter loss of good and overthrow of orderto atone for sin whose slight and impunity would have been the allowance of infinite mischiefs and evilsto bring in an everlasting righteousness adequate to the justification of the most guilty, and of the most multiplied objects who needed itleaving it for ever proved that no rule nor sanction of Gods moral government can be violated without a necessary and meet resentment! His ascension was a radiant triumph. Scarcely is it more described than His resurrection. We catch but a few notes of the resounding acclaim, we mark but a few fleeces of the glory-cloud, we recognise but a few attendants of the angel-train. With that laconic force which characterises holy writ, it is simply recorded, Who is gone into heaven.
III. The reciprocal influence of these respective facts.The same was He who bowed Himself to these indignities and who seized these rewards. And this identity is of the greatest value. Not only do we hail Him in His reinstatement in original dignities, but in the augmentation of His glories. Deity was never so beheld before. There is a combination and a form of the divine perfections entirely new. We repine that He is not here. We forget that it is expedient that He should go away. Heaven alone provides scope for His undertakings and channel for His influences. There must He abide until the restitution of all things. But nothing of His sympathy or His grace do we forego.R. W. Hamilton.
Eph. 4:9-10. The Ascension and its Results.
I. With respect to the new heavens and the new earth, what may we not infer from the ascension of Christ in full integrity of His nature above all heavens with respect to the conversion and transformation and ennobling of this material?The nature and history of His person revealed the relations clearly between heaven and earth, between God and man, between the material and the spiritual. We cannot for a moment look upon the transformation and exaltation of Christs nature as an isolated fact dissociated from the restitution and exaltation of all things spoken of in His word. The nature with which He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven was the same nature in which He was crucified, though glorified and swallowed up of life. Must we not say, then, that the body which ascended in relation to the body which was crucified and laid in the grave may illustrate the relation of the present heavens and the new earth? And, in accordance with this idea, are there not every way most wonderful changes and transformations of which the ascension of Christs body seems to be the fulfilment and crown and also the firstfruits? The flower from its imprisoned bud, the insect from its grovelling form, light out of darkness, electricity from ponderable elements, the strange affinities of matter striving to break forth from their captivity, the unerring instincts of animal life held, as it were, in bondageall seem to point with prophetic finger to a future deliverance and ennobled state and condition whilst meekly waiting, but with earnest expectation, with the whole creation for the deliverance and glorious liberty of the sons of God. The gospel therefore contains a gospel for nature as well as for manthe prediction of the day when the strife of elements shall cease, when the powers of darkness shall be swallowed up of life, when the lion shall lie down with the lamb, when the tares shall no longer grow with the wheat, when creation, now so weary, shall lift up her head and rejoice in the redemption for which she now groans and travails.
II. If we cannot dissociate the history of Jesus from the history of the earth, much less can it be dissociated from the history of mankind.He is humanity, root and crown. Humanity exists nowhere else but in Him. No aggregate of men make humanity, nor can personality be ascribed to humanity except in Him. Individual men may have a personality, but humanity is only an idea except it exists in Him who is its root and crown; and it is in this sense that He is spoken of, and that He speaks of Himself as, the Son of man. In His ascension, therefore, which carries as a necessary presupposition all the facts of His history, mankind is delivered from its curse and from bondage. Identity of nature and reciprocity of choice now constitute the most intimate union and most blessed fellowship of which we are conscious, and it is the fair offshoot, the true type of that which is to be the highest, to which He is exalted above all heavens, from which height He has promised to gather together our common humanity. In such and for such a relation He is exalted to the throne of universal dominion as the Bridegroom of mankind, to be the Head over all things to His Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him which filleth all in all.
III. What may we not learn from the fact of Christs ascensionnot merely with respect to the new heavens and the new earth, not merely with respect to mankind and its history, but with respect to the government and providence of earth? If all nature is gathered up and represented in human nature, and if all human nature is gathered up and represented in the Son of man, and if the Son of man resteth and sitteth upon the throne of universal dominion, then, my brethren, the conclusion is as direct as it is clear, that all things must be working together in the interests of His kingdom and of His Church, that all things have but one purpose and one end to which the whole creation moves. We may say with Herbert:
For us the winds do blow,
The earth does rest, heavens move, and
fountains flow;
Nothing we see but means our good
Tis our delight or has our treasure.
The whole is either cupboard of our food
Or cabinet of pleasure.
These lines contain as deep a philosophy as they do good poetry. All things unto our flesh are kind in their descent and being. As they descend to us they bless our lower nature, but as we follow them in their ascent they bless our minds. And in history are there not changes similar to and commensurate with those which we have seen in nature, and all subordinated to one end? Mighty nations and kingdoms have arisen and passed away, and passed away, we might add, in the greatness of their might. What strange development, as it has well been asked, is it that the power of the world should rise to a great height of glory, and, not able to sustain it, pass away? Because they knew not Godbecause they were prejudicial to the interests of man. The present state and prospects of the world are but the results of all its past history, of the action and reaction, the strife and ceaseless conflict, which have been going on from the firstthe strife and ceaseless conflict between the spirit of mans revolt in all the forms of will-worship and idolatrous power, and the returning spirit of allegiance towards God and His kingdom of life and love. On the one hand, therefore, we have a series of rapid and mighty developments of the very power which destroyed them when at the very height of their glory; on the other hand, we have the continuous and silent growth and expansion of the same ideasall-conquering ideas and all-conquering beliefs personally embodied from the first in men confessing their allegiance to God.Dr. Pulsford.
Eph. 4:10. The Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ.
I. Christs humiliation.Implied in the words, He that descended. These words bear the same sense with those in Psa. 139:15, and may be properly taken for Christs incarnation and conception in the womb of the Virgin
1. Because other expositions may be shown to be unnatural, forced, or impertinent, and there is no other besides this assignable.
2. Since Paul here uses Davids words it is most probable he used them in Davids sense.
3. The words descending and ascending are so put together in the text that they seem to intend a summary of Christs whole transaction in mans redemption, begun in His conception and consummated in His ascension.
II. Christs glorious advancement and exaltation.He ascended far above all heavens to the most eminent place of dignity and glory in the highest heaven.
III. The qualification and state of Christs person in reference to both conditions.He was the same, showing the unity of the two natures in the same person.
IV. The end of Christs ascension.That He might fill all things. All things may refer
1. To the Scripture prophecies and predictions.
2. To the Church as He might fill that with His gifts and graces.
3. To all things in the world. This latter interpretation preferred. He may be said to fill all things
1. By the omnipresence of His nature and universal diffusion of His Godhead.
2. By the universal rule and government of all things committed to Him as Mediator upon His ascension.South.
Eph. 4:11-12. The Work of the Ministry.
I. It is evident that public teachers in the Church are to be a distinct order of men.Christ has given some pastors and teachers. None has a right publicly to teach in the Church but those who are called, sent, authorised to the work in the gospel way. All Christians are to exhort, reprove, and comfort one another as there is occasion; but public teaching in the Church belongs peculiarly to someto those who are given to be pastors and teachers.
II. Public teachers are here called Christs gifts.He gave some pastors and teachers. The first apostles were commissioned immediately by Christ. They who were thus commissioned of Heaven to preach the gospel were authorised to ordain others. Christ gave pastors and teachers, not only to preach His gospel, but to train up and prepare holy men for the same work.
III. Ministers are to be men endued with gifts suitable to the work to which they are called.As in the early days of the gospel public teachers were called to extraordinary services, so they were endued with extraordinary gifts; but these gifts were only for a season. As the business of a minister is to teach men the things which Christ has commanded in the Scriptures, so it is necessary he himself should be fully instructed in them. In the early days, as there were evangelists who went forth to preach the gospel where Christ had not been named, so there were pastors and teachers who had the immediate care of Churches already established.
IV. The great object of the ministry is the building up of the Church of Christ.The ministry is intended for the improvement of saints, as well as for the conversion of sinners. The apostle mentions also the unity of the knowledge of Christ. We must not rest in attainments already made, but continually aspire to the character of a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.Lathrop.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(7) But unto every one of us is given grace.This verse should be rendered, To every one of us the grace (the one grace of the Lord Jesus Christ) was giventhat is, given in the Divine purpose in the regeneration of the whole body, although it has to be received and made our own, separately in each soul, and gradually in the course of life. It was and is given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. (See below, Eph. 4:13-16.) In Him it dwells without measure (see Joh. 3:34); He gives it to each according to the measure of his capacity to receive it in faith (called in Rom. 12:3 the measure of faith). Compare with this verse the fuller description of the differences of gifts, ministries, and operations in 1Co. 12:4-6, in which passage there is the same general reference to the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity; but the particular reference is there to the Holy Spirit, while here it is to the Son.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
b. As being gifted with Christ-bestowed ministries, Eph 4:7-12 .
7. Unto every one Having in the previous paragraph in spirit secured the unity of his model Church, St. Paul now attends to their individualities.
According to the measure For this unity does not presuppose a perfect equality. It requires that each one should recognise his own measure; and should exercise his gifts, and be expected to so exercise, according to that measure.
Gift A beautiful term to indicate that our every ability, natural, acquired, or gracious, is a divine gratuity, demanding thanks and imposing responsibilities.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Now to each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.’
Having stressed the oneness Paul now stresses the individuality. ‘To each one of us.’ Every Christian has his part to play in the ministry of the church. It is a ‘gathering’ of living people acting in unity not a conglomerate mass. And each is given by grace some gracious gift to contribute towards the whole (1Co 12:28-30). This is measured out to us by Christ Himself. ‘The grace of God’ which was given to Paul was to be Apostle to the Gentiles (Eph 3:2).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Christ’s gifts to the individual Christians:
v. 7. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
v. 8. Wherefore He saith, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
v. 9. (Now that He ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
v. 10. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things.)
This bit of information very properly follows the instruction concerning the union of all believers in the holy Christian Church, for it throws the responsibility upon the individual as a member of the whole: But to every single one of us is given the grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. The union of all believers in Christ does not exclude the fact of their having received various and distinctive gifts of grace. With emphasis the apostle states that every single Christian has received special gifts or some special gift from God, which he should apply in the interest of the Church, for the benefit of the brethren. He is speaking of gifts of grace, evidence of which is to be seen in the various talents of preaching, teaching, organizing, governing, mission-work, tact in charity, etc. Every Christian, by reason of the grace which he has received, through the special spiritual talent which Christ distributes from His boundless hoard, is pledged to do his part toward the maintenance of unity and peace, as well as toward the further growth of the Church.
For the fact that Christ bestows such gifts of grace in the measure which He considers best, the apostle quotes a passage of the Old Testament, Psa 68:18, calling upon the witness of God for the truth of his statement: Ascending up on high, He led captivity captive, He gave gifts to men. Psa 68:1-35, in spite of all its references to the history of the Jews, is a Messianic psalm and speaks of the triumph of the Lord Jehovah, the promised Messiah, which was fully realized by His ascension to heaven, by His entering into the unlimited use of the authority and power which was transmitted to his human nature at the time of His incarnation. Of this exalted Christ Paul now says, no longer in the form of a direct quotation, but in a free use of the passage in the quoted psalm, that He bestows gifts upon men, various gifts of His grace, of which the apostle speaks also in other places, Rom 12:6.
Paul now adds an explanation of the passage quoted by him: But this, “He ascended,” what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? The apostle does not mean to say that these two events are always correlated, but refers to the case of Jesus in particular. To His ascension to the right hand of Power in the heavenly places corresponds His descent and victorious entrance into the kingdom of Satan. Christ, having been made alive in the grave, as transfigured God-man, according to body and soul, descended into hell; and the same God-man then, before the eyes of His astounded disciples, ascended up into heaven bodily. See 1Pe 3:19-20. Thus Christ, by returning to life in the grave, had actually destroyed the power of death and of the prince of death, and His ascension was the triumphant entry of the Victor into the palace of heaven. In order to bring home this thought, Paul repeats it: He that descended, He it is that also ascended above all heavens, that Re might fill all things. The greatest height is here contrasted with the greatest depth. Above all created heavens Christ ascended, the height which He reached is the sitting at the right hand of His heavenly Father. And the object of the ascension was that He might fill all things. The exalted Christ now fills the universe with His almighty omnipresence, which fact assures us also of His gracious presence in His Church, to whose members He gives the gifts of His grace and mercy. Although the enemies of the Church, the devil and his angels, are not definitely and everlastingly bound and confined in their kingdom of darkness as yet, they are conquered, they are in Christ’s power, they cannot hinder the growth of the Church, And the final triumph of the Church with Christ, made possible by the victory of Christ, is merely a matter of time. With the conversion of the last of God’s elect the day of salvation in the endless joy of heaven will dawn.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Eph 4:7. Is given grace, &c. That their differing in some respects, though united in so many, might not be urged as a plea for self-esteem, or neglect of others who wanted such advantages, the Apostle insists upon it, that all is communicated to us in the way of free gift and unmerited liberality.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eph 4:7 . [203] ] forms the transition from the summary , , , Eph 4:6 , to each individual among the Christians. No single one, however, in order to adduce this also as motive to the preservation of the , was overlooked in the endowing with grace; on every individual was it conferred, the grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ , so that each individual on his part can and ought to contribute to the preservation of that unity.
] i.e. according to the context, the grace of God at work among the Christians , the communication of which is manifested in the diverse ; hence our passage is in harmony with the representation given, Rom 12:6 .
] by Christ.
. . .] is genitive subjecti (Rom 12:3 ; Rom 12:6 ; Eph 4:13 ). Hence: in the proportion in which the gift of Christ is meted out, according as Christ apportions to the one a larger, to the other a smaller measure of His gift ( i.e. the gift of the divine ).
The is the gift which Christ gives (2Co 9:15 ), not: which Christ has received (Oeder, in Wolf; see in opposition to this view, already Calvin), in opposition to which Eph 4:8 , . ., is decisive.
[203] See on vv. 7 9, Hoelemann, Bibelstudien , II. p. 93 ff.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
b. The gift of Christ to individuals
(Eph 4:7-10)
7But unto every [to each] one of us is given grace [was the13 grace given] according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8Wherefore he saith, When he ascended 9up on high, he led [a] captivity captive, and14 gave gifts unto [to] men. ([omit parenthesis] Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first [omit 10first]15 into the lower parts16 of the earth? He that [who] descended is the same also that [he it is also who] ascended up far [omit far] above all [the] heavens, that he might fill all things.) [omit) ].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Eph 4:7. Every one is cared for by Christ.But to each one of us, .Antithetical to through all and in all, in order to explain it and to give prominence to the subjective condition, which is a motive for the preservation of unity; of us holds fast to the circle of Christians, of believers; it recalls Eph 3:20 : in us. After the seventh one and the fourth all, prominence is given to the specializing of what is common to all, to what is peculiar to the individuals. [Hence in addition to .R.] It cannot be referred to teachers (Passavant), or to extraordinary Christians (Baumgarten-Crusius), or to the relation of Jewish and Gentile Christians (Olshausen). Each has a part in salvation, and should prove it in concord; each has a part in salvation, and hence should be treated in a fraternal manner.
Was the grace given [ ].The verb stands first for emphasis: Every one has received, no one has it of himself; each has to recognize that, for himself, in order not to be proud, for another, in order not to despise or avoid him. That which was given by Christ is the grace, Gods grace, which is active and noticeable in Christianity,17 and of which he has already spoken in ver.6 (Harless); or the grace imparted.
According to the measure of the gift of Christ [ ].One kind of grace is given, and yet very differently. It is given by Christ; hence the genitive is the genitive subjecti, on which account we find in ver.Eph 8: and gave gifts, Eph 4:11 : and He gave, accordingly that gift which He has given, not received (Oeder, in Wolf). He gives to each individual, to one more, to another less, to each the entire grace, but in peculiar form, with differently manifested strength, efficacy and tendency; hence according to the measure of the gift of Christ. [In proportion to the amount of the gift which Christ gives (Ellicott), the first genitive being a simple possessive genitive, and the second that of the agent, or both being subjective. Stier tries to combine the ideas of giving and receiving in the phrase: of Christ. The rule is not our merit, or our previous capacity, nor our asking, but His own good pleasure (Hodge).R.]
Christ has power thereto; Eph 4:8-10. a) The quotation (Eph 4:8). b) The further exposition and application (Eph 4:9-10).
