And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.
The Christian ministry
I. From this passage we learn, that the institution of the Christian ministry--the appointment of pastors and teachers--is from God, is of Divine authority. The object which the Christian ministry is designed to effect is the conviction and conversion of sinners, and the edification and consolation of saints; but these are effects which no human, and, indeed, no created, power is able to produce. The office of the Christian ministry--that is, the institution of a separate order of men to attend, more peculiarly, to the religious instruction of others--is admirably adapted in its own nature as a means to effect the object intended, and its adaptation is evident even to the eye of human wisdom; but it was not devised by human wisdom, and it must not be judged of, or regarded, solely from its extrinsic fitness.
II. Since, then, the text informs us, in the first place, that the appointment of pastors and teachers is a Divine institution, intended to be instrumental in accomplishing certain objects, and of course deriving all its efficacy from the blessing of Him who appointed it, we shall now consider what objects it was designed to effect. For what purpose did God give pastors and teachers? It was “for the perfecting of the saints, for the edification of the Body of Christ.” The “perfecting of the saints” may here mean the completion of their number. It may also mean, making them perfect in holiness. We are further informed by the apostle, that God “gave pastors and teachers for the edifying of the Body of Christ.” “The Body of Christ” is an expression often used in Scripture to denote the Church of Christ. And the great object of this figurative mode of speaking is to represent the absolute dependence of believers upon their great living Head at all times for nourishment and strength, and, indeed, for existence or vitality, as well as the close and intimate connection that subsists between the Head and all the members--that is, between Christ and His people--and between the members with each other. The word “edify” properly means to build; and it is taken from another figurative idea, sometimes given us in Scripture, of the Church of Christ, or of true Christians in their connection with and dependence upon Christ, namely, that of a building or temple, of which Christ is the foundation, and in which all His people are represented as stones. And in this work of edification or sanctification, pastors and teachers whom God has appointed are master builders, whose great duty and privilege it is to be employed as instruments in edifying the Body of Christ--in building up the saints in their most holy faith--in carrying on the great work of which our Saviour laid the foundation while He lived upon the earth--in not only bringing men to the knowledge and belief of the truth, but also in leading them to walk in the paths of holiness--to walk in harmony and in love--and to contribute to one another’s spiritual progress.
III. We would now consider the statement which the text contains of the more comprehensive and ultimate objects for which the Christian ministry was instituted, and which the labours of pastors and teachers are intended to serve, namely, that Christians may grow up in “all things unto Him who is the Head--that they may 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.” And here we would notice the description the apostle gives of the direct objects and effects of the labours of pastors and teachers, namely, that Christians “speak the truth in love.” “Speaking the truth” is contrasted with being tossed to and fro like children, or carried about with every wind of doctrine; and as the appointment of pastors and teachers, with their regular and faithful ministrations, are intended by God to preserve the Church, or Body of Christ, from the latter of these, so they are also fitted to produce and secure the former. “To speak the truth” means here to hold and to maintain sound and correct views of Christian doctrine--of the great principles of the oracles of God. And this is an acquisition of great importance, lying at the very foundation of all true religion, which is built upon right views of the Divine character, and of the Divine plans and purposes with regard to the human race. But, besides this, it is also necessary that men “speak the truth in love”--that is, that their assertion and maintenance of the truth, even against its opposers, should never lead them into any violation of the great law of Christian charity and love. Not that either ministers or private Christians are bound to speak or to think more favourably of opposers of the truth than the fair and impartial examination of their conduct may seem to warrant and to require. But when our opinion is really and sincerely fair and impartial, it is no objection to it that it is unfavourable; for that must just depend upon the grounds and merits of the case. Our opinions upon all points should be exactly conformable to truth--to the intrinsic merits of the subject; but the expression of these opinions, and the conduct which they may lead us to adopt, should be at all times regulated by love. The great terminating object of the Christian ministry--and indeed of all God’s dealings with His people--is stated by the apostle in the eighteenth verse--“that we may all come in”--or rather into--“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.” This describes the state of the Church in its collective capacity--when the objects of the Christian ministry, and indeed of all other means of grace, shall have been accomplished. At present, there is nothing like complete unity of faith and knowledge. There is reason, however, to think that times are in reserve for the Church, even upon earth, when these evils shall be greatly lessened, if not altogether removed--when the Church shall indeed resemble a great and a holy Society, founded upon one rock, and that rock Christ:--devoted to the one great purpose of manifesting the glory and making known the manifold wisdom of God. But whatever degree of harmony and purity the Church of Christ shall attain upon earth, when God shall pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, and introduce the glory of the latter days, certain it is that there will be a time when all His people shall come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, when there shall be nothing whatever to hurt or to offend, when His people shall be all righteous--freed from everything that may pervert either the judgment or the conduct--made perfect in holiness, and altogether restored to the lost image of their great Creator and their living Head. (W. Cunningham, D. D.)
Ministers in the Church appointed by Christ
I. A remarkable instance of our exalted Lord’s liberty to His Church in bestowing divers gifts upon her.
1. The gifts.
2. The Giver.
3. The act of donation.
4. The time to which it relates.
II. The end or design of this gift.
1. In respect of the saints, these who are in Christ already, the ministry is to perfect them,
ðñï̀ò ôï̀í êáôáñôéóìï̀í
. The word signifies the restoring and setting dislocated members again in their proper place. It signifies also, the perfecting and establishing them in the restored state. So the Corinthians, who by their factions and divisions were rent asunder, and as a disjointed body, are exhorted to be
êáôçñôéóìǻíïé
, perfectly joined together, as a joint well knit (1Co_1:10). The saints being, by reason of remaining corruption, so ready to turn aside both from Christ the Head, and from their brethren fellow members. God gave ministers to be spiritual surgeons to set them right again, and to fix them in nearer union to Christ by faith, and to their brethren in love.
