Verse 7 tells us that Christ gives grace to each of His members according to the measure of His gift. Concerning the Body of Christ, all the basic elements are one, but the gifts (the functions) are many and varied. Here grace was given according to the gift; in Romans 12:6 the gifts differ according to grace. Grace actually is the divine life that produces and supplies the gifts. In Romans 12 it is the grace that produces the gift. Hence, the gift is according to grace. Here the grace is according to the gift, according to the measure of the gift.
Each member of our physical body has a certain measure. The expression the measure of the gift of Christ refers to the size of a member of Christ’s Body. With every member there is a certain size, a certain measure. Just as our blood supplies the members of our body according to their size, grace also is given to each member according to its size.
The measure of the gift of Christ is the size of a member of the Body of Christ. What kind of member you are depends upon how much of the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ you have (v. 13). If you have a greater measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, you are a bigger member in the church. If a brother gives much ground to Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, he will have a greater measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The more of the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ he has, the greater his function among the saints will be. The function and the size of a member are measured by the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
We also need to see that all the members of the Body are gifts to the Body. Although there is more blood in the shoulder than in the ear, the quality of the blood is the same. Just as blood is the life supply to our physical body, so grace is the life supply to the members in the Body of Christ. We should praise the Lord that all the saints are gifts of Christ to whom grace has been given. Just as every part of our physical body is indispensable, every member of the Body of Christ, great and small, is an indispensable gift to the Body (1 Cor. 12:14-22; Rom. 12:4-5). Therefore, we should never consider ourselves as too small to be a profitable gift to the Body. Rather, we should all declare that we are gifts to the Body.
Ephesians 4:11 says, “He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers.” Each one in verse 7 includes every member of the Body of Christ, each of whom has received a general gift; whereas the four kinds of gifted persons mentioned here are those who have been endued with a special gift.
The first of the four special gifts is the apostles. An apostle of the Lord is a believer who is sent out by Him with His authority to preach the gospel of God, to teach the divine truth, and to establish churches. As long as anyone has the power to preach the gospel, the gift to teach the divine truth, and the ability to establish churches, he is qualified and confirmed to be an apostle sent by the Lord with His commission and authority. Throughout the ages, certain ones have been raised up by God to be apostles and have been given to the church as gifts.
The second category of special gifts to the church in Ephesians 4:11 is the prophets. The prophets are those who speak for God and speak forth God by God’s revelation and who sometimes speak with inspired prediction. In order to be a prophet, one must have the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. This means that a prophet must have the proper knowledge of the Word and also receive much divine revelation. Without this knowledge and this revelation, we cannot speak for God or speak God forth. A prophet must be one who has the light, the revelation, concerning what is written in the Word. The prophets, therefore, must have the spiritual gift to speak the word of wisdom so that God may be spoken forth and by this speaking be dispensed into others.
The third category of special gifts to the church in Ephesians 4:11 is the evangelists. The evangelists are experts in preaching the gospel, and all the saints need to learn of them. An outstanding example of an evangelist is Philip in Acts 8. Through his ministry and preaching of the gospel as recorded in this chapter, he was manifested to be an evangelist. Because he had an outstanding gift of gospel preaching, he was eventually called “Philip the evangelist” (21:8).
The fourth category of special gifts to the church in Ephesians 4:11 is the shepherd-teachers. According to the grammatical construction, shepherds and teachers refers to a single class of gifted persons. A shepherd should know how to teach, and a teacher should be able to shepherd. Shepherding needs teaching, and teaching needs shepherding. Therefore, shepherd-teachers are one category of persons. They shepherd others in order to teach them, and they teach others by shepherding them.
One crucial key to our becoming apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers is the word of God in the Bible. Day by day we must read the Bible and pray with the Bible in order to digest the word. The word of God will then enter into us and become the Spirit in us; with the Spirit, we will have life, understanding, and utterance. In this way we will be mingled with the divine word and the life-giving Spirit day after day. If our being is saturated not merely with the knowledge of God’s word but with the living essence of God’s word, we will surely be His apostle, His sent one. Furthermore, the extent to which we take the word into us and let it mingle with our inward parts determines the extent to which we can be God’s prophet, His spokesman. When we become the embodiment of God’s word, we will spontaneously become His sent ones, speak for Him, preach the gospel, and shepherd and teach others. If we are filled and saturated with God’s living word, we will be God’s apostles sent to the world, prophets to speak for Him, evangelists to preach the gospel, and shepherds and teachers to care for His people and teach them His economy. The matter of being a gifted person is wrapped up with being saturated with the word of God.