Eph 4:8. Wherefore he saith. denotes that in the quotation there is a reference and proof, i.e., for the gift of Christ; as will appear. We most naturally supply , the Scripture, with , saith (Jam 4:6; Rom 15:10; Gal 3:16; 1Co 6:16 : ), and not (Meyer, Schenkel), or (Bleek: the writer). [The fact that Paul frequently supplies (Rom 4:8; Rom 9:17; Rom 10:11; Gal 4:30; 1Ti 5:18) is against Braunes view; for in some of these passages there is a reason for its insertion (see Romans, p. 314), and as the Scriptures are Gods Word (Meyer), the natural aim and obvious subject is . So Alford, Ellicott and most.R.] The quotation is from Psa 68:19 : : LXX: . In Paul it reads:
When he ascended upon high he led a captivity captive, and gave gifts to men, .The citation is unmistakable up to the last clause: Paul has used the third person instead of the second, because he would mark the application and not merely quote; but in the last clause he substitutes give for receive, and the dative for . The article is found in the Hebrew, in the Kamets, and in the singular, the general idea, which Paul expresses by the plural, inheres. Accordingly there remains but three variations of any consequence: , , to receive, what is in itself inadmissible, , to give; instead of , the dative, which is not represented by , but by , and the added . What in the glorious Psalm is said of God, whose triumphant doings on the earth are praised, and who takes up His abode on Mount Zion, in His sanctuary, to which the people festively draw near, and whither the Gentiles also will come, this the Apostle here applies to Christ. David sang of the ark of the covenant, which, after a great victory, was transferred (Stier) or brought back (Hengstenberg) to Zion. In this fact he sees the principle of the history of the Kingdom of God, appearing in ever widening circles and nobler manner; the fact is to him a type of the method and course of the Messianic kingdom. Hence the general view (Eph 4:2-7; Eph 4:29-32) and the reminiscence of the journey through the wilderness from Sinai to Zion (Eph 4:8-19). So that the Apostle is perfectly justified in finding the singers eye directed towards Christ and thus interpreting it. The height (on high) in the Psalm is first of all Zion (Eph 4:16-17; comp. Jer. 17:12, 38; Jer 31:12; Jer 34:14, where is spoken of Zion); but this is a type of heaven; of the most holy height, on which account the Apostle has heaven in his mind (Eph 4:10).18 By captivity, , according to Jdt 2:9; Ezr 6:5; Rev 13:10, we must understand captives, a troop or group of them, and not prison, captivity (Luther). This the parallelism which follows in the Psalm (Eph 70: , Vulgate: non credentes) teaches us; indeed the next clause ( ) indicates plainly enough that the notion of is that of a turba captivorum, a crowd of captives, since the passage speaks of gifts in the man (in the human race), in men, presents consisting in men, whom He received and bore with Him into the same sanctuary.19 This however the Apostle does not simply take up in his quotation, does not place it after the first clause without any connecting particle, but with , which denotes advance, something further, passes from the quotation over into the meaning: and He gave. For what God conquers, overcomes, leads with Himself, takes to Himself, makes His own, He does not wish to retain for Himself, but He transforms it, endows it, and makes it a gift: His captives become His servants, Israels servants. He makes the enemies and antagonists of His theocracy its servants. So in a higher sense Christ; He made Saul Paul, the enemy and destroyer of His church an Apostle. Gods taking, receiving, points to a subsequent giving, Christs giving to a previous receiving. Thus the taking of gifts in men passes over into a giving for men, and the citation from Davids Psalm the Apostle interprets as referring to Christ. By men, we must understand chiefly men conquered by Him, His men, to whom He has given gifts of grace, that they themselves may and can become gifts for men in wider circles (see Eph 4:11; Act 2:33).
After all this, it cannot be said that the citation is not from Psa 68:19, but ex carmine, quod ab Ephesiis cantitari sciret (Storr, Flatt), or that Paul did not know the exact words (Rueckert), nor nonnihil a genuino sensu detorsit, de suo adjecit (Calvin), or to invent an exegetical tradition from the Targums (which were made not earlier than the third century, and the Syriac and Arabic versions, altered to accord with the Apostle, and to suppose the Apostle had followed this (Holzhausen, Meyer and others). Nor should we go beyond the context, and find a reference, as in Col 2:15, to Satanic powers, which He has led captive (Chrysostom, Beza, Calov., Bengel, Stier and others), since this does not comport with the Apostles interpretation, or to the souls released from Hades (Estius, Delitzsch, Psychology, p. 358, and others), since enemies are spoken of. Finally we cannot infer from this passage in the Psalms and the use Paul makes of it this difference between the Old and New Testaments, that in the former God receives gifts from or among men, but in the latter gives to men (Schenkel).
[The real difficulty of this verse lies in the form of the last clause. That Paul quotes from the Psalm which has a Messianic reference, that Christ is represented as returning victoriously to heaven with a crowd of captives, is evident, and occasions no difficulty. But as the point of the section is Christs giving to men, it is singular that the words: gave gifts to men are not found in the Psalm, which says: received gifts among men. (, lit., in the man), or as Braune takes it, consisting in men, i.e., the captives. Dr. J. A. Alexander (Psalms, in loco): To receive gifts on the one hand and bestow gifts on the other are correlative ideas and expressions, so that Paul, in applying this description of a theocratic triumph to the conquests of our Saviour, substitutes one of these expressions for the other. If this be deemed satisfactory, and Braunes view, which obviates the difficulty in , be accepted, the solution is complete. But if the latter be rejected (see footnote on ), then we can render the original passage: has taken gifts among men (the collective sense is clearly correct) and consider the whole phrase recast by the Apostle to express the correlative idea which is at hand, and which is contained in the further, fuller, and deeper meaning of the Psalm, here succinctly, suggestively and authoritatively unfolded (Ellicott). This seems to be more satisfactory than to attempt to prove that the Hebrew expresses this meaning. It may be admitted that it is often=danda sumpsit (as Eadie clearly proves) but that it means this in the Psalm in question is very doubtful. The same view would render , for men, which becomes to men, after the bestowal of the gift. See Eadie in loco.R.]
Eph 4:9. Now that he ascended, , taken from the .[Not the word, which does not occur in the passage quoted, but the predicate, which is contained in (Meyer). The introduces a slight explanatory transition; not strictly a proof (Hodge, Ellicott, following Hofmann and Meyer) of the correctness of the Messianic application of the passage cited, but a further explanation of what it means as thus applied. Meyer now (4th ed.) gives up his former view, remarking that such a proof was unnecessary and illogical, since the subject of the Psalm in its Messianic fulfilment was self-evident, and God Himself is conceived of in the Old Testament as R.]
What is it [What does it imply] but that he also descended [ ]. =what is thereby expressed (Mat 9:13; Joh 16:17 ff; Joh 10:6)? , He has not merely ascended, but has also previously descended; the former presupposes the latter: Thus heaven is indicated as His original dwelling-place (Joh 3:13) and His Person as that glorious, helping One, who can and will give gifts. [So Meyer. It is impossible to understand the verse otherwise than as indicating heaven to be the point of departure and the place of return for Him who descends and ascends. The doubt respects only the place whither He descended and whence He ascended.R.]
Into the lower parts of the earth, .This closer definition of the descending evidently indicates the depths of the lower world, the subterranean world, which is below the surface of the earth; the genitive is partitive, governed by . The thought occurs in a variety of forms (Php 2:10 : ; Act 2:27; Act 2:31 : ; 1Pe 3:19 : . The expression here corresponds to (Psa 63:10), grammatically might be the genitive of apposition (Winer, p. 494), like (Isa 38:14). It is also true that the context up to this point would permit us to refer the phrase to the earth alone. But the following (Eph 4:10) and the design of the Apostle to show the power of Christ, require the fullest justifiable meaning of the expression, and hence the application to Hades. There is no reference to burial (Chrysostom and others), nor in accordance with Psa 139:15 to the mothers womb (Calixtus and others).
[This interpretation of the phrase: the lower parts of the earth is the one anciently received, current among Romanist expositors, and adopted more recently by Bengel, Rueckert, Olshausen, Stier, Turner, Wordsworth, Alford and Ellicott. The other view: the lower parts, viz., the earth, is accepted by the majority of modern commentators, such as Calvin, Grotius, Harless, De Wette, Hofmann, Hodge and Eadie (who gives a full statement of views and a good defence of this interpretation). It may be remarked that while one class of expositors may have been led to the one conclusion by a desire to sustain the article of the Apostles Creed; He descended into hell, the other may have been quite as much influenced by a fear of favoring the Romanist appendages to that article. Both views are alike grammatical, for while the positive would more naturally express the latter sense and the superlative the former, we have here the indefinite comparative, which may mean either. Doctrinally either view is admissible, while the considerations mentioned by Braune perhaps make the ancient view the preferable one. On Christs descent into Hades, see Dr. Schaffs note, Matthew, pp. 228229, and Lange and Mombert, First Peter, pp. 63 f., 6772. Zanchius, Barnes and others favor the notion that the phrase signifies, in general, lowliness or humiliation, a view altogether untenable, because opposed to the context, and an unnecessary departure from the literal meaning.R.]
Eph 4:10. He who descended, he it is also who ascended [ ].Both thoughts are here brought together, without , in a lively, joyous manner, marking the identity of the Person. stands first, having the emphasis, and [He, emphatic], not [the same, as in E. V.], gives prominence to the Person, who ascended out of the deepest depths, above all the heavens, ; the strongest antithesis to Eph 4:9. Under the term heavens there is no necessity for reckoning either three (Harless and others) according to 2Co 12:2, or seven (Meyer and others), according to the prevalent Jewish opinion.20 Similar expressions: Heb 4:14; Heb 7:26.
That he might fill all things, .The Apostle thus gives the motive for what he has presented [in Eph 4:7]. There is nothing into which He cannot penetrate. Comp. Eph 1:23. designates all regions into which He can carry His gifts, can penetrate with His grace and glory, all regions and all persons within them.21 There is no reference to a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy (Anselm, Koppe and others), or to the completion of the work of Redemption (Rueckert and others); nor is it to be limited to Christians (Beza, Grotius, Schenkel and others), for He rules also among and in His enemies (Psa 110:2). Chrysostom is excellent: , that He lets none slip, gives to every one, who has permitted himself to be conquered; the gracious and efficient presence of Him, the God-man, is thus established, and Eph 4:7 explained.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The idiosyncracy and freedom of the individual is as little altered by the gift of Christs grace as the former is of itself able to replace the latter by its own self-originated development. There must be giving, and indeed in this there is necessary a repeated proffering, making receptive or preparing, appropriating and preserving; the Lord offers ten times before we once receive, accept, take; so little does the Lord limit the freedom of the recipient. With the gift (Gabe), however, a task (Aufgabe) is at the same time appointed to the recipient: he must use it, gain with it. The gift does not obliterate national, corporate, local, temporal, individual differences, but purifies and ennobles them. Temperament and natural mental powers, talents and inclinations are only refined, directed, moved and used for the Lords kingdom and our own salvation. It is self-evident that the gifts of grace are not mere developments of the natural talents of the man,but this does not deny that they are planted in a natural talent (Kahnis, Lehre vom heil. Geist I. p. 72).
2. Christ is the Lord, who gives. He has fought the fight of Redemption, and stands as a conqueror there; has overcome as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and as the Lamb of God, who bears the sins of the world. He can give to every one and He is willing to do so. His , by means of which He makes men Christians, is a , grace in a special manner adapted to the individual. Comp. 1Co 12:8 ff.
3. Respecting the internal connection of the Old and New Testament, as well as for Hermeneutics and Homiletics, much can be deduced from the application of this citation from the Psalms in our passage.
a. The Apostle knows that what the Old Testament contains, the New Testament must also contain, only in a more glorious manner. Comp. 2Co 3:7-11. He knows that however different according to the different relations, which are indicated in the very character of the Old Testament revelation, it still inheres in the nature of this unity of the two revelations, to bear witness of this unity to those who can and will seek it. All that was written aforetime was written (Rom 15:4). Harless. Besides the definite prophecies, there are in the Old Testament enough types and things typical of Christ and what has taken place in and through Him. What occurred in the people of Israel and is narrated as history or sung by holy men of old, is something pointing to the future; while at the time indeed it is accomplished fact or acute sketching of a living person, yet beyond this it has a validity for the Messianic period, so that when this comes in it is related to it as to , shadow to body. In the Old Testament the Logos is concerned, but concealed, in all; in the New Testament manifested openly in all glory, full of grace and truth. The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Redeemer in the New. Comp. Riehm, Lehrbegriff des Hebrerbriefs, I. p. 131 ff.
b. Hermeneutics should perceive and show forth, in the acts of God narrated or sung in the Holy Scriptures, His administration, both going back to seek the preparatory and prophetic types, and forwards to point out the advancing accomplishment. But there must be a distinction made between what the passage to be expounded expresses as the sense and meaning of the writer, and what the deed or person, so simply and transparently described, signifies in the kingdom of God, in His people, of which signification the writer may be entirely unconscious. The knowledge which looks back to the guidance of youth is the knowledge belonging to Christianity; the guidance of youth is the history of the Old Testament theocracy; the veil which rests on the guidance of youth disappears with the knowledge of manhood in Christ (2Co 3:4-16). Harless. Every important poet, every skilful artist, may first perceive in the later inspection of his work thoughts therein, of which he neither was nor became conscious in making it. So in the Scripture often enough is there more than the writer had in his consciousness. [Comp. Exeg. and Doctr. Notes, Galatians, Gal 4:19-30. Even Eadie, who is most earnest in the effort to prove that the Apostle cites from the Psalm in accordance with its original and exact sense, says: Our position is, that the same God is revealed as Redeemer both under the Old and New Testament, that the Jehovah of the one is the Jesus of the other, that Psalms 68 is filled with imagery which was naturally based on incidents in Jewish history, and that the inspired poet, while describing the interposition of Jehovah, has used language which Was fully realized only in the victory and exaltation of Christ.R.]
c. Homiletics may and should place the biblical history of the Old and New Testament, as a concrete manifestation of a Divine thought or of Divine guidance and ways, which enclose love and wisdom for men, besides others in the present life of the world or of individuals, in order to place these latter in that true light, which the former gives. For God and the Saviour Jesus Christ is the same in the Old and the New Testament, and at all times, ours as well, in His Church. Gaupp (Homiletik I. p. 174) calls this the tropological view. [Admitting both the usefulness of teachings drawn from analogy, since analogy, figure, type, etc., all indicate the harmony of the Divine will in Creation, Providence and Redemption, and the propriety of such extensions and applications of the Old Testament on the part of an inspired Apostle, we must remember that our tropological exposition is not authoritative, and that we can base no doctrine or precept upon it, but only use it to elucidate established doctrine or enforce plain precept.R.]
4. The Christology of this passage. It says that Christ is originally in heaven; there is His eternal dwelling-place. But He betook Himself into lowliness and penetrated the universe even to the lower regions, in order to fill all with His glory. He works as King, dispensing victoriously, where He has wrought as champion. His pre-existence is taken for granted, while we are especially taught His eternal activity of grace in all directions and for all times and for every man.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Only take what Christ gives thee; thou needst envy no one.Thankfully recognize what He has given to another; it benefits thee also.Do not be satisfied with the natural endowments of your nation, your class, your family, or your intellect; let them be sanctified, purified, penetrated by grace in Christ. The most highly gifted natural man is always smaller and poorer than a living Christian (Goethe, Tersteegen).Christ is King, Lord; His sword is His word, but this is a sword.He has descended into the deep as a Redeemer: thy sin is not too deep and thy heart is not too bad: He can fill it.
Starke:Each member must be contented with his measure of gifts, received without pride, shared without envy.Dear Christian, wilt thou ascend with Christ and reach His glory, then must thou first descend and suffer.
Rieger:No one has all, and no one need be concerned lest he come away entirely empty.The origin of all gifts is to be found especially in the exaltation of Christ, which began with the victory over the rulers of darkness, over the principalities and powers who held us captive, who were themselves taken captive in the deep path of Christs humiliation, and in the moment of Christs death, when they believed they had gained the mastery over Him, must find and feel Him to be their Conqueror and Destroyer.
Heubner:The diversity of gifts as respects degree and subject, should not occasion boasting or envy. In working together for the Kingdom of God there can be no envy; where there is envy, there the labor is for personal advantage.Christs Kingdom embraces also the invisible Kingdom of God. Would this be conceivable, were He a mere man?
Passavant:It has ever been the indiscretion and folly of men in the world, that they have forgotten the One Great Giver in the gifts and gifted, looking with especial astonishment to this teacher, with especial love to this benefactor, with especial admiration to this hero;a virtual idolatry.The main blow and the victory for all time and for eternity took place in and with the death of Christin and with His Resurrection.
