As we have seen, depending on the context, the Greek word oikonomia can be translated either economy (or, dispensation) or stewardship. In God it is a plan, a purpose, and an economy, but when God’s economy comes to the apostles, it becomes a stewardship.
God’s economy is a great matter. It includes, first, the creation of the heavens, the earth, and all living creatures to produce the old creation. The work of producing the old creation was done by God Himself alone. But when God comes in to produce the new creation, He works through the principle of incarnation. In other words, He cooperates with man and needs man’s cooperation. God has everything in Himself. But in the new creation, He must have man’s cooperation before He can produce anything. He needs man to become one life and one spirit with Him and to be joined and mingled with Him, before the new creation can be realized. God must mingle Himself with man in order to realize the new creation. God’s economy is a great matter. In order to carry out such an economy, God must have stewards to serve, to minister, to manage, and to execute His economy. First, this stewardship was entrusted to the apostles. God entrusted His economy to the apostles. When the apostles took up God’s economy, it became a ministry, a stewardship, in them. Our concept may be that only the apostles and other gifted ones are worthy to bear the stewardship of God’s economy and that we, the “small potatoes,” are worthy only to do the cleaning and the ushering work but are unworthy to bear such a stewardship. However, in the light of the New Testament teaching, all the believers are priests, whether Paul or Peter or any other brothers or sisters, old or young (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:5-6). Thus, God’s economy has become the stewardship of all the believers. The apostle Paul and we bear the same stewardship. Although his stewardship may have been greater, he was still just a steward. We are also stewards, being on the same level as he was.
Ephesians 4:11 shows us the Head giving all kinds of gifts in ascension. These gifts include the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. In verse 12 there is a sixth title-the saints. The gifted ones mentioned earlier are not there for themselves but for the perfecting of the saints. The saints are not for the apostles. Rather, the apostles are for the saints. If the saints are for the apostles, the same mistake as that committed by the Corinthians will happen. Some will say that they are of Paul, while others will say that they are of Apollos, and there will be division among us (1 Cor. 1:12). This is why Paul said that the saints were not for him, but that he was for the saints. They do not belong to Paul. Rather, Paul belongs to them, because all things are theirs, whether the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs (1 Cor. 3:21-22). The saints are the “princes,” the ones who will inherit the earth (Rom. 4:13). The apostles are the slaves of the saints. The apostles, prophets, and evangelists are all there to perfect the saints and are all slaves (2 Cor. 4:5). Furthermore, the goal of the apostles and the prophets, as the gifted ones serving the saints, is to enable everyone to do the work of the New Testament ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ. Every saint can do the work of an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a shepherd and a teacher. This is the difference between the God-ordained way in the Bible and the traditional way of Christianity. The way of Christianity is for the minority, the clergy, to become more and more able, while the rest of the saints become the laity; they have been laid off, and are there only for the worshipping services. To put it not so nicely, they have all been written off. This is something God hates (Rev. 2:6). Although we have come out of the denominations and the sects to practice the Lord’s recovery, unfortunately we have not rid ourselves fully of some of the germs and poison of the denominations and the sects. Yet we are not aware of this. We may still hold the concept that the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers, and also the elders, are the able ones and are of a higher rank than the rest of the saints. However, the word of the Lord says that among us there is no distinction of being high or low, great or small. Every one is a brother. If anyone wants to be great, he has to be the slave to everyone. The elders are the head sheep among the flock. They should even take the lead to clean the toilets. They should not stand on the side, ordering others to work. Among us we should not have any concept of a hierarchy. The Bible says that we all are members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30). Since we are members, we all have a function. The Bible also says that we all are priests, and we can all offer spiritual sacrifices, light the lamps, and burn the incense. Everyone can do these things. Whatever the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers can do, they should teach, train, and perfect us so that every one of us will be able to do the same, perhaps even better.
The Lord’s “new way” today is that the gifted ones would perfect those who are not gifted, so that, after a period of time, they all will become gifted. In the first year of his study in the university, a student is inferior to his professors. But after passing through four years of university study, two years of graduate school, and three years of a Ph.D. program, a student will become a Ph.D., and may become better than his professors. We need to see that the service in the church, on one hand, is to supply Christ to others, and on the other hand, to perfect others. After we perfect others, the perfected ones will be able to do the same work that we can do, and perhaps they will do it even better. This is the standard that the Bible has set for us. We need to find a way by all means to realize Ephesians 4:11-12. If all the brothers and sisters among us are perfected and can minister Christ for the building up of the church, what an increase the church will experience! After a person is saved and helped by us for four years, he should be able to participate in all aspects of service; he should be able to preach the gospel to minister Christ for others’ salvation; he should be able to shepherd the new believers as the lambs in the church; he should be able to teach and perfect them in the group meetings, and he should be able to gradually help them to prophesy and speak for the Lord for the building up of the church. These are the four steps of our new way: the begetting, the nourishing, the teaching, and the building. Eventually when we come to the meetings, we will not need to look to the preachers. Every attendant will be able to speak for the Lord. The meetings will become very fresh, living, and rich.
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