Ephesians 4:4-6 speaks of the nature of the Triune God and what the church is. Following this, verse 7 speaks of the gifts. Then verses 8 through 16 reveal how the One who descended into Hades, who was raised, and who ascended to the heavens, that is, the resurrected and ascended Head, Christ, constituted His many gifts and made these gifts the gifts He gave to His Body through His divine dispensing. These gifts also perfect the saints through the divine dispensing that all the saints may be able to do the work of the New Testament ministry, which is the building up of the organic Body of Christ, so that all the members of the Body of Christ may grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things.
With verse 7 as an introduction, Paul begins to speak of the gifts constituted by the Head, Christ, in verse 8. After His death and resurrection, Christ in His ascension led captive those who had formerly been captured by Satan. In His resurrection and ascension, Christ not only subdued Satan, sin, and death, but brought with Him all those under Satan’s captivity. In one sense, none of us has been to heaven yet. But in another sense, we have all been seated with Christ in heaven already.
When Christ resurrected and ascended to heaven, He brought us together with Him into heaven. There in heaven He presented us, His redeemed ones, as gifts to God the Father. According to Psalm 68:18, the Father gave us back to Christ as gifts. Not only so, Christ used the life that is in the Son to constitute all these gifts into useful people. Some He constituted into apostles, some into prophets, some into evangelists, and some into shepherds and teachers. All these gifted persons are able to speak and function by their speaking. God captured all those who were under the bondage of Satan, took them to heaven, and constituted them people who are able to speak for Him. God gave all these people to Christ, and then Christ gave them to the church (Eph. 4:8). This is the Head, Christ, in His ascension giving the gifts to the church.
The gifts whom Christ gave to His Body perfect the saints through the divine dispensing that all the saints may be able to do the work of the New Testament ministry. The gifted ones perfect and teach the saints just as professors in a teacher’s college teach their students. After four years, all those who graduate from a teacher’s college become teachers qualified to teach others. In the same way, after receiving the continual teaching of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers, the saints in the church will all be perfected to do the work of the ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ.
On one hand, the gifted persons perfect us, and on the other hand, they dispense to us the divine riches. Their teaching is their dispensing, and our learning is our receiving of their dispensing. This dispensing and receiving cause the members of Christ to grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things (v. 15)-not only in big matters, but also in small matters such as the way we cut and comb our hair and the way we dress. In this divine dispensing the divine element enters into us and causes us to grow in life. As we grow, we are transformed. Our transformation issues from the inward dispensing of the divine elements hour by hour. The more we grow, the more we forsake the worldly and fleshly things, and are joined to Christ and His Body.
When we grow into the Head, out from the Head we will receive the dispensing of the rich supply. On one hand, through every joint of the rich supply, that is, through all the gifted ones, the Body will be joined closely together. On the other hand, through the operation in measure of each one part, that is, through every saint, the Body will be fitly knit together (Eph. 4:16). The joints of supply are like the frame of a building, which firmly fits the building together. In the Body the joints are fitted together in the Spirit to be the “frame” of the Body. Besides the joints as the frame, there are many other parts in the Body. Each part operates according to its measure, and this causes the Body to be knit together corporately. The Head gives the gifts to the Body, and the gifts perfect the saints so that the saints are able to do what the gifts do, which is the work of the New Testament ministry. In this way every part of the Body operates in its measure to supply the Body, and the Body will grow up and will build itself up in love.
(A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Peaking Jaya, Malaysia on November 5, 1990)
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