Stier:Each for himself and all together have to walk the same way in Christ.The gifts of Christ are themselves at the same time men; all gifts of grace are pre-eminently official gifts.
[Eadie:
Eph 4:7. The law of the Church is essential unity in the midst of circumstantial variety. Each gift in its own place completes the unity.
Eph 4:9. Reproach and scorn and contumely followed Him as a dark shadow. Persecution at length apprehended Him, accused Him, calumniated Him, scourged Him, mocked Him, and doomed the man of sorrows to an ignominious torture and a felons death. His funeral was extemporized and hasty; nay, the grave He lay in was a borrowed one. He came truly to the lower parts of the earth.
Eph 4:10. But as His descent was to a point so deep, His ascent is to a point as high. His position is the highest in the universe.R.]
[Hodge:
Eph 4:7. To refuse to occupy the place assigned to us in the Church, is to refuse to belong to it at all.
Eph 4:9-10. All other comings were typical of His coming in the flesh, and all ascensions were typical of His ascension from the grave.It is God clothed in our nature who now exercises this universal dominion; and therefore the Apostle may well say of Christ, as the incarnate God, that He gives gifts unto men.R.]
Footnotes:
[13]Eph 4:7.[The article is omitted in B. D.1 F. G. L., a few cursives, by Lachmann; bracketted by Alford; inserted in . A. C. D.3 K., accepted by Tischendorf and most recent editors. The omission was probably due to the which precedes, and some glosses still further sustain its genuineness.The order of the E. V. is altered for the sake of retaining the article, and was substituted for is, to bring out the force of the aorist.R.]
[14]Eph 4:8.[ is omitted in . A. C.2 D.1 F., versions and fathers; rejected by Lachmann, Tischendorf (ed. 2), Ellicott. It is found in (Rec.) .3 B. G.13 D.3 K. L., nearly all cursives, versions (Syrian, etc.), fathers; accepted by Tischendorf (ed. 7), Meyer, Alford, Braune. As it is wanting in the LXX, the internal evidence seems to decide in its favor; an insertion for the sake of connection is not probable.See Exeg. Notes for the text of the original Hebrew and the LXX.R.]
[15]Eph 4:9.The Rec. inserts . on the authority of .3 B. C.3 K. L., cursives, versions and fathers; it is not found in . A. C. D.1.F?., and is rejected by modern editors as an explanatory gloss.R.]
[16]Eph 4:9.[The authority for is much stronger than for (. A. B. C. D 3 K. L., nearly all cursives, a few versions and fathers), though it is open to suspicion as an explanatory gloss, and is rejected by Tischendorf, Meyer and Ellicott (omitted in D.1 F, most fathers). It is however retained, on account of the strong uncial support, by Lachmann, Scholz, Rckert, Alford and Braune.R.]
[17][The aorist points to a definite act: by Christ, at the time of His exaltationwhen He bestowed gifts on men (Alford).The grace, as the article is to be retained, has some shade of a transitive force, denoting the energizing grace which manifests itself in the peculiar gift (Ellicott) rather than the spiritual gift itself and the influence, function, or office flowing from it (Hodge).R.]
[18][The inspired and prophetic character of the Psalm, and its antiquity are undoubted (see Hitzig, Hengstenberg, Delitzsch against De Wette and Ewald). It was probably composed after a battle, and quite as probably (against Eadie) at some bringing up of the ark to the hill of Zion, which took place after a victory (Hengstenberg: taking of Rabbah, 2Sa 12:26). Alford, with reference to the return of the ark. says: It is therefore a Messianic Psalm. Every part of that ark, every stone of that hill, was full of spiritual meaning. Every note struck on the lyres of the sweet singers of Israel, is but part of a chord, deep and worldwide, sounding from the golden harps of Redemption. The partial triumphs of David and Solomon only prefigured as in a prophetic mirror the universal and eternal triumph of the Incarnate Son of God. Those who do not know this, have yet their first lesson in the Old Testament to learn. Comp. Doctr. Note 3.R.]
[19][In the revision, by Four Anglican Clergymen, captives is substituted for captivity. A captivity is a literal rendering which points to the concrete sense.As regards this concrete sense, there is little difference of opinion, the only question being: Who are the captives? Obviously enemies who have been overcome, either (a) men who become His servants, those referred to in (Braune, following some fathers, Harless, Olshausen and others), who were previously prisoners of Satan (though Braune does not bring this out, or (b) Satan, sin, death (Chrysostom, Bengel, Meyer, Stier, Eadie, Alford, Hodge, Ellicott); Calvin seeks to combine the two. The former view greatly lessons the difficulty in the last clause of the quotation, helping to justify the substitution of the notion of giving for that of receiving in the original passage. But this very fact lays it open to suspicion as an exegesis for an emergency. The other view is favored by Col 2:15 (though not to be limited by the reference there), it preserves the analogy of the comparison, and gives a forcible meaning. Other views have been suggested, but not very probable ones.R.]
[20][Alford: It is natural that one who, like St. Paul, had been brought up in the Jewish habit of thought, should still use their method of speaking. But this does not imply an acceptation of such a division of the heavens; rather this: Whatsoever heaven is higher than all the rest which are called heavens, into that place did He ascend (Bish. Pearson in Ellicott).R.]
[21][So Hodge, Eadie, Alford and Ellicott. Even Dr. Braune does not attempt to justify the use made of this passage to defend the doctrine of the ubiquity of Christs body (Farm. Concord.). On which Ellicott aptly says: Christ is perfect God, and perfect and glorified man; as the former He is present everywhere, as the latter He can be present anywhere.R.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 2108
THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST
Eph 4:7-8. Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
FROM the divisions which exist in the Christian Church, it has been said, by the enemies of Christianity, First agree amongst yourselves, before you attempt to proselyte others to your religion. That divisions do exist, is undeniable: and that they are a disgrace to our holy religion, must be confessed. But still, whilst we mourn over these differences, we believe that there is no society under heaven that is more agreed in all essential points than the Church of Christ. In the great essential points of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and the necessity of obedience to all the commands of God, there is no difference amongst any true Christians, whether they be found amongst the most enlightened philosophers or the most uncivilized barbarians. In our bodily frame there are many members, which, though widely different from each other in their use and structure, are in perfect harmony with each other, as being all actuated by the same spirit, harmoniously employed for the good of the whole. And this is precisely what exists in the Church of Christ: There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit: and there are diversities of administrations, but the same Lord: and there are diversities of operations; but it is the same God who worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal: for to one is given, by the Spirit, the word of wisdom; to another, the word of knowledge, by the same Spirit; to another, faith, by the same Spirit; to another, the gifts of healing, by the same Spirit; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, discerning of spirits; to another, divers kinds of tongues; to another, the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will [Note: 1Co 12:4-11.]. This is exactly what the Apostle affirms in the passage before us: whatever differences there be amongst us, we should forbear one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: for, amidst all those differences, there is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all [Note: ver. 26.]. Whatever differences are made, either in respect of gifts or graces, they are all made by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, agreeably to what had been foretold concerning him; as the Apostle says in our text: Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ: wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
In discoursing on these words, we shall be led to consider,
I.
The obligations we owe to Christ
On the primitive Church there were many special and miraculous gifts bestowed: in reference to which, the Apostle says of Christ, He gave some, Apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers [Note: ver. 11.]. But, whilst a distinction was made amongst the members of the Church in reference to gifts, there were graces bestowed indiscriminately on all, though in different degrees, according to the will and pleasure of the Giver of them all, the Lord Jesus Christ. And thus it is at this time:
There is amongst men a great diversity both of gifts and graces
[Some are endowed with richer talents than others originally, at their first coming into the world. In early infancy, a distinction is visible, both in respect to corporeal and mental endowments; weakness and imbecility being the lot of some, whilst strength and energy are the happy portion of others. Wealth and poverty also place men far asunder, in reference to their station in society; insomuch that, to one who considers only the outward appearance, the most elevated and the most depressed of men seem almost to belong to different orders of creation, rather than to different ranks of the same order. Something of the same may be noticed in reference to the graces of men. I say, something of the same: for, where any portion of real grace is, there is such an elevation of character, that there is a far less distance between the extremes of those who are born of God, than there is of those who are yet in their natural and unregenerate state. But St. John speaks of little children, young men, and fathers, in the Church; and consequently there must of necessity be so much of disparity in real saints as will justify the use of these appropriate and characteristic terms.]
But, whatever be the measure of any mans gifts, he is altogether indebted to the Lord Jesus Christ, as the true source and giver of them
[We see the truth of this observation in reference to intellectual powers; which, even before any means have been used for the improvement of them, are found much stronger in some than in others. And, though I readily acknowledge that talent depends, in some measure, on the cultivation of the human mind, yet I must say, it is God alone who inclines or enables us to cultivate it with effect. In like manner it must be confessed, that much also may depend on our use of the means of grace; but still I must say, that it is God alone who gives us either to will or to do; and, consequently, whatever flows from our willing and doing must be his gift also. Remember then, I pray you, to whom you are indebted for every grace you possess. Have you any measure of repentance? it is conferred on you by the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you any measure of faith? it has been given you by him to believe. Have you any measure of holiness? this also has come from Him, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. Yet we must not suppose that no guilt attaches to us for the want of these graces: we are bound to repent, and believe the Gospel, and to obey the commands of God; and shall be justly doomed to punishment, if we abide in impenitence or unbelief. Yet, for all these graces, so far as we possess them, we must confess our obligation to the Lord Jesus Christ, who, in the distribution of them, acts according to his own sovereign will: so that we have no ground for glorying, if we possess a larger measure; nor for repining, if we possess a less. We may covet earnestly, indeed, the best gifts; but, whatever be the measure of them which has been conferred upon us, we must be thankful for them, and improve them diligently, for the benefit of man, and the honour of our God.]
Whilst we acknowledge our obligations to Christ, it will be proper to inquire,
II.
Whence it is that he is empowered to confer them
Respecting this we are informed by David, who prophesied concerning our blessed Lord, and foretold that he should be invested with the power which is here ascribed to him.
Let us first understand the prophecy itself
[The psalm, from whence it is taken, was written by David, on occasion of his carrying up the ark to Mount Zion. David, having subdued all his enemies, desired to honour God by bringing up the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Mount Zion, and placing it in the tabernacle there, as its permanent abode. In celebrating this event, he goes back to the days of Moses, when all the hosts of Egypt were destroyed in the Red Sea; and the Hebrews, enriched with the spoils of Egypt, formed with them a tabernacle for the service of their God. In both events, the triumphs of Israels God were seen, and the work of their Messiah was prefigured: Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them [Note: Psa 68:18.].]
Now let us see the application of it to the Lord Jesus
[Our blessed Saviour had now vanquished all his enemies upon the cross: by death he had overcome death, and him that had the power of it, that is, the devil; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he triumphed over them openly upon the cross [Note: Col 2:15.]. In his ascension, like a mighty conqueror, he led them captive, as it were, at his chariot-wheels: and as conquerors, in their triumphs, were wont to scatter gifts and largesses among the people, so he received from his heavenly Father the Holy Spirit, and poured him forth upon the Church, in all his gifts and graces, in order that the most rebellious of men might be converted to the Lord, and the Lord God might dwell among them. The right to confer these gifts was founded on his previous conflicts and victories: and, when they were completed, the right was exercised, to the unspeakable benefit of the Church at that day; and not at that day only, but in all subsequent ages, even to the present hour.]
Now, then, see,
1.
What reason we have to bless God for the events which are this day [Note: Ascension Day.] commemorated amongst us
[The Apostle tells us, in the words following my text, that Jesus ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. This was the very end of his ascension. He had come down from heaven, that he might procure for us these blessings: and now he ascended up to heaven, that he might confer on us the fruits of his victories. The sun arises on the earth, that he may diffuse his benefits through the whole material creation: and in like manner the Sun of Righteousness is risen, to scatter forth his blessings upon fallen man. Does any one feel his need of grace, or mercy, or peace? let him remember, that the Lord Jesus Christ is ascended to heaven on purpose to bestow them. Had he not ascended, the Holy Ghost would never have been sent down to us: but now that Jesus has received from the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, no one needs to remain destitute of any spiritual blessing whatever. If it be said, we have been rebellious; I answer, our past rebellions will be no bar to the communication of his blessings to us, if only we be willing to lay down the weapons of our warfare, and to implore mercy at his hands. It is for the rebellious that he himself has received the gift; and on the rebellious he is willing to confer it. Let all then, without exception, rejoice in the evidence they have, that Christ has vanquished all their enemies; and in the certainty, that all who look to him shall be enriched out of his fulness, receiving grace upon grace, and grace corresponding with the grace which there was in him.]
2.
What rich measures of grace we are authorized to aspire after
[Though we all ought to be thankful for the smallest measure of grace, we should never be satisfied till we have attained the largest. We are told by the Apostle, that we should grow up into Christ as our living Head, even unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ himself [Note: ver. 13, 15.]. What a glorious object for our ambition is here! O brethren, be not straitened in your own bowels; for ye are not straitened in your God! The lord Jesus, who first descended from heaven, and became incarnate for you, is now ascended to heaven in the very nature that he assumed for you: and well does he know all your wants and necessities, which he is as ready, as he is able, to supply. Open wide, therefore, your mouth, in supplication to him; and be assured, that he will give you a more abundant supply of his Spirit; nor will ever withhold his hand, till you are filled with all the fulness of God.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(7) But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. (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.) (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: (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 fullness of Christ:
Every verse here is a sermon, and full of the most blessed heads of discourse. Oh ! that God the Holy Ghost, the Almighty Preacher of it, may again preach the whole life-giving contents to my soul, and engraft them there. If the Reader hath My Poor Man’s Commentary by him on the Psalms, he will find some few observations on the some Scripture, from whence the first of the verses here is taken. Psa 68:18 . In addition, let me beg him to remark, how blessedly, Christ’s triumph in our nature is celebrated, and the blessed effects which followed. In the original Scripture, it is said, that he received gifts. Yes! Christ had not then accomplished redemption-work. But here the Apostle celebrates the thing done. Now it is said, he gave them, Jesus had now returned to glory, and, therefore, all his ascension-gifts were sent down, And let not the Reader for a moment overlook, that the whole is spoken of Jesus in our nature. For his ascension implied, his descension. Christ is the same identical Person, who from everlasting, stood up the Covenant-head of his body the Church, when his delights were with the sons of men. Pro 8:22-23 etc. Hence descension, therefore, preceded his ascension, and both proved his identity. But I refer the Reader, on this point, to the Poor Man’s Commentary. Joh 3:13 .
One part, connected with this subject, I must not suffer to escape, until that I have first called the Reader’s attention to it. I mean the very blessed, and most interesting record here given of Christ’s ascension in our nature, that he might fill all things. The Holy Ghost had before recorded in the sixty-eighth Psalm, that what Christ received when he led captivity captive, he received in the man, that is, in his human nature, as the man, the God-man Christ Jesus.
Now it is the sweetest and most interesting of all subjects, the contemplation of the Son of God in our nature, Jesus still wears our nature in heaven. When he ascended, he ascended in our nature. And all he received, he received in our nature, on purpose that he might convey his mercies, gifts, and graces, to a nature like his own. Hence, this was one reason, among others, wherefore he took into union with his divine nature the human nature, that the communications might be natural. Add to these, in the Son of God assuming our nature, it qualified him for the office of a Mediator, and High Priest. Not to inform him what we are, for by his Godhead he knew this. But by a fellow feeling, that he might enter into all our concerns, and give him a pity that is natural, and which might sympathize with the nature he relieved. How sweet is it thus to view Jesus, in all his offices, and characters, and relations!
I do not think it necessary to offer any observations on the diversity of appointments in the Church, neither of the various qualifications with which the several departments are distinguished. These are all sufficiently obvious to need nothing explanatory. But I venture to make one remark from the whole, which it were to be wished was more seriously regarded. I mean, that in all the appointments, whether Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, or Teachers, all had their appointment and their qualification from the Lord. What would have been thought, in the days of the Apostles, and in the forming of the Church, if men uncalled by the Lord, and unordained by the Holy Ghost, had rushed into the ministry? Who would have dared to have taken upon him either of those offices, so soon after the descent of God the Holy Ghost, without hearing somewhat like the voice, saying, Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them! Act 13:2 . Could it ever have entered into the minds of the Apostles of Christ, that the days would come in the Church of Christ, when men, ignorant of the very Being of God the Holy Ghost, would declare themselves moved with the Holy Ghost, to take upon them the sacred office for the sake of filthy lucre?