2. In regard of themselves, for the work of the ministry. It is for work that they are appointed. This work, for the kind of it, is
äéáêïíé́á
, a ministry or service, the first excluding idleness, the second excluding a lordly dominion.
3. In respect of the Body of Christ; it is to edify, viz., the mystical Body of Christ. (T. Boston, D. D.)
Service the purpose of the Church
The text is clouded by a wrong punctuation. If a single comma be dropped, so as to make the text read, “He gave some, pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints for the work of ministering,” it will clearly express what some expositors believe is its meaning, and be in harmony with what is taught elsewhere in the New Testament as to the duty which is owed by the Church to the world. “The saints” have a ministry if “the Body of Christ” is to be “edified.” The Church is not to be as a lake without any outlet--a mere glass in which the sky is reflected--but a reservoir that yields what it receives for the health of mankind. Every member has something to do. Every Christian is to be a channel of blessing to others, “even as the Son of Man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
I. In the development of this theme let us consider, first, the disparity in circumstance and condition between ourselves and the vast multitude of our fellow men; the contrast between our and their moral experience. If there be anything approaching the truth in our oft-repeated confessions, we have entered, through Christ, upon an ample inheritance of privilege and honour and power. Our sins are forgiven; a new life has been given us; we live in God’s fellowship. “All things are yours,” says the apostle, “whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours.” And what deed ever conveyed riches like these? “Why am I, honest and industrious, harassed and tormented, while dishonesty thrives, and has the world, cap in hand, at its feet? Where is the evidence of the love, or the wisdom, you preach? Where even is justice? It is a bad world; and the best thought about life is, that it will soon come to an end.”
II. This brings us, second, to the principle which is expressed in the text, and on which alone these inequalities can be justified. Every variety implies in some sense superiority or inferiority. But who would wish for a mere uniformity, which would be the destruction of all that is interesting, of all that is beautiful, of all emulation, of all excellence? Who cannot see that to receive from one another and to impart to each other what we mutually lack, is a far better thing than to be born to an exact equality of advantages? Variety is essential to the proper development of society; and whilst God alone can explain why the obvious advantage is with one man, or with one class instead of another, still He takes from it all that is invidious by associating with privilege the responsibility of service. Turn, for illustration of this, to the account of the calling of Abraham. He was chosen out of the ranks of his countrymen, and out of the world of his day, for special enlightenment; to hear a Divine voice that was unheard by all others, and to realize a communion more elevated and purer than theirs. And why? Did it denote that he monopolized the Divine favour? that those who were left in the dark had no part in the thoughts and the purposes of Jehovah? On the contrary, he was elected for their sakes; in him, who was thus favoured and quickened, all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. And this is always the end which God has in view in the appointment of any to superior possession and privilege. Their endowment is to bring good to the many. Every great movement in social or political life may be traced to some individual, or to some company of men, who have been privileged to originate the high enterprise. The diffusion of truth is not by the equal instruction of all men at the same moment, but by circles and schools who have found out the truth, and through whom it spreads out until it becomes the possession of all. The preference is shown to the few in the interest of the many. And it is the same in respect of the Church. Those in its fellowship are to serve; for it exists not for itself, but for man, for humanity at large; because man is comprehended in the great love of the Father and in the scope of the redemption which Christ came to accomplish. (Chas. De Witt Boardman, D. D.)
The Divine choice of ministers
For if no prince will send a mechanic from his loom or his shears in an honourable embassage to some other foreign prince, shall we think that the Lord will send forth stupid and unprepared instruments about so great a work as the perfecting of the saints and perpetual dishonour of that wicked king Jeroboam, who made no other use of any religion but as a secondary bye thing, to be the supplement of policy, that “he made of the lowest of the people” those who were really such as the apostles were falsely esteemed to be, the “scum and offscouring of men,” to be the priests unto the Lord. (Bishop Reynolds.)
Pastors needed
In the church of San Zeno, at Verona, I saw the statue of that saint in a sitting posture, and the artist has given him knees so short that he has no lap whatever; so that he could not have been a nursing father. I fear there are many others who labour under a similar disability: they cannot bring their minds to enter heartily into the pastoral care. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Charles Kingsley as a pastor
Onone occasion Kingsley was visiting a sick man suffering from fever. “The atmosphere of the ground floor bedroom was horrible, but before the rector said a word he ran upstairs, and, to the great astonishment of the people of the cottage, bored with a large auger he had brought with him several holes above the bed’s head for ventilation. And when diphtheria, then a new disease in England, made its appearance at Eversley, he might have been seen running in and out of the cottages with great bottles of gargle under his arm, and teaching the people to gargle their throats as a preventive.” (Life of Charles Kingsley.)
A good pastor
Father Taylor said of a certain member of his flock who kept continually falling back into drunken ways, “He is an expensive machine; I have to keep mending him all the time; but I will never give him up.” (C. A. Barrel, D. D.)
Careless pastors
St. Francis, reflecting on a story he heard of a mountaineer in the Alps who had risked his life to save a sheep, says, “O God, if such was the earnestness of this shepherd in seeking for a mean animal, which had probably been frozen on the glacier, how is it that I am so indifferent in seeking my sheep?” (W. Baxendale.)