Readers do not fail to take with you the great and important design, for which the Lord the Spirit hath established a standing ministry in his Church. It is for the perfecting of the saints, for establishing the whole mystical body of Christ, in Christ, their glorious head. Nothing, under the Lord’s teaching, can more contribute to this, than the ministry of the word and ordinances. And when the Lord causeth his people to assemble together, and He comes himself in the midst of them, everything is made blessed and refreshing. I might appeal to every well organized Church Of the Lord Jesus upon earth in confirmation. There is, no leaness of soul, no spiritual want, nothing but life and prosperity where Christ visits his Churches. The body is, indeed, edified, when the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush, dwells in the assembly of his saints. That good will flows from his heart into the hearts, of his people, and the fragrancy and savor of Christ’s name, is as ointment poured forth! Deu 33:16 ; Son 1:3 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Ver. 7. According to the measure ] And may not Christ do with his own as he listeth? Those of greater gifts are put upon hotter service, .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
7 .] But (the contrast is between and the general, and the particular. And the connexion is as a motive to keep the unity of the Spirit ‘none is overlooked: each has his part in the distribution of the gifts of the One Spirit, which part he is bound to use for the well-being of the whole’) to each one of us was given (by Christ, at the time of His exaltation when He bestowed gifts on men) [ the ] grace (which was then bestowed: the unspeakable gift, or, if the art. be omitted, grace, absolutely, was distributed to each &c.) according to the measure of (subjective genitive: the amount of: cf. Rom 12:3 , ) the gift of Christ (‘ Christ’s gift ;’ the gift bestowed by Christ. 2Co 9:15 : not, ‘the gift which Christ received,’ for He is the subject and centre here so Calv., ‘porro Christum facit auctorem, quia sicut a Patre fecit initium, ita in ipsum vult nos et nostra omnia colligere.’
Still less must we with Stier, suppose both senses of the genitive included).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Eph 4:7 . : but unto each one of us was given the grace . For some few authorities (including, however, B) read . After some few insert ( [367] 2 , 31, etc.). The article before is omitted in [368] [369] 1 [370] [371] , etc., but inserted in [372] [373] [374] [375] 3 [376] , etc. The evidence is pretty evenly balanced. Hence WH bracket ; TRV retain it; LTr omit it. The article defines as the grace of which the writer and his fellow-believers had experience, which they knew to have been given them ( ), and by which God worked in them. What is given is not the but the , the subjective grace that works within and shows itself in its result the charism , the gracious faculty or quality. The emphasis is on the , and the is rather the adversative particle than the transitional. It does not merely mark a change from one subject to another, but sets the each over against the all , and this in connection with the injunction to keep the unity of the Spirit. God’s gracious relation to all is a relation also to each individual . Not one of them was left unregarded by Him who is the God and Father of all, but each was made partaker of Christ’s gift of grace, and each, therefore, is able and stands pledged to do his part toward the maintenance of unity and peace. ( Cf. Rom 12:6 .) : according to the measure of the gift of Christ . Statement of the law of the bestowal of grace. Each gets the grace which Christ has to give, and each gets it in the proportion in which the Giver is pleased to bestow it; one having it in larger measure and another in smaller, but each getting it from the same Hand and with the same purpose. The is the gen. of the subject or agent the gift which Christ gives, as is shown by the following .
[367] Codex Ephraemi (sc. v.), the Paris palimpsest, edited by Tischendorf in 1843.
[368] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
[369] Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.
[370] Codex Augiensis (sc. ix.), a Grco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of G, and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.
[371] Codex Angelicus (sc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.
[372] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.
[373] Codex Alexandrinus (sc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).
[374] Codex Ephraemi (sc. v.), the Paris palimpsest, edited by Tischendorf in 1843.
[375] Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.
[376] Codex Mosquensis (sc. ix.), edited by Matthi in 1782.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
EPHESIANS
‘THE MEASURE OF GRACE’
Eph 4:7
The Apostle here makes a swift transition from the thought of the unity of the Church to the variety of gifts to the individual. ‘Each’ is contrasted with ‘all.’ The Father who stands in so blessed and gracious a relationship to the united whole also sustains an equally gracious and blessed relationship to each individual in that whole. It is because each receives His individual gift that God works in all. The Christian community is the perfection of individualism and of collectivism, and this rich variety of the gifts of grace is here urged as a reason additional to the unity of the one body, for the exhortation to the endeavour to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
I. Each Christian soul receives grace through Christ.
The more accurate rendering of the Revised Version reads ‘the grace,’ and the definite article points to it as a definite and familiar fact in the Ephesian believers to which the Apostle could point with the certainty that their own consciousness would confirm his statement. The wording of the Greek further implies that the grace was given at a definite point in the past, which is most naturally taken to have been the moment in which each believer laid hold on Jesus by faith. It is further to be noted that the content of the gift is the grace itself and not the graces which are its product and manifestation in the Christian life. And this distinction, which is in accordance with Paul’s habitual teaching, leads us to the conclusion, that the essential character of the grace given through the act of our individual faith is that of a new vital force, flowing into and transforming the individual life. From that unspeakable gift which Paul supposed to be verifiable by the individual experience of every Christian, there would follow the graces of Christian character in which would be included the deepening and purifying of all the natural capacities of the individual self, and the casting out from thence of all that was contrary to the transforming power of the new life.
Such an utterance as this, so quietly and confidently taking for granted that the experience of every believer verifies it in his own case, may well drive us all to look more earnestly into our own hearts, to see whether in them are any traces of a similar experience. If it be true, that to every one of us is given the grace, how comes it that so many of us dare not profess to have any vivid remembrance of possessing it, of having possessed it, or of any clear consciousness of possessing it now? There may be gifts bestowed upon unconscious receivers, but surely this is not one of these. If we do not know that we have it, it must at least remain very questionable whether we do have it at all, and very certain that we have it in scant and shrivelled fashion.
The universality of the gift was a startling thing in a world which, as far as cultivated heathenism was concerned, might rightly be called aristocratic, and by the side of a religion of privilege into which Judaism had degenerated. The supercilious sarcasm in the lips of Pharisees, ‘This people which knoweth not the law are cursed,’ but too truly expresses the gulf between the Rabbis and the ‘folk of the earth’ as the masses were commonly and contemptuously designated by the former. Into the midst of a society in which such distinctions prevailed, the proclamation that the greatest gift was bestowed upon all must have come with revolutionary force, and been hailed as emancipation. Peter had penetrated to grasp the full meaning and wondrous novelty of that universality, when on Pentecost he pointed to ‘that which had been spoken by the prophet Joel’ as fulfilled on that day, ‘I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh … Yea, and on my servants and handmaidens … will I pour forth of my Spirit.’ The rushing, mighty wind of that day soon dropped. The fiery tongues ceased to quiver on the disciples’ heads, and the many voices that spoke were silenced, but the gift was permanent, and is poured out now as it was then, and now, as then, it is true that the whole company of believers receive the Spirit, though alas! by their own faults it is not true that ‘they are all filled with the Holy Spirit.’
Christ is the giver. He has ‘power over the Spirit of Holiness’ and as the Evangelist has said in his comment on our Lord’s great words, when ‘He stood and cried,’ ‘If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink,’ ‘This spake He of the Spirit which they that believed on Him were to receive.’ We cannot pierce into the depth of the mutual relations of the three divine Persons mentioned in the context, but we can discern that Christ is for us the self-revealing activity of the divine nature, the right arm of the Father, or, to use another metaphor, the channel through which the else ‘closed sea’ of God flows into the world of creatures. Through that channel is poured into believing hearts the river of the water of life, which proceeds out of the one ‘throne of God and of the Lamb.’ This gift of the Spirit of Holiness to all believers is the deepest and truest conception of Christ’s gifts to His Church. His past work of sacrifice for the sins of the world was finished, as with a parting cry He proclaimed on Calvary, and the power of that sacrifice will never be exhausted, but the taking away of the sins of the world is but the initial stage of the work of Christ, and its further stages are carried on through all the ages. He ‘worketh hitherto,’ and His present work, in so far as believers are concerned, is not only the forthputting of divine energy in regard to outward circumstances, but the imparting to them of the Divine Spirit to be the very life of their lives and the Lord of their spirits. Christian people are but too apt to give undue prominence to what Christ did for them when He died, and to lose sight, in the overwhelming lustre of His unspeakable sacrifice, of what He is doing for them whilst He lives. It would tend to restore the proportions of Christian truth and to touch our hearts into a deeper and more continuous love to Him, if we more habitually thought of Him, not only as the Christ who died, but also as the Christ who rather is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
II. The gift of this grace is in itself unlimited.
Our text speaks of it as being according to the measure of the gift of Christ, and that phrase may either mean the gift which Christ receives or that which He gives. Probably the latter is the Apostle’s meaning here, as seems to be indicated by the following words that ‘when He ascended on high, He gave gifts unto men,’ but what He gives is what He possesses, and the Apostle goes on to point out that the ultimate issue of His giving to the Church is that it attains to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
It may cast some light on this point if we note the remarkable variety of expressions in this epistle for the norm or standard or limit of the gift. In one place the Apostle speaks of the gift bestowed upon believers as being according to the riches of the Father’s glory; then it has no limit short of a participation in the divine fulness. God’s glory is the transcendent lustre of His own infinite character in its self-manifestation. The Apostle labours to flash through the dim medium of words the glory of that light by blending incongruously, but effectively, the other metaphor of riches, and the two together suggest a wonderful, though vague thought of the infinite wealth and the exhaustless brightness which we call Abba, Father. The humblest child may lift longing and confident eyes and believe that he has received in very deed, through his faith in Jesus Christ, a gift which will increase in riches and in light until it makes him perfect as his Father in heaven was perfect. It was an old faith, based upon insight far inferior to ours, which proclaimed with triumph over the frowns of death. ‘I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.’ Would that those who have so much more for faith to build on, built as nobly as did these!
The gift has in itself no limit short of participation in the likeness of Christ. In another place in this letter the measure of that might which is the guarantee of Christian hope is set forth with an abundance of expression which might almost sound as an unmeaning accumulation of synonyms, as being ‘according to the working of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ’; and what is the range of the working of that might is disclosed to our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus, and the setting of Him high above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every creature in the present or in any future. Paul’s continual teaching is that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was wrought in Him, not as a mere human individual but as our head and representative. Through Him we rise, not only from an ethical death of sin and separation from God, but we shall rise from physical death, and in Him the humblest believer possessing a vital union with the Lord of life has a share in His dominion, and, as His own faithful word has promised, sits with Him on His throne, even as He is set down with the Father on His throne.
That gift has in itself no limit short of its own energy. In another part of this epistle the Apostle indicates the measure up to which our being filled is to take effect, as being ‘all the fulness of God’ and in such an overwhelming vision breaks forth into fervent praise of Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, and then supplies us with a measure which may widen and heighten our petitions and expectations when He tells us that we are to find the measure of God’s working for us, not in the impoverishment of our present possessions, but in the exceeding riches of the power that worketh in us-that is to say, that we are to look for the limit of the limitless gift in nothing short of the boundless energy of God Himself. In the Epistle to the Colossians Paul uses the same illustration with an individual reference to his own labours. In our text he associates with himself all believers, as being conscious of a power working in them, which is really the limitless power of God, and heartens them to anticipate that whatever limitless power can effect in them will certainly be theirs. God does not leave off till He has done and till He can look upon His completed work and pronounce it very good.
III. This boundless grace is in each individual case bounded for the time by our own faith.
When I lived near the New Forest I used to hear much of what they called ‘rolling fences.’ A man received or took a little piece of Crown land on which he built a house and put round it a fence which could be judiciously and silently pushed outwards by slow degrees and enclosed, year by year, a wider area. We Christian people have, as it were, our own small, cultivated plot on the boundless prairie, the extent of which we measure for ourselves and which we can enlarge as we will. We have been speaking of the various aspects under which the boundlessness of the gift is presented by the Apostle, but there is another ‘according to’ in Christ’s own words, ‘According to your faith be it unto you,’ and that statement lays down the practical limits of our present possession of the boundless gift. We have as much as we desire; we have as much as we take; we have as much as we use; we have as much as we can hold. We are admitted into the treasure house, and all around us lie ingots of gold and vessels full of coins; we ourselves determine how much of the treasure should be ours, and if at any time we feel like empty-handed paupers rather than like possible millionaires, the reason lies in our own slowness to take that which is freely given to us of God. His word to us all is, ‘Ye are not straitened in Me, ye are straitened in yourselves.’ It is well for us to keep ever before us the boundlessness of the gift in itself and the working limit in ourselves which conditions our actual possession of the riches. For so, on the one hand, should we be encouraged to expect great things from God, and, on the other hand, be humbled by the contrast between what we might be and what we are. The river that rushes full of water from the throne can send but a narrow and shallow trickle through the narrow channel choked with much rubbish, which we provide for it. It is of little avail that the sun in the heavens pours down its flood of light and warmth if the windows of our hearts are by our own faults so darkened that but a stray beam, shorn of its brightness and warmth, can find its way into our darkness. The first lesson which we have to draw from the contrast between the boundlessness of the gift and the narrow limits of our individual possession and experience of it, is the lesson of penitent recognition and confession of the unbelief which lurks in our strongest faith. ‘Lord I believe, help Thou mine unbelief,’ should be the prayer of every Christian soul.
Not less surely will the recognition that the form and amount of the grace of God, which is possessed by each, is determined by the faith of each, lead to tolerance of the diversity of gifts. We have received our own proper gift of God, that which the strength and purity of our faith is capable of possessing, and it is not for us to carp at our brethren, either at those in advance of us or at those behind us. We have to remember that as it takes all sorts of people to make up a world, so it takes all varieties of Christian character to make a church. It is the body and not the individual members which represents Christ to the world. The firmest adherence to our own form of the universal gift will combine with the widest toleration of the gifts of others. The white light appears when red, green, and blue blend together, not when each tries to be the other. ‘Every man hath his own proper gift of God, one after this fashion and another after that,’ and we shall be true to the boundlessness of the gift and to the limitations of our own possession of it, in the measure of which we combine obedience to the light which shines in us, with thankful recognition of that which is granted to others.
The contrast between these two must be kept vivid if we would live in the freedom of the hope of the glory of God, for in the contrast lies the assurance of endless growth. A process is begun in every Christian soul of which the only natural end is the full possession of God in Christ, and that full possession can never be reached by a finite creature, but that does not mean that the ideal mocks us and retreats before us like the pot of gold, which the children fancy is at the end of the rainbow. Rather it means a continuous succession of our realisations of the ideal in ever fuller and more blessed reality. In this life we may, on condition of our growth in faith, grow in the possession of the fulness of God, and yet at each moment that possession will be greater, though at all moments we may be filled. In the Christian life to-morrow may be safely reckoned as destined to be ‘as yesterday and much more abundant,’ and when we pass from the imperfections of the most perfect earthly life, there will still remain ever before us the glory, which, according to the measure of our capacity, is also in us, and we shall draw nearer and nearer to it, and be for ever receiving into our expanding spirits more and more of the infinite fulness of God.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eph 4:7-16
7But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men.” 9(Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) 11And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13until 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. 14As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
Eph 4:7 “to each one of us grace was given” Notice the switch from the corporate aspect of the church to the individual aspect. Every believer has a spiritual gift, given at salvation by the Spirit for the common good (cf. 1Co 12:7; 1Co 12:11). The NT lists of the gifts (cf. 1Co 12:1-13; 1Co 12:28-29; Rom 12:3-8; Eph 4:11) are representative, not exhaustive. This can be seen from the fact that the listing of the gifts and the order in which they are listed varies.
Believers are often counterproductive if they
1. boast over their gifts
2. compare one gift to another
3. define the exact characteristics of each gift
The NT does not dwell on these issues. The reality of a called, gifted family of ministers, a kingdom of priests is the issue (cf. 1Pe 2:5; 1Pe 2:9; Rev 1:6). Believers are called to service, not privilege!
“according to the measure of Christ’s gift” Jesus is God’s gift to fallen humanity. His personality (“gifts of the Spirit,” 1 Corinthians 12) and ministry (“the fruit of the Spirit,” Gal 5:22-23) are divided among His people to assure the furtherance of the gospel through their unity and cooperation in the Spirit.
Eph 4:8 This is a quote from Psa 68:18, which originally referred to YHWH. The phrase “gave gifts to men” is found in one Aramaic Targum, the Peshitta (Syriac), and Chaldee translations, while “received gifts from men” is in the Masoretic Text (Hebrew text) and the Septuagint (Greek translation). Paul obviously picked an OT translation that reflected his theological purposes. God in Christ has gifted His people. He gifted them for service, not for a privileged position (cf. Mat 20:25-28; Mat 23:1-12).
“He led captive a host of captives” The Colossian parallel (cf Eph 2:15) implies that this verse refers to a Roman military triumphal parade, in which the defeated forces were displayed. Here it refers to Christ’s victory over the hostile spiritual forces of the universe (possibly related to the Gnostic aeons).
Eph 4:9 This verse refers to either (1) the Incarnation (cf. Php 2:6-11) or (2) Jesus’ descent into Hades (cf. Act 2:31; Rom 10:6-7; or possibly 1Pe 3:18-20; 1Pe 4:6; which is reflected in the early creeds of the Church, “descended into hell”).
Eph 4:10 “far above all the heavens” This is the parallel contrast to “the lower parts of the earth.” Jesus left heaven to become a human. He returned to the highest heaven as the victorious Savior! Note the plural, “heavens” (cf. 2Co 12:2). The rabbis argued whether there were three or seven heavens. It refers to God’s presence or throne room as in Revelation 4-5.
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE HEAVENS
“that He might fill all things” Jesus came to fulfill God’s eternal plan for the uniting and redeeming of all mankind as well as physical creation (cf. Rom 8:19-21). This term “fill” (plro, cf. Eph 1:23; Eph 3:19; Eph 4:10; Eph 5:18) was a special term used by the false teachers to describe the angelic levels (aeons). Salvation is not in human knowledge but in repentant faith in Christ’s finished work-His incarnation, life, teachings, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, intercession and promised return.
Eph 4:11
NASB”He gave”
NKJV”He Himself gave”
NRSV”the gifts He gave”
TEV”It was he who gave gifts to men,”
NJB”and to some, his gift was”
Christ Himself, or rather the Trinity (cf. Eph 4:4-6; 1Co 12:4-6), gives spiritual gifts to His/their people. Believers are all gifted ministers. Some are leaders, but all are ministers. We are saved to serve.
There are several lists of spiritual gifts in Paul’s writing (cf. 1Co 12:8-10; 1Co 12:28-30; Rom 12:6-8; Eph 4:11). These lists are not identical. This implies that these lists are not exhaustive, but representative. For Paul the gifts are aspects of Jesus’ ministry given to His body (the church) to continue His ministry. The NT never gives a definitive list of the gifts or a guideline for believers’ knowing which gifts they are given. The focus is not on identifying gifts, but on the diverse aspect of ministry. One of the best practical guidelines for knowing one’s spiritual gift is found in an IVP booklet called “Affirming the Will of God” by Paul Little. The same guidelines for knowing God’s will apply to discovering one’s spiritual gift.
“apostles” This is the ongoing usage of the term beyond “The Twelve” (cf. Act 14:4; Act 14:14, Barnabas; Rom 16:7, Andronicus and Junias; 1Co 4:6; 1Co 4:9; 1Co 12:28-29; 1Co 15:7, Apollos; Php 2:25, Epaphroditus; 1Th 2:6, Silvanus and Timothy). Their exact task is uncertain, but it involves proclamation of the gospel and servant leadership of the church. It is even possible that Rom 16:7 (KJV “Junia”) refers to a feminine apostle!
“prophets” The exact function of these gifted believers is also uncertain (cf. Act 11:28; Act 21:9-11; Act 15:32). They are not the same as OT prophets who wrote Scripture. New Testament prophets apply Scripture to new and different situations. They are linked with apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers because they all proclaim the gospel, but with different emphases. See Special Topic at Eph 2:20.
“evangelists” Surprisingly, in light of Mat 28:19-20, this gift is mentioned only three times in the NT. Their task in the early church, like the previous two, is uncertain (cf. Act 21:8; 2Ti 4:5), but again obviously involved proclamation of the gospel and servant leadership. It is possible that these first three gifted leaders had itinerant or regional ministries.
“pastors and teachers” The titles “elders” (presbuteroi), “bishops” (episkopoi), and “pastors” (poimenas) all refer to one function and later office (cf. Act 20:17; Act 20:28; and Tit 1:5-7). The term “elder” had an OT background, while the term “bishop” or “overseer” had a Greek city-state background. The Greek syntax (one conjunction [de] and one article [tous]) links these two titles together as one function, one gifted person who proclaims and explains the gospel to a local situation.
It is interesting that in Rom 12:7 and 12:28 teachers are listed as a separate gift and pastors are not mentioned at all (unless it is “he who exhorts” in Rom 12:8). There is so much we moderns do not know about the early church.
Eph 4:12
NASB”for the equipping of the saints for the work of service”
NKJV”For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry”
NRSV”to equip the saints for the work of ministry”
TEV”He did this to prepare all God’s people for the work of Christian service”
NJB”so that the saints together make a unity in the work of service”
Leaders are God’s gifts given to train the Body of Christ for the work of ministry! The church needs to recapture the power, giftedness and biblical assignment of all the members of the church (clergy – laity, old – young, male – female, cf. Joe 2:28 quoted in Peter’s Pentecost sermon in Acts 2). Every Christian is a full-time, God-called, God-gifted minister.
The term “equip” means to cause something to be ready for its assigned purpose. It is used of:
1. broken limbs being healed and made useful again
2. torn fishing nets being mended and thereby able to catch fish
3. ships being fitted with ropes and sails and tacked for sea
4. chicks who had grown large enough to be taken to market
Also, notice the goal is not that only some believers became mature, but all (cf. Eph 4:13). For “saints” see Special Topic at Col 1:2.
The gifts are given to every believer for the common good (cf. 1Co 12:7; 1Co 12:11). Every believer is a called, gifted, full-time minister of Christ. Not all are “vocational” ministers, but all are servants. The modern church is crippled by (1) a clergy/laity mentality and (2) the concept of salvation as a product instead of a relational process of servanthood!!!
“to the building up of the body of Christ” Paul mixes his building metaphor (cf. Eph 2:20-22) with his body metaphor (cf. Eph 1:23; Eph 4:12; Eph 5:30). Believers are gifted for the common good, not for individual acclaim (1Co 12:7). The focus is not on the individual but on the body (cf. Eph 4:4-6). Spiritual gifts are servant towels, not merit badges! Believers are worker bees! See Special Topic: Edify at Eph 2:21.
Eph 4:13 “until we all attain” This is an Aorist active subjunctive which denotes an aspect of contingency. It literally means “to arrive at a destination.” Note that “all” speaks of our corporate responsibility. Notice the three aspects of maturity mentioned: (1) unity of the faith; (2) knowledge of the Son of God; unto a (3) Christlike maturity. Also, notice the goal is not that some mature, but all!
“the knowledge” This is the compound Greek term (epiginsk), which implies a full experiential knowledge. This was an obvious rejection of the Gnostic false teachers’ emphasis on secret, exclusive knowledge. The believers’ knowledge is complete in Christ. This may be a play on the Hebrew concept of “know” as personal relationship (cf. Gen 4:1; Jer 1:5; Php 3:8; Php 3:10) versus the Greek concept known as cognitive information. Both are needed for a mature Christianity.
“mature man” This is in contrast to “children” of Eph 4:14. The Greek root (telos) means “complete,” “fully equipped,” not sinless or perfect (KJV).
Eph 4:14 “as a result, we are no longer to be children” This implies that many believers were saved but immature (cf. 1Co 3:1-3; Heb 5:11-14). They still did not sense the necessary submission and dedication needed to be servant ministers. Believers must die to self and be alive to God (cf. Rom 6:1-14; 2Co 5:14-15; Gal 2:20; 1Jn 3:16).
NASB”tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming”
NKJV”tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive”
NRSV”tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming”
TEV”carried by the waves and blown about by every shifting wind of the teaching of deceitful men, who lead others to error by the tricks they invent”
NJB”or tossed one way and another and carried along by every wind of doctrine, at the mercy of all the tricks men play and their cleverness in practicing deceit”
This obviously refers to the false teachers, who seem to be a combination of Greek philosophers and Jewish legalists. This phrase refers both to human deception (the false teachers) and angelic deception (craftiness in deceitful scheming). Behind these false teachers lay the activity of the fallen angelic levels (cf. Eph 6:10-12; 1Co 10:20; Daniel 10). God’s people are tricked, manipulated and deceived because they have not matured in Christ. There is a spiritual battle even after conversion. The goal of the Christian is not just heaven when they die but Christlikeness and ministry now (cf. Eph 4:15; Rom 8:28-30; Gal 4:19)!
Eph 4:15 Believers are not just to speak the truth, but to live and to teach the truth in love (cf. Ezr 7:10). The goal is unity (Eph 4:2-3)! How different this was from the confusion and rivalry of the false teachers.
Eph 4:16 Paul uses the metaphor of the human body to emphasize unity in love, amidst diversity. Disunity opens the door to Satan, his angels, and false teachers (cf. Col 2:8). See Special Topic: Edify at Eph 2:21.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
unto = to.
every = each.
is = was.
grace = the grace. App-184.
according to. App-104.
measure. Greek. metron. See Rom 12:3.
gift. Greek. dorea. See Eph 3:7.
Christ. App-98.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
7.] But (the contrast is between and -the general, and the particular. And the connexion is-as a motive to keep the unity of the Spirit-none is overlooked:-each has his part in the distribution of the gifts of the One Spirit, which part he is bound to use for the well-being of the whole) to each one of us was given (by Christ, at the time of His exaltation-when He bestowed gifts on men) [the] grace (which was then bestowed: the unspeakable gift,-or, if the art. be omitted, grace, absolutely,-was distributed to each &c.) according to the measure of (subjective genitive: the amount of: cf. Rom 12:3, ) the gift of Christ (Christs gift;-the gift bestowed by Christ. 2Co 9:15 : not, the gift which Christ received,-for He is the subject and centre here-so Calv.,-porro Christum facit auctorem, quia sicut a Patre fecit initium, ita in ipsum vult nos et nostra omnia colligere.
Still less must we with Stier, suppose both senses of the genitive included).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Eph 4:7. , but) The antithesis is the word one [ and , ] in the foregoing verses.[57]-, has been given) This is taken from the psalm in the following verse.
[57] i.e. Though there is one Lord, etc., to us all, yet to each of us there is given grace according to, etc.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Eph 4:7
Eph 4:7
But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.-This likely refers to those endowed with spiritual gifts presented in the following verses, and Christ bestowed those gifts or offices as he saw each was gifted to receive and use them. The miraculous gifts did not change the talents, the dispositions, or faculties of those receiving them. They enabled them to work miracles and to know the truth, and the powers bestowed were such as were suited to the talents and dispositions of those to whom they were given.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Gifts from the Ascended Christ (Eph 4:7-13)
Our attention in these verses is especially drawn to the gifts that the ascended Christ has given His church for its upbuilding. First observe that there are gifts for all-Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Certain gifts are more outstanding and visible, but every member of the body of Christ has something that he may contribute to the blessing of the whole. No matter how feeble, how insignificant, how relatively unknown he may be, he has received something from the risen Lord for the help of all the rest.
Many parts of our physical bodies are unseen and function without any outward evidence of their working. Yet they are very important in connection with the healthy growing and maintaining of the body. In the same way every believer has his place to fill in the body of Christ. If he is not functioning according to the will of God, in some respect he affects the whole body negatively; but if he is using his gifts according to the will of God, he affects the entire body of Christ for good. These gifts come from the ascended Lord.
Verse Psa 68:8 is quoted from Psalm number 68: Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive. Just what is meant by that rather peculiar expression? It is a Hebraism, taken over literally from the Hebrew. Psa 68:18 reads: Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men: yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Some scholars attempt to explain this expression, captivity captive, by translating it a multitude of captives. But when we realize that this is simply a translation of an expression in the Psalm, we have to inquire whether the Hebrew text could be translated, A multitude of captives. I think any Hebrew scholar would acknowledge that it could not. And that is not the only place where this expression is found.
In Judges chapter 5 we read the same expression. Deborah is praising the Lord for the great victory over Canaan. In verse 12 we read, Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam. What does the expression mean there? It could only mean one thing-Lead captive him who held you captive. That seems to be the meaning of Psa 68:18, and also of this quotation in the Epistle to the Ephesians.
In Isaiah chapter 14 we have a similar expression that would adequately interpret captivity captive. We read, And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors (Isa 14:2). This surely makes the meaning clear. In our present passage the teaching is this, that our Lord in His triumph over death led captive him who had the power of death up to that time, that He might deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb 2:15). In other words, our mighty enemy, Satan, is now a conquered foe. He has been led captive at the chariot wheels of Christ, and our Lord has now ascended as man and taken His place on the throne of the Majesty in Heaven. There from His exalted seat in glory He gives these gifts to His church for its edification and blessing.
Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. We are reminded that He who has gone up higher than any other man ever went, once for our redemption went down lower than any other man has gone. I wonder if our souls really take in the fact that He is a man like ourselves, only glorified, sinless, and holy, sitting today on the throne of God. A mans heart beats in His breast, and there are no sorrows that come to His people but what He enters sympathetically, compassionately, into them. Therefore, having not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, we may come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Heb 4:15-16).
Theres a Man in the glory I know very well,
I have known Him for years, and His goodness can tell;
One day in His mercy He knocked at my door,
And asking admittance knocked many times oer.
But when I went to Him and stood face to face
And listened a while to His story of grace,
How He suffered for sinners and put away sin,
I heartily, thankfully, welcomed Him in.
And now I have the assurance from the Word of God that that Man sits there at the Fathers right hand, ever living to make intercession for His needy people as they go through this world. Go to Him in the hour of trial, tell not half the story, but the whole, and be assured that He will listen sympathetically and undertake for you according to the riches of His grace. He always has taken it upon Himself to work for His people in a marvelous way.
He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. These are the gifts that Christ Himself has given. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12 Paul listed various operations of the Holy Spirit through the church in the beginning of its early conflict with heathenism and Judaism. But in Ephesians the gifts are for the building and maintaining of the church. They were given by the risen Christ to enable the church to carry the message to a lost world, and to build up its individual members in the knowledge of Christ.
Our Lord chose apostles when He was here on earth, but said that in the glorious millennial age, they would sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. As the ascended Christ He has given apostles and prophets to His church, but they are given from Heaven. They included the same apostles that He chose on earth, but it was after they were filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that they were seen as given to the church. The apostles and prophets laid the foundation. We read in Eph 2:20 : And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. You do not lay a foundation for a building every few stories, but the foundation is built once for all and then the superstructure is erected. Long ago, nineteen hundred years ago, the apostles and prophets fulfilled their ministry. We are not looking for new apostles and prophets.
A young Mormon elder came to me at one time and asked, What church do you belong to? I knew at once what he had in mind, and so I replied, I belong to the one true church that has apostles and prophets in it.
Oh, he said, then you must be a latter-day saint.
No, I am a former-day saint.
But ours is the only church that has apostles and prophets.
I do not think so. The church that I belong to is building on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and although they themselves have passed off the scene long ago they are still members of this church, for it does not exist only on earth. They are part of the host though they have passed from this world and are in the presence of God. They are still members of the church.
But we have apostles and prophets in our day.
But, you see, I said, the apostles and prophets were to lay the foundation, and if I understand the Word of God correctly, the temple of the living God-this wonderful church He is erecting-has been building for nineteen hundred years and it is now just about completed, and you do not put a foundation on the roof. It is away down, nineteen hundred stories below, and the temple has been rising on that foundation all through the years. We are now just putting the finishing touches on the roof. We are gathering in poor sinners, just one and another here and there. They are not coming in large numbers these days, but those that are coming are being added to the roof, and it will not be long until it will be complete and then we will all go to Heaven.
The other gifts Paul listed are very obvious today. What is the evangelist? He is the bearer of glad tidings. The ministry of the evangelist is especially sent to the world outside of Christianity. If God gifts a man as an evangelist, He fills his heart with fervent love for a lost world and gives him the ability to proclaim the gospel in freshness and power. What a marvelous gift is that of the evangelist! We do not all have it in the way we should like to have it. It is a privilege to teach the Word and build up the saints, but when I think of the mighty men that God has qualified and sent out as evangelists to win the lost, I covet such a gift. If you are a young preacher and have the evangelistic gift, thank God for it, cherish it, do not despise it. Do not say, I wish I could teach the Bible like certain men. It is very good if God gifts you for that, but I would rather be used of God to win lost sinners to Christ than even to teach and instruct Christians.
Someone at one time reproved Duncan Matheson for preaching the gospel at a great conference of believers, and said, You kept all these people sitting here for an hour listening to what they already know, when they came to hear a wonderful unfolding of new truth.
Why, he said, were there no sinners here today?
Oh, there may have been a few.
Very well, that is all right then. I did not make a mistake because if people are Christians, they will manage to wiggle awa to Heaven some way if they never learn another thing, but poor sinners will have to be saved or be in Hell.
Never forget that. And if you are a lost sinner-Christless, hopeless-let me impress this on you: You must choose Christ or Hell, and to neglect the one is to choose the other. I wish I could proclaim that message in a way that dying men would hear, and hearing would believe and flee from the wrath to come. That is the special province of the evangelist. He goes out into the world and wins souls for Christ, and then the Spirit of God brings them into the church of God.
As we continue in Ephesians chapter 4 we read that He also gave the gift of pastors. The word means shepherds. A true pastor is a shepherd who has a heart for the sheep of Christs flock. Our Lord challenged Peter with the words, Lovest thou me more than these? After Peter earnestly confessed, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee, Jesus said, Feed my sheepFeed my lambs. With those words He constituted Peter a pastor of His flock. What a precious gift that is! The evangelist finds them as lost sheep wandering in the wilderness and brings them into the flock. Then the pastor seeks to lead them into the green pastures of Gods Word, to minister to them when they are sick, to be with them when they are dying, to point them to the cross in the hour when faith may be weak, to enter into their sorrows: that is the work of a real pastor. No theological seminary, no college or university can make a pastor. It is the Holy Spirit of God alone who gives a man a pastors heart, and fills him with yearning love for the people of God.
The next gift mentioned is that of the teacher. What is the difference between the pastor and the teacher? In 1Co 12:8 we read, For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. We may say that the pastor has in a peculiar sense die word of wisdom, the teacher the word of knowledge. It is the special province of the teacher to explain the truth of Gods Word in a clear, orderly way so that people may grasp it and profit by it, that they may understand the divine plan and thus apply the truth to their own needs. And it is the responsibility of the pastor to press the truth home to the conscience in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Do you ever remember a time in your life when you were going through some special trial and perplexity? Perhaps you said, I need to go to church, and you went with a heavy burden. During the meeting someone stood up to expound the Word of God, and you were edified. He took a certain portion of Scripture and made it clear and beautiful, and it did you good, but as you left the place you said, Well, his message didnt touch my case at all. I have no more answers to my problem than I had when I came in. I am glad I came though, for I was blessed. I will always understand that portion of Scripture better than I have in the past. But you went away with the same burden with which you came. On another occasion you returned to church, and again someone read a portion of Scripture. As he began to expound it you said, Why, he seems to know exactly what I am going through. He seems to understand exactly what my problem is. That is just what I need. And as the Word was unfolded, your soul was stirred and your heart blessed. You went away praising the Lord for giving such gifts to His people, and thanking Him that through the explanation of His Word your perplexity was removed. You were listening to the teacher in the first case, and in the second to the pastor. One had the word of knowledge and the other the word of wisdom. What is wisdom? It is knowledge applied to meeting a distinct and definite case.
Look at verse Eph 4:12. Why did Christ give apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers? For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. The punctuation in the King James version of this verse would lead us to assume that the purpose was threefold-the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ. And to what would that conclusion lead you? That the work of perfecting the saints and the work of the ministry and the edifying of the body belongs entirely to those who have been set apart in a special way as pastors and teachers and evangelists. That is the conclusion many have come to, and people are quite content to depend on the man in the pulpit and say, Dont we commission him to do the work of the ministry? Isnt he to do the work of building up the body of Christ? But there are no punctuation marks in the original text; they have simply been put there by editors. I am going to take the liberty of removing the commas in verse Eph 4:12. Go back to verse Eph 4:11 – He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ. Do you see any difference? It is not that the pastors and teachers are a kind of close corporation whose business it is to do all these things. But when God gifts a man as a preacher or a teacher he is to exercise that gift for the developing of the saints in order that they might do the work of the ministry and thus build up the body of Christ. This is an altogether different thing.
A dear young fellow came to me and said, Are any of your sermons copyrighted?
No, indeed they are not, I said.
I am glad to hear it, because I heard you a week ago and went out and preached your sermon at a mission. I wondered whether I had any right to do it.
I said, If something gripped your soul that you can pass on to somebody else and make it a blessing to them, I thank God for it. If you get a convert, you will be the father and I will be the grandfather.
I read in Moodys life story that years ago he would go on Sunday morning to hear the different preachers of the day, and then in the afternoon and evening he would be out in the missions and on the street corners preaching the sermons he had heard. He would come back and say to one of these ministers, Doctor, I preached your sermon five times last week, and won about forty souls. The preacher would look at him in a strange way, for he had probably not seen a soul saved for weeks or months. Our risen Lord gives some the gift of apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and some teachers, but it is in order that all may profit thereby, for all the saints are to carry on the work of the ministry for the building up of the body of Christ. Do not be content to come to the meetings and just be a spiritual sponge. Fill up, and then let the Lord do some squeezing. Give it out to somebody else, and then you will be carrying out the true principle of New Testament ministry.
How long will this go on? 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 (Eph 4:13). What does that mean? It means that this work will continue until the entire church will be gathered home to Heaven, and Christ will be fully displayed in every one of us. What is the fullness of Christ? We read in Eph 1:23 : the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. Christ is the Head in glory, we are the members of His body and constitute His completeness as the one new man. When at last we have gone home to Heaven, our day of toiling over, and we are in all perfection like Himself, then this kind of ministry will be ended. There will be no need for the ministry of the pastor, the teacher, or the evangelist in Heaven, for there we will all praise the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. No one will need to teach others for all will know Him from the least to the greatest.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
2. The Ministry and Its Purpose
CHAPTER 4:7-16
1. Ministry according to the measure of the gift of Christ (Eph 4:7-10)
2. The needed and permanent gifts (Eph 4:11)
3. The purpose and the goad (Eph 4:12-16)
Each member in the body of Christ has a specific place for a specific work. See Rom 12:4-5 and 1Co 12:4-5. And the bestowal of gifts for service in the body is in His hands. He ascended upon high and triumphed over all enemies. He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. He triumphed over the devil, who has the power of death and stripped him of that power. And all who constitute His body share in His triumph. They are no longer under the power of Satan, but delivered from the power of darkness, they are His trophies. He led captivity captive, i.e., those who were in captivity, or a troop, a multitude of captives. The view held by some that the Old Testament saints are meant, whom He led forth from Hades is incorrect.
Psa 68:1-35 is quoted. But we discover an omission. Psa 68:18 reads, Thou has received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. The last sentence is omitted, for the rebellious are the Jews; they are as the rebellious nation not in view in Ephesians, though the day will come when Israel will be converted and the promised gifts will be bestowed upon that nation. And He who ascended also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. It means the deepest depths of suffering, the shameful death of the cross and that He was buried. (This passage has nothing to do with 1Pe 3:18 – The meaning of this Scripture will be fully explained in our annotations of the First Epistle of Peter.) As the Ascended One He has given gifts for the ministry in the body. These gifts are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Other gifts are mentioned in First Corinthians such as the gift of healing, the gift of tongues, etc. These were not permanent gifts, and not absolutely necessary for the perfecting of the saints and the building up of the body of Christ.
The gifts mentioned here in Ephesians abide to the end until the Church is complete and removed from the earth. The apostles are the apostles of the beginning. The apostolate of Mormonism and similar cults is an invention. Nowhere does it say that Paul, Peter or John should have successors; all who lay claim to the title of apostle in the church are deceivers (Rev 2:2). The doctrines of the apostles are in our possession as the supreme gifts of the exalted Lord to His body. New Testament prophets are such who speak the message of God for the comfort and exhortation of Gods people. The evangelist preaches the gospel. The pastor and teacher are practically one. The teacher expounds the Word and teaches the doctrines of the Bible. And these gifts remain till the Lord comes for His saints. The gifts are for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of the ministry for the building up of the body of Christ. And each gift is not for a certain part of the church, but for the whole body. Till we all come unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. This measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ will be reached when the body is joined to the Head. When the Church enters into His presence and He presents the church to Himself (Eph 5:27), then this completion has come. Till then He will give the gifts to the Church, His body, for the upbuilding of that body. And He puts this body together and ministers unto its needs (Eph 4:16).
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
unto: Eph 4:8-14, Mat 25:15, Rom 12:6-8, 1Co 12:8-11, 1Co 12:28-30
grace: Eph 3:8, 2Co 6:1, 1Pe 4:10
the measure: Eph 3:2, Joh 3:34, Rom 12:3, 2Co 10:13-15
Reciprocal: 1Ki 5:6 – that there is not Luk 10:2 – the Lord Joh 1:16 – of his Joh 16:5 – I Joh 16:13 – will guide 1Co 12:7 – General 1Co 12:11 – all Heb 6:4 – and have
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
(Eph 4:7.) -But to each of us was given grace. Unity is not uniformity, for it is quite consistent with variety of gifts and offices in the church. The marks a transitional contrast, as the writer passes on to individual varieties. Still along with this unity there is variety of gifts. In the addition of to , the idea of distribution is expressed more distinctly than by the simple term. Luk 4:40; Act 2:3; Act 20:31. B, D1, F, G, L, omit the article before , but there is no valid reason to reject it; the preceding of may have led to its omission. This is gift; not merely in connection with personal privilege or labour, but, as the sequel shows, gift in connection with official rank and function. in this verse is explained by in Eph 4:8. While grace has been given to every individual, and no one is omitted, that grace differs in form, amount, and aspect in every instance of its bestowment; and as a peculiar sample and illustration of such variety in unity, the apostle appeals to the offices and dignities in the church. For this grace is described as being conferred-
-according to the measure of the gift of Christ. The first genitive is subjective, and the second that of possession or of agent. The gift is measured; and while each individual receives, he receives according to the will of the sovereign Distributor. And whether the measure be great or small, whether its contents be of more brilliant endowment or of humbler and unnoticed talent, all is equally Christ’s gift, and of Christ’s adjustment; all is equally indispensable to the union and edification of that body in which there is no schism, and forms an argument why each one gifted with such grace should keep the unity of the Spirit. The law of the church is essential unity in the midst of circumstantial variety. Differences of faculty or temperament, education or susceptibility, are not superseded. Each gift in its own place completes the unity. What one devises another may plead for, while a third may act out the scheme; so that sagacity, eloquence, and enterprise form a threefold cord, not easily broken. It is so in the material creation-the little is as essential to symmetry as the great-the star as well as the sun-the rain-drop equally with the ocean, and the hyssop no less than the cedar. The pebble has its place as fittingly as the mountain, and colossal forms of life are surrounded by the tiny insect whose term of existence is limited to a summer’s twilight. Why should the possession of this grace lead to self-inflation? It is simply Christ’s gift to each one, and its amount and character as possessed by others ought surely to create no uneasiness nor jealousy, for it is of Christ’s measurement as well as of His bestowment, and every form and quantity of it, as it descends from the one source, is indispensable to the harmony of the church. No one is overlooked, and the one Lord will not bestow conflicting graces, nor mar nor disturb, by th e repulsive antipathy of His gifts, that unity the preservation of which here and in this way is enjoined on all the members of His church.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Eph 4:7. Several verses following this one deal with the spiritual gifts that Christ caused to be given to disciples in the first years of the church. This verse refers to them as grace because the possession of them was certainly a favor, which is the meaning of grace. According to the measure denotes that not all disciples received the same kind or amount of this spiritual favor. (See 1Co 12:4-7.) But whatever degree of this grace that was bestowed upon the various members of the church, it was all a part of the gift of Christ.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eph 4:7. But. In contrast with all, there is a gift to each one of at; each has a part in the same salvation, and the gift, though adapted to individuals, has its unity.
Was the grace given. The tense points to a particular time, namely, the exaltation of Christ, as Eph 4:8 shows. The emphatic word is given; it is not ours by right, but is bestowed, and that upon each one. Here is a motive to Christian forbearance, as a means of preserving unity. The grace refers, not to the spiritual gift itself, but rather to the one grace, bestowed by Christ, and manifesting itself in various ways, so that each one has his peculiar gift. This grace is bestowed according to the measure of the gift of Christ, i.e., in proportion to the amount of the gift which Christ gives (Ellicott). As His good pleasure determines this measure, this suggests another reason for humility and forbearance, as helps to concord The gift does not obliterate natural, corporate, local, temporal, individual, differences, but purifies and ennobles them. Temperament and natural mental powers, talents and inclinations, are only refined, directed, moved, and used for the Lords kingdom and our own salvation (Braune).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle here in these verses supplies us with another weighty argument to persuade us to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; namely, that it is one great and chief end which Christ aimed at, in instituting the ministry of the word, in appointing the several officers in his church, of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and also in the several gifts which he bestowed upon those officers; he assures us, it was Christ’s great design, in and by all; these, to bring his people, not only to faith and knowledge, but to unity in the faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God.
And here, 1. Our apostle shows that the diversity of gifts and graces, and the different measure and degrees of those gifts and graces, bestowed by Christ upon the several members of the church, do all tend to preserve and to promote unity, they all coming from one and the same author, and being all given for one and the same end. Unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Learn hence, 1. That there is a grace given by Christ to all his members, bearing some proportion and similitude to that grace which was conferred upon Christ himself.
Learn, 2. That the design of Christ, in dispensing his grace in different measures and degrees, is the general good of his church, and particularly for preserving and promoting unity and love amongst his members; for seeing every one has his several graces from God, and no one has all, if one hath that grace which another wants, and if one wants that grace which another has, it shows that we want the help of one another: this is the apostle’s argument.
Next he proceeds to prove that Christ has dispensed this diversity of gifts amongst his members; affirming, that in the day of his ascension into the highest heavens, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
In which expression there is a manifest allusion to the Roman conquerors, who in the day of their triumphs scattered their munificence and bounty, their largesses and donatives, among their soldiers and their subjects.
Thus Christ, after he had triumphed over his own and his church’s enemies upon the cross, rode in the triumphant chariot of his ascension into heaven , where he received gifts as the purchase of his blood, and shed forth those gifts of his Spirit in various kinds, upon his members in general, but upon his ministers in particular: which gifts, in the first ages of Christianity, were extraordinary, as the gifts of tongues and miracles; but now ordinary, and to continue to the end of the world.
Now from the apostle’s scope and design in this argument, we learn, That though diversity of gifts in the church, and divers measures of grace in and among the members thereof, are too often a sad occasion of division and strife, through the prevalency of envy and pride, and other dividing lusts; yet this great variety and diversity of gifts and graces, rightly considered, would be found to be one of the strongest ties and bonds of union, seeing we all stand in mutual need of the gifts and graces of each other.
It is very evident, that our apostle’s scope here is, to urge and enforce unity, from the diversity of gifts and graces which are amongst the members of the church; God forbid then that they should occasion envy and animosities, strife and contention, rents and divisions.
Our apostle’s next argument for unity, is in the 11th and 12th verses, where he proves, that as the unity and edification of the church was the design of Christ in dispensing divers gifts and graces amongst the members of the church, so was it likewise his aim and end in instituting such variety of offices and officers in his church: for this end it was that he gave to his church by qualification and mission,
first, Apostles, sent forth first by his own mouth, to be witnesses of his doctrine and miracles, and then to preach the gospel throughout all the world, having received the Holy Spirit in an extraordinary manner, at the feast of Pentecost, to fit them for that sevice, Act 2:1-2.
Next, Prophets, who explained the mysteries of faith, foretold things to come, and expounded the writings of the old prophets.
Then, Evangelists, who were sent out by the apostles, some to plant, others to water the churches which they had planted, without being fixed to any particular place.
Lastly, Pastors and Teachers, called also Bishops and Elders, who were set over the churches as guides and instructors.
Learn hence, 1. That it is Christ’s special prerogative, as head of the church, to institute and appoint such offices and officers in his church, as to his own wisdom seems meet, for the edification and government of it.
Learn, 2. That the great end and design of Christ in instituting such variety of offices and officers in his church, was, his church’s unity, that by all ministerial helps and endeavours his members might be compacted and knit together, and made one entire body, by the increase of sanctity, concord, and unity. He gave some apostles, some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, (not for converting of sinners only,) and for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Observe lastly, The apostle declares how long the work of the ministry, appointed by Christ for his church’s edification and advantage, was to continue; namely, to the end of the world, to the day of judgment; till all come, by means of the same faith in Christ, and knowledge of him, unto a perfect man, and unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; that is, till the church, which is Christ’s mystical body, shall be complete and perfect, and attain its full stature from infancy to full manhood.
Learn hence, 1. That the church of Christ here on earth, is labouring for, and endeavouring after, perfection in grace and knowledge, to come unto a perfect man, and to attain to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
Learn, 2. That the ministry of the word is an ordinance of Christ’s own appointment, to continue to the end of the world, in order to that purpose and design.
Learn 3. That none of the most eminent saints on earth (the most knowing and pious ministers of the gospel not excepted) are above ordinances, above the ministry of the word, above receiving benefit and advantage by the plain and practical preaching of it; even St. Paul here puts himself in, and reckons himself among the number of those who stood in need of the ministry of God’s word, to bring him to a perfect man, and to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; he says not till ye, but till we all, come unto a perfect man.
Such people then as think themselves above ordinances, are above God himself; none need ordinances so much as those that want them least. And such hearers as turn their backs upon the preaching of the word, because they know more than the minister can teach them, and can better instruct the preacher than be instructed by him, they betray their own ignorance both of the intent and end of the ministry of the word, and also of the state of their own hearts; for if their understandings want no light, do their affections need no warmth? Have you no grace to be perfected, no corruptions to be weakened, no good resolutions to be strengthened? If your knowledge be imperfect, as sure it is, do not your affections want a fresh excitement? Admit the despised preacher cannot be your instructor, yet sure he may be your remembrancer, and excite you to that duty which you know already perhaps better than you practise it.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Gifts Christ Gave to the Church
In a few verses Paul is going to deal with special miraculous abilities given to some in the early church to sustain it until God’s word could be set down in inspired writings. This verse may refer to those gifts. However, it could safely be said each Christian has been given ability by the Father and should put it to work in a particular area of the church. All tasks in the church are equally important (4:7; compare 1Co 12:12-26 ).
Christ ascended up to heaven from the earth as a conqueror. Men had lived in bondage to, or fear of, sin and death prior to Christ’s coming because there was no means of escape. When Jesus was raised from the dead, man’s freedom was purchased and those righteous of the past, who had submitted to God’s will, and those of Christ’s own time, who would submit, gladly followed him out of captivity (4:8). For God to ascend from the earth, he would logically have had to first descend to the earth ( Joh 3:13 ). The earth would be the lower parts in reference to heaven where Jesus had been abiding. However, it also could be that Paul here has in mind Christ’s burial in the heart of the earth. Either thought is certainly true and both remind us of Christ’s great sacrifice (4:9).
Jesus ascended as King of kings and Lord of lords to rule over all from his throne, thus fulfilling God’s great plan ( Mat 28:18-20 ; Act 2:29-36 ). He is above the heaven the birds fly in, the heaven the stars and planets are in and is over the heaven in which God resides as a ruler (4:10).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Eph 4:7-10. But Though there be so many, and those infinitely important particulars, in which the true members of the church agree, and which furnish such powerful motives to love and unity, yet there are some things wherein they differ. For they occupy, by Gods appointment, different stations in the church, and for these they are fitted by different gifts. These distinctions, however, ought to be regarded by them, not as matters of emulation, and causes of contention, but rather as additional obligations to love and union, considering the great source and design of them all. For unto every one is given grace Or some particular endowment proceeding from grace; according to the measure of the gift of Christ In such a measure as seems best to him, the great Head and Governor of the church, to bestow it; whose distributions, we know, are always guided by consummate wisdom and goodness; so that all his disciples have the highest reason to acquiesce entirely in what he does. Wherefore he saith That is, in reference to which God saith by David, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive He took captive those who had held mankind in captivity; he conquered and triumphed over all our spiritual enemies, especially Satan, sin, and death, which had before enslaved all the world. This is spoken in allusion to the custom of ancient conquerors, who led those they had conquered in chains after them. And as they also used to give donatives to the people at their return from victory, so Christ gave gifts unto men Namely, both the ordinary and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit: of the propriety of applying these words of the psalmist to the ascension of Christ, see note on Psa 68:18. Now this expression, that he ascended, what is it? What does it imply, but that he descended first? Certainly it does, on the supposition of his pre- existence as the Son of God, who had glory with the Father before the world was, and who came forth from the Father, and came into the world: otherwise it would not imply that he descended first, since all the saints will ascend to heaven, though none of them descend thence. Into the lower parts of the earth That is, into the womb of the virgin at his incarnation, and into the grave at his passion; including, however, all the other steps of his humiliation. Bishop Pearson (on the Creed, p. 229) hath shown how very precariously this text is urged as a proof of Christs descent into hell, this phrase, the lower parts of the earth, in some other passages of Scripture plainly signifying the womb, as Psa 139:15, and the grave, Psa 63:9; Mat 12:40. He that descended That thus amazingly humbled himself; is the same that ascended up That was so highly exalted; far above all heavens Above the aerial and starry heavens, into the heaven of heavens; or, as the meaning rather is, above all the inhabitants of the heavens, above all the angelical hosts; which is the meaning also of Heb 7:26, where he is said to be made higher than the heavens: that he might fill all things The whole church with his Spirit, presence, and operations.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eph 4:7-16. The Doctrine of Gifts in Relation to Unity.Every Christian has his gift of grace: and the grace given to each is proportioned to the measure of Christs giving (Eph 4:7). That is what Scripture means when it says, He went up on high and took captive a captivity and gave gifts to men (Eph 4:8). He went upsurely that means that He came down also to these lower regions, our earth. He that came down is the very same Person who went up, high above all the heavens, to fill all things (Eph 4:9 f.); and it is He who has given gifts to His Churchapostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachersfor the fitting of Gods people for the work of service, for the upbuilding of Christs Body (Eph 4:11 f.). We are to arrive at lastall of us togetherat that oneness of loyalty and knowledge of Gods Son which shall constitute us a full-grown man who has attained the measure of the stature of Christs own fulness (Eph 4:13), So at last shall we cease to be a pack of children tossed like sailors at sea and carried hither and thither by every wind of teaching that cunning and craft and errors wiles can bring to bear on us (Eph 4:14); in truth and in love we shall grow up in all things unto Him who is the HeadChrist (Eph 4:15). From Him it is that the whole Body, through every joint of its equipment, is compacted and knit together by the due and effectual working of each several part, and so achieves its own increase, to its own upbuilding, in love (Eph 4:16).
Eph 4:8. Read, it saith, the Scripture being personified as in Gal 3:8. The quotation is from Psa 68:18, which, however, has Thou hast received gifts from men. Perhaps a Targum (i.e. a vernacular paraphrase for synagogue use) is here followed.
Eph 4:9. RV rightly omits first, which looks like a gloss in the interest of the view that the descent referred to is either the incarnation or the descent into hell. The only tolerable interpretation in relation to the context is that which regards the descent as subsequent to the ascent, i.e. the ascended and triumphant Lord comes down from heaven to bestow upon His Church the gifts of apostolate, prophecy, etc. (Eph 4:11).
Eph 4:10. all the heavens: i.e. the seven heavens of Jewish belief (Eph 1:3* cf. Heb 4:14).
Eph 4:12. Delete the comma after saints.
Eph 4:13. a full-grown man: cf. Gal 3:28, and contrast the plural children (Eph 4:14).
Eph 4:15. Read mg.
Eph 4:16. Every joint of its supply (or equipment); cf. mg. The phrase echoes the technical language of Greek medical writers.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Paul is becoming more practical in this section, as he moves from the person’s walk to their gift. EVERY one has been given grace or a gift according to the measure of the gift of Christ. This moves us into a section on the gifts and their use in the church body.
This lays groundwork for what the church is to be doing; it is the groundwork of the organization of the church even though few churches function this way.
We attended an Independent Baptist church for a time. Their pastor was very pushy about our address, about our attendance, and one Sunday after the worship service he followed us into the parking lot and started telling us that we needed to come back for the evening service. He said that the morning service was for evangelism, and that the evening study was more of a Bible study.
He told us more than he knew about how he ran his church. His concept was that he was to be the one winning souls in the morning service, not the people out in the world that would bring their new converts into the church for training. We will see the Scriptural principle soon as we move through this passage.
I might be reading more into the verse than is there but it seems to me Paul moves from the unity, the commonality of the body to the individual and the unique parts of the body. “Every” believer receives this grace, and it is unique to them as an individual. There may be more than one in a body that has the same gift, but they are still uniquely gifted. I’ve been taught by many teachers, but each one has a different style and manner.
The term “grace” is the normal term translated grace. It is used in this same thought in Rom 12:6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us….”
Each believer is given a gift. The use of that gift is for the benefit of the body, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, [let us prophesy] according to the proportion of faith;” 1Co 12:6
We won’t delve into the gifts to any length, but if you would like further study see my theology index under Spiritual gifts for more information.
The body of Christ is made up of many members, each one gifted in some way. That gift is present in a local assembly so that the body can be built up and edified. If one person is not using their gift, then the body is not benefitting and is not being properly built.
Apply that one today. Hundreds of people are in churches and never use their gift for whatever reason. Some because they choose not to, but often because they aren’t allowed to – the church leaders often have their set agenda and if you don’t fit into that plan then your gift will not be utilized.
In my mind, and this is personal opinion, woe to the church leader that does not try to involve as many of his people as possible. The gift is given to the body for use by God because He had a specific purpose in it. If you are the reason someone is not using their gift, I suspect you may be held partially responsible.
Now we move into a passage that is of some concern to commentators. It is normally studied aside from its context, but here we know that context. We have seen that God is vitally involved in man’s business. He has chosen us, He has set our future, and He has now gifted each of us for some ministry.
The next three verses speak to the when of this gifting – at the time of His death, burial and resurrection.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
4:7 {5} But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the {f} gift of Christ.
(5) He teaches us that we indeed are all one body, and that all good gifts proceed from Christ alone, who reigns in heaven having mightily conquered all his enemies, from where he heaps all gifts upon his Church. But yet nonetheless these gifts are differently and variously divided according to his will and pleasure, and therefore every man ought to be content with that measure that God has given him, and to bestow it to the common profit of the whole body.
(f) Which Christ has given.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The preservation of unity 4:7-16
Having described the basis of Christian unity Paul next explained the means by which Christians can preserve it, namely, with the gifts that the Spirit gives.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Whereas each believer has received grace (unmerited favor and divine enablement) from God (Eph 3:2), God does not give each Christian the same measure of grace. Paul spoke of God’s gift of grace here as ability to serve God. Though Jews and Gentiles both receive enabling grace from God, God gives this ability to different individuals differently (cf. Eph 4:11; Rom 12:4-6; 1Co 12:4-6). [Note: For defense of the view that spiritual gifts are ministries rather than abilities, see Kenneth Berding, "Confusing Word and Concept in ’Spiritual Gifts’: Have We Forgotten James Barr’s Exhortations?" Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 43:1 (March 2000):37-51.]
"Gifts are not toys to play with. They are tools to build with. And if they are not used in love, they become weapons to fight with . . . (1 Corinthians 12-14)." [Note: Wiersbe, 2:37.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 17
THE MEASURE OF THE GIFT OF CHRIST
Eph 4:7-12
In Eph 4:7 the apostle passes from the unities of the Church to its diversities, from the common foundation of the Christian life to the variety presented in its superstructure. “To each single one of us was the grace given.” The great gift of God in Christ is manifold in its distribution. Its manifestations are as various and fresh as the idiosyncrasies of human personality. There is no capacity of our nature, no element of human society which the gospel of Christ cannot sanctify and turn to good account.
All this the apostle keeps in view and allows for in his doctrine of the Church. He does not merge man in humanity, nor sacrifice the individual to the community. He claims for each believer direct fellowship with Christ and access to God. The earnestness with which in his earlier epistles St. Paul insisted on the responsibilities of conscience and on the personal experience of salvation, leads him now to press the claims of the Church with equal vigour. He understands well that the person has no existence apart from the community, that our moral nature is essentially social and the religious life essentially fraternal. Its vital element is “the communion of the Holy Spirit.” Hence, to gather the real drift of this passage we must combine the first words of Eph 4:7 with the last of Eph 4:12 : “To each single one of us was the grace given-in order to build up the body of Christ.” Gods grace is not bestowed on us to diffuse and lose itself in our separate individualities; but that it may minister to one life and work towards one end and build up one great body in us all. The diversity subserves a higher unity. Through ten thousand channels, in ten thousand varied forms of personal influence and action, the stream of the grace of God flows on to the accomplishment of the eternal purpose.
Like a wise master in his household and sovereign in his kingdom, the Lord of the Church distributes His manifold gifts. His bestowments and appointments are made with an eye to the furtherance of the state and house that He has in charge. As God dispenses His wisdom, so Christ His gifts “according to plan”. {Eph 3:11} The purpose of the ages, Gods great plan for mankind, determines “the measure of the gift of Christ.” Now, it is to illustrate this measure, to set forth the style and scale of Christs bestowments within His Church, that the apostle brings in evidence the words of Psa 68:18. He interprets this ancient verse as he cites it, and weaves it into the texture of his argument. In the original it reads thus:
“Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led Thy captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts among men, -Yea, among the rebellious also that the LORD God might dwell with them.” (R.V.) Let us go back for a moment to the occasion of the old Hebrew song. Psa 68:1-35, is, as Ewald says, “the greatest, most splendid and artistic of the temple-songs of Restored Jerusalem.” It celebrates Jehovahs entry into Zion. This culminating verse records, as the crowning event of Israels history, the capture of Zion from the rebel Jebusites and the Lords ascension in the person of His chosen to take His seat upon this holy hill. The previous verses, in which fragments of earlier songs are embedded, describe the course of the Divine Leader of Israel through former ages. In the beat and rhythm of the Hebrew lines one hears the footfall of the Conquerors march, as He “arises and His enemies are scattered” and “kings of armies flee apace,” while nature trembles at His step and bends her wild powers to serve His congregation. The sojourn in the wilderness, the scenes of Sinai, the occupancy of Canaan, the wars of the Judges were so many stages in the progress of Jehovah, which had Zion always for its goal. To Zion, the new and more glorious sanctuary, Sinai must now give place. Bashan and all mountains towering in their pride in vain “look askance at the hill which God has desired for His abode,” where “Jehovah will dwell forever.” So the day of the Lords desire has come I From the Kidron valley David leads Jehovahs triumph up the steep slopes of Mount Zion. A train of captives defiles before the Lords anointed, who sits down on the throne that God gives him and receives in His name the submission of the heathen. The vanquished chiefs cast their spoil at his feet; it is laid up in treasure to build the future temple; while, upon this happy day of peace, “the rebellious also” share in Jehovahs grace and become His subjects.
In this conquest David “gave to men” rather than “received”-gave even to his stubborn enemies (witness his subsequent transaction with Araunah the Jebusite for the site of the temple); for that which he took from them served to build amongst them Gods habitation: “that,” as the Psalmist sings, “the Lord God might dwell with them.” St. Pauls adaptation of the verse is both bold and true. If he departs from the letter, he unfolds tire spirit of the prophetic words. That Davids giving signified a higher receiving, Jewish interpreters themselves seem to have felt, for this paraphrase was current also amongst them.
The author of this Hebrew song has in no way exaggerated the importance of Davids victory. The summits of the elect nations history shine with a supernatural and prophetic light. The spirit of the Christ in the unknown singer “testified beforehand of the glory that should follow” His warfare and sufferings. From this victorious height, so hardly won, the Psalmists Verse flashes the light of promise across the space of a thousand years; and St. Paul has caught the light, and sends it on to us shining with a new and more spiritual brightness. Davids “going up on high” was, to the apostles mind, a picture of the ascent of Christ, his Son and Lord. David rose from deep humiliation to a high dominion; his exaltation brought blessing and enrichment to his people; and the spoil that he won with it went to build Gods house amongst rebellious men. All this was true in parable of the dispensation of grace to mankind through Jesus Christ; and His ascension disclosed the deeper import of the words of the ancient Scripture. “Wherefore God saith” (and St. Paul takes the liberty of putting in his own words what He saith)-“wherefore He saith: He ascended on high; He led captivity captive; He gave gifts to men.”
The three short clauses of the citation supply, in effect, a threefold measure of the gifts of Christ to His Church. They are gifts of the ascended. Saviour. They are gifts bestowed from the fruit of His victory. And they are gifts to men. Measure them, first, by the height to which He has risen – from what a depth! Measure them, again, by the spoils He has already won. Measure them, once more, by the wants of mankind, by the need He has undertaken to supply.- As He is, so He gives; as He has, so He gives; as He has given, so He will give till we are filled unto all the fulness of God.
I. Think first, then, of Him. Think of what and where He is! Consider “what is the height” of His exaltation; and then say, if you can, “what is the breadth” of His munificence.
We know well how He gave as a poor and suffering man upon earth-gave, with what affluence, pity, and delight, bread to the hungry-thousands, wine to the wedding-feast, health to the sick, sight to the blind, pardon to the sinful, sometimes life to the dead! Has His elevation altered Him? Too often it is so with vain and weak men like ourselves. Their wealth increases, but their hearts contract. The more they have to give, the less they love to give. They go up on high as men count it, and climb to places of power and eminence; and they forget the friends of youth and the ranks from which they sprang-low-minded men. Not so with our exalted Friend. “It is not one that went down, and another that went up.” says Theodoret. “He that descended, it is He also that ascended up far above all the heavens!” (Eph 4:10). Jesus of Nazareth is on the throne of God, -“the same yesterday and to-day!” But now the resources of the universe are at His disposal. Out of that treasure He can choose the best gifts for you and me.
Mere authority, even Omnipotence, could not suffice to save and bless moral beings like ourselves; nor even the best will joined to Omnipotence. Christ gained by His humiliation, in some sense, a new fulness added to the fulness of the Godhead. This gain of His sufferings is implied in what the apostle writes in Col 1:19 concerning the risen and exalted Redeemer: “It was well-pleasing that all the fulness should make its dwelling in Him.” His plenitude is that of the Ascended One who had descended. “If He ascended, what does it mean but that He also descended into the under regions of the earth?” (Eph 4:9). If He went up, why then He had been down!-down to the Virgins womb and the manger cradle, wrapping His Godhead within the frame and the brain of a little child; down to the home and the bench of the village carpenter; down to the contradiction of sinners and the level of their scorn; down to the death of the cross, – to the nether abyss, to that dim populous underworld into which we look shuddering over the graves edge! And from that lower gulf He mounted up again to the solid earth and the light of day and the world of breathing men; and up, and up again, through the rent clouds and the ranks of shouting angels, and under the lifted heads of the everlasting doors, until He took His seat at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens.
Think of the regions He has traversed, the range of being through which the Lord Jesus passed in descending and ascending, “that He might fill all things.” Heaven, earth, hades-hades, earth, heaven again are His; not in mere sovereignty of power, but in experience and communion of life. Each He has annexed to His dominion by inhabitation and the right of self-devoting love, as from sphere to sphere He “travelled in the greatness of His power, mighty to save.” He is Lord of angels; but still more of men, -Lord of the living, and of the dead. To them that sleep in the dust He has proclaimed His accomplished sacrifice and the right of universal judgment given Him by the Father.
Nor did Abraham alone and Moses and Elijah have the joy of “seeing His day,” but all the holy men of old, who had embraced its promise and “died in faith,” who looked forward through their imperfect sacrifices “which could never quite take away sins” to the better thing which God provided for us, and for their perfection along with us. On the two side-posts of the gate of death our great High Priest sprinkled His atoning blood. He turned the abode of corruption into a sweet and quiet sleeping chamber for His saints. Then at His touch those cruel doors swung back upon their hinges, and He issued forth the Prince of life, with the keys of death and hades hanging from His girdle. From the depths of the grave to the heaven of heavens His Mastership extends. With the perfume of His presence and the rich incense of His sacrifice Jesus Christ has “filled all things.” The universe is made for us one realm of redeeming grace, the kingdom of the Son of Gods love.
“So there crowns Him the topmost, ineffablest, uttermost crown;
And His love fills infinitude wholly, nor leaves up nor down
One spot for the creature to stand in!”
So “Christ is all things, and in all.” And we are nothing; but we have everything in Him. How, pray, will He give who has thus given Himself, -who has thus endured and achieved on our behalf? Let our hearts consider; let our faith and our need be bold to ask. One promise from His lips is enough: “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.”
II. A second estimate of the gifts to be looked for from Christ, we derive from His conquests already won. David as he entered Zions gates “led captivity captive,”-led, that is in Hebrew phrase, a great, a notable captivity. Out of the gifts thus received he enriched his people. The resources that victory placed at his disposal, furnished the store from which to build Gods house. In like fashion Christ builds His Church, and blesses the. human race. With the spoils of His battle He adorns His bride The prey taken from the mighty becomes the strength and beauty of His sanctuary. The prisoners of His love He makes the servants of mankind.
This “captivity” implies a warfare, even as the ascent of Christ a previous descending. The Son of God came not into His earthly kingdom as kings are said to have come sometimes disguised amongst their subjects, that they might learn better of their state and hear their true mind; nor as the Greeks fabled of their gods, who wandered unknown on earth seeking adventure and wearied haply of the cloying felicities of heaven, suffering contempt and doing to men hard service. He came, the Good Shepherd, to seek lost sheep. He came, the Mighty One of God, to destroy the works of the devil, to drive out “the strong one armed” who held the fortress of mans soul. He had a war to wage with the usurping prince of the world. In the temptation of the wilderness, in the strife with disease and demoniac powers, in the debate with Scribes and Pharisees, in the anguish of Gethsemane and Calvary that conflict was fought out; and by death He abolished him who holds the power of death, by His blood He “bought us for God.” But with the spoils of victory, He bears the scars of battle, -tokens glorious for Him, humbling indeed to us, which will tell forever how they pierced His hands and feet!
For Him pain and conflict are gone by. It remains to gather in the spoil of His victory of love, the harvest sown in His tears and His blood. Arid what are the trophies of the Captain of our salvation? what the fruit of His dread passion? For one, there was the dying thief, whom with His nailed hands the Lord Jesus snatched from a felons doom and bore from Calvary to Paradise. There was Mary the Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons, the first to greet Him risen. There were the three thousand whom on one day, in the might of His Spirit, the ascended Lord and Christ took captive in rebel Jerusalem, “lifted from the earth” that He might draw all men unto Him. And there was the writer of this letter, once His blasphemer and persecutor. By a look, by a word, Jesus arrested Saul at the height of his murderous enmity, and changed him from a Pharisee into an apostle to the Gentiles, from the destroyer into the wise master-builder of His Church.
St. Pauls own case suggested, surely, the application he makes of this ancient text of the Psalter and lighted up its Messianic import. In the glory of His triumph Jesus Christ had appeared to make him captive, and put him at once to service. From that hour Paul was led along enthralled, the willing bond-slave of the Lord Jesus and celebrant of His victory. “Thanks be unto God,” he cries, “who ever triumphs over us in the Christ, and makes manifest through us the savour of His knowledge in every place.”
Such, and of such sort are the prisoners of the war of Jesus; such the gifts that through sinners pardoned and subdued He bestows upon mankind, -“patterns to those who should hereafter believe.” Time would fail to follow the train of the captives of the love of Christ, which stretches unbroken and ever multiplying through the centuries to this day. We, too, in our turn have laid our rebel selves at His feet; and all that we surrender to Him, by right of conquest He gives over to the service of mankind.
“His love the conquest more than wins;
To all I shall proclaim:
Jesus the King, the Conqueror reigns
Bow down to Jesus name!”
He gives out of the spoil of His war with evil, -gives what He receives. Yet He gives not as He receives. Everything laid in His hands is changed by their touch. Publicans and Pharisees become apostles. Magdalenes are made queens and mothers in His Israel. From the dregs of our streets He raises up a host of sons to Abraham. From the ranks of scepticism and anti-Christian hate the Lord Christ wins new champions and captains for His cause. He coins earths basest metal into heavens fine gold. He takes weak things of the earth and foolish, to strike the mightiest blows of battle.
What may we not expect from Him who has led captive such a captivity! What surprises of blessing and miracles of grace there are awaiting us, that shall fill our mouth with laughter and our tongue with singing-gifts and succours coming to the Church from unlooked-for quarters and reinforcements from the ranks of the enemy. And what discomfitures and captivities are preparing for the haters of the Lord, -if, at least, the future is to be as the past; and if we may judge from the apostles word, and from his example, of the measure of the gift of Christ.
III. A third line of measurement is supplied in the last word of Eph 4:8, and is drawn out in Eph 4:11-12. “He gave gifts to men-He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, with a view to the full equipment of the saints for the work of ministration, for building up of the body of Christ.” Yes, and some martyrs, some missionaries, some Church rulers and Church statesmen, some poets, some deep thinkers and theologians, some leaders of philanthropy and helpers of the poor; all given for the same end-to minister to the life of His Church, to furnish it with the means for carrying on its mission, and to enable every saint to contribute his part to the commonwealth of Christ according to the measure of Christs gift to each.
Comparison with Eph 4:16 that follows and with Eph 4:7 that precedes, seems to us to make it clear that we should read, without a comma, the second and third clauses of Eph 4:12 as continuations of the first. The “work of ministering” and the “building up of the body of Christ” are not assigned to special orders of ministry as their exclusive calling. Such honour have all His saints. It is the office of the clergy to see that the laity do their duty, of “the ministry” to make each saint a minister of Christ, to guide, instruct, and animate the entire membership of Christs body in the work He has laid upon it. Upon this plan the Christian fellowship was organised and officered in the apostolic times. Church government is a means to an end. Its primitive form was that best suited to the age; and even then varied under different circumstances. It was not precisely the same at Jerusalem and at Corinth; at Corinth in 58, and at Ephesus in 66 A.D. That is the best Church system, under any given conditions, which serves best to conserve and develop the spiritual energy of the body of Christ.
The distribution of Church office indicated in Eph 4:11 corresponds closely to what we find in the Pastoral epistles. The apostle does not profess to enumerate all grades of ministry. The “deacons” are wanting; although we know from Php 1:1 that this order already existed in Pauline Churches. Pastors (shepherds)-a title only employed here by the apostle-is a fitting synonym for the “bishops” (i.e., overseers) of whom he speaks in Act 20:28, Php 1:1, and largely in the epistles to Timothy and Titus, whose functions were spiritual and disciplinary as well as administrative. Addressing the Ephesian elders at Miletus four years before, St. Paul bade them “shepherd the Church of God.”
1Pe 5:1-2 the same charge is laid by the Jewish apostle upon his “fellow-elders, ” that they should “shepherd the flock of God, making themselves examples” to it; Christ Himself he has previously called “Shepherd and Bishop of souls”. {1Pe 2:25} The expression is derived from the words of Jesus recorded in Joh 10:1-42, concerning the true and false shepherd of Gods flock, and Himself the Good Shepherd, -words familiar and dear to His disciples.
The office of teaching, as in 1Ti 5:17, is conjoined with that of shepherding. From that passage we infer that the freedom of teaching so conspicuous in the Corinthian Church {1Co 14:26, etc.} was still recognised. Teaching and ruling are not made identical, nor inseparable functions, any more than in Rom 12:7-8; but they were frequently associated, and hence are coupled together here. -Of apostolic evangelists we have examples in Timothy and the second Philip; men outside the rank of the apostles, but who, like them, preached the gospel from place to place. The name apostles (equivalent to our missionaries) served, in its wider sense, to include ministers of this class along with those directly commissioned by the Lord Jesus.
The prophets, like the apostles and evangelists, belonged to the Church at large, rather than to one locality. But their gift of inspiration did not carry with it the claim to rule in the Church. This was the function of the apostles generally, and of the pastor-bishops, or elders, locally appointed. The first three orders (apostles, prophets, evangelists) linked Church to Church and served the entire body; the last two (pastors and teachers) had charge of local and congregational affairs. The apostles. (the Twelve and Paul), with the prophets, were the founders of the Church. Their distinctive functions ceased when the foundation was laid and the deposit of revealed truth was complete. The evangelistic and pastoral callings remain; and out of them have sprung all the variety of Christian ministries since exercised. Evangelists, with apostles or missionaries, bring new souls to Christ and carry His message into new lands. Pastors and teachers follow in their train, tending the ingathered sheep, and labouring to make each flock that they shepherd and every single man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Marvellous were Christs “gifts for men” bestowed in the apostolic ministry. What a gift to the Christian community, for example, was Paul himself! In his natural endowments, so rich and finely blended, in his training and early experience, in the supernatural mode of his conversion, everything wrought together to give to men in the apostle Paul a man supremely fitted to be Christs ambassador to the Pagan world, and for all ages the “teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” “A chosen vessel unto me,” said the Lord Jesus, “to bear my name.”
“Such a gift to the world was St. Augustine: a man of the most powerful intellect and will, master of the thought and life of his time. Long an alien from the household of faith, he was saved at last as by miracle, and utterly subdued to the will of Christ. In the awful crisis of the fifth century, when the Roman empire was breaking up and the very foundations of life seemed to be dissolved, it was the work of this heroic man to reassert the sovereignty of grace and to reestablish faith in the Divine order of the world.”
Such another gift to men was Martin Luther, the captive of justifying grace, won from the monastery and the bondage of Rome to set Germany and Europe free. What a soul of fire, what a voice of power was his! to whose lips our Lord Christ set the great trumpet of the Reformation; and he blew a blast that waked the sleeping peoples of the North, and made the walls of Babylon rock again to their foundation. Such a gift to Scotland was John Knox, who from his own soul breathed the spirit of religion into the life of a nation, and gave it a body and organic form in which to dwell and work for centuries.
Such a gift to England was John Wesley. Can we conceive a richer boon conferred by the Head of the Church upon the English race than the raising up of this great evangelist and pastor and teacher, at such a time as that of his appearance? Standing at the distance of a hundred years, we are able to measure in some degree the magnitude of this bestowment. In none of the leaders and commanders whom Christ has given to His people was there more signally manifest that combination of faculties, that concurrence of providences and adjustment to circumstances, and that transforming and attempering influence of grace in all-the “effectual working in the measure of each single part” of the man and his history, which marks those special gifts that Christ is wont to bestow upon His people in seasons of special emergency and need. We are passing into a new age, such as none of these great men dreamed of, an age as exigent and perilous as any that have gone before it. The ascendency of physical science, the political enfranchisement of the masses, the universal spread of education, the emancipation of critical thought, the gigantic growth of the press, the enormous increase and aggregation of wealth, the multiplication of large cities, the worldwide facilities of intercourse, -these and other causes more subtle are rapidly transforming human society. Old barriers have disappeared; while new difficulties are being created, of a magnitude to overtask the faith of the strongest. The Church is confronted with problems larger far in their dimensions than those our fathers knew. Demands are being made on her resources such as she has never had to meet before. Shall we be equal to the needs of the coming times?-Nay, that is not the question; but will He?
There is nothing new or surprising to the Lord Jesus in the progress of our times and the developments of modern thought, nothing for which He is not perfectly prepared. He has taken their measure long ere this, and holds them within His grasp. The government is upon His shoulders-“the weight of all this unintelligible world”-and He can bear it well. He has gifts in store for the twentieth century, when it arrives, as adequate as those He bestowed upon the first or fifth, upon the sixteenth or eighteenth of our era. There are Augustines and Wesleys yet to come. Hidden in the Almightys quiver are shafts as polished and as keen as any He has used, which He will launch forth in the war of the ages at the appointed hour. The need, the peril, the greatness of the time will be the measure of the gift of Christ.
There is a danger, however, in waiting for great leaders and in looking for signal displays of Christs power amongst men. His “kingdom comes not with observation,” so that men should say, Lo here! or Lo there! It steals upon us unforeseen; it is amongst us before we know. “We looked,” says Rutherford, “that He should take the higher way along the mountains; and lo, He came by the lower way of the valleys!” While men listen to the earthquake and the wind rending the mountains, a still, small voice speaks the message of God to prepared hearts. Rarely can we measure at the first the worth of Christs best gifts. When the fruit appears, after long patience, the world will haply discover when and how the seed was sown. But not always then. “The sower, passing onward, was not known; And all men reaped the harvest as their own.” Those who are most ready to appraise their fellows are constantly at fault. Our last may prove Christs first; our first His last! “Each of us shall give account of himself to God”: each must answer for his own stewardship, and the grace that was given to each. “Let us not therefore judge one another any more.” But let every man see to it that his part in the building of Gods temple is well and faithfully done. Soon the fire will try every mans work, of what sort it is.