Ephesians 4.7a-Every Church Age Believer Has Been Given a Spiritual Gift
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday January 9, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:7a-Every Church Age Believer Has Been Given a Spiritual Gift
Lesson # 213
Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he captured captives; he gave gifts to men.” 9 Now what is the meaning of “he ascended,” except that he also descended to the lower regions, namely, the earth? 10 He, the very one who descended, is also the one who ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all things. 11 It was he who gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God—a mature person, attaining to the measure of Christ’s full stature. 14 So we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes. 15 But practicing the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head. 16 From him the whole body grows, fitted and held together through every supporting ligament. As each one does its part, the body grows in love. (NET)
Ephesians 4:7-11 discusses spiritual gifts by teaching about the diversity of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ despite the fact that there is unity in this body.
Ephesians 4:7 is composed of the following:
(1) Declarative statement Heni de hekastō hēmōn edothē hē charis (Ἑνὶ δὲ ἑκάστῳ ἡμῶν ἐδόθη °ἡ χάρις), “Now, however, to each one of us grace was generously given.”
(2) Prepositional phrase kata to metron tēs dōreas tou Christou (κατὰ τὸ μέτρον τῆς δωρεᾶς τοῦ Χριστοῦ), “according to the incomparable Christ’s proportionate generous giving.”
Ephesians 4:7 marks not only a transition from the contents of Ephesians 4:1-6 and Ephesians 4:7-11 but also a mild contrast between the contents of the former and the latter.
It marks a transition from the contents of Ephesians 4:1-6 to the contents of Ephesians 4:7-16.
The former contains an exhortation for the recipients of this epistle to maintain unity with each other experientially through the practice of the command to love one another (Eph. 4:1-3).
It also contains a list of seven essential, fundamental elements or spiritual realities which define Christian unity in a positional sense (4:4-6).
The former is based upon the latter.
Ephesians 4:7-16 contains a discussion regarding the diversity of spiritual gifts distributed to members of the body of Christ despite the fact that they are unified in a positional sense (4:7-16).
Therefore, Ephesians 4:7 marks a transition from a discussion regarding maintaining unity in the body of Christ experientially which is based upon the fact that they are unified in a positional sense to a discussion regarding the diversity of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ despite the unity of the body of Christ in a positional sense.
In other words, it marks a transition between unity and diversity in the body of Christ.
It is also marking a contrast between maintaining unity in the Christian community experientially which is based upon the fact that they are unified in a positional sense and the diversity of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ.
In other words, it is marking a contrast between unity and diversity in the body of Christ with the latter manifested in the spiritual gift given to each member of the body of Christ.
The declarative statement in Ephesians 4:7 contains the adjective hekastos (ἕκαστος), “each,” which denotes each one of a totality in a distributive sense and it is modified by the adjective heis (εἷς), “one,” which refers to a single person since it pertains to one person in contrast to more than one.
Paul’s use of the adjective heis (εἷς), “one” here links the contents of Ephesians 4:7-11 with the contents of Ephesians 4:1-6 since it appears in the latter seven times and also links it to the contents of Ephesians 2:11-22 since it appears four times in this passage.
This expression Heni hekastō (Ἑνὶ ἑκάστῳ), “each one” is fronted for emphasis and thus emphasizes that each member of the body of Christ receives a spiritual gift at the moment of justification implying that there is not only unity in the body of Christ but also diversity because of this distribution of these spiritual gifts.
This expression is also modified by the genitive first person plural form of the personal pronoun egō (ἐγώ) means “of us” and its referent is Paul, who was a Jewish Christian and the recipients of this epistle who were Gentile Christians.
The personal pronoun egō (ἐγώ) functions as a partitive genitive, which denotes the body of Christ as a whole of which Paul and these Gentile Christians are a part of or are those who help to compose it.
Therefore, this entire expression Heni hekastō hēmōn (Ἑνὶ ἑκάστῳ ἡμῶν), “to each one of us” serves to emphasize that each and every member of the Christian community whether they are Jewish and Gentile church age believers received a spiritual gift through the work of the Holy Spirit at the moment of justification.
In other words, it stresses the diversity of gifts distributed to each member of the body of Christ.
The noun charis (χάρις), “grace” speaks of a particular unmerited blessing that flowed to the apostle Paul and the recipients of this epistle from the function of the Father’s attribute of love.
Specifically, the referent of this word is a spiritual gift which each member of the body of Christ was given at the moment of justification by the Holy Spirit.
The basis for this gift is that the Father declared them justified through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ and simultaneously, they were placed in union with His and identified with Him through the baptism of the Spirit.
The verb didōmi (δίδωμι), “was generously given” pertains to giving someone something implying something of great value and a gift and speaks of giving someone something as an expression of generosity.
Therefore, it refers to the unmerited blessing of a spiritual gift, which was given to each member of the body of Christ at the moment of justification by the Holy Spirit.
The passive voice of this verb didōmi (δίδωμι) indicates that grace or in other words, the unmerited blessing of a spiritual gift as the subject received the action of being given by the Lord Jesus Christ to each member through the Spirit at justification.
It is also indicated by the contents of Ephesians 4:8-10, which teaches that the distribution of spiritual gifts is the result of Jesus Christ’s ascension to the throne room of God and resultant present session at the right hand of the Father.
Ten days after His session on the day of Pentecost Jewish believers received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Consequently, not only did the baptism of the Spirit take place for the first time but also each of these believers received a spiritual gift (cf. Acts 2).
Acts 10 records this same thing happening among Gentile church age believers.
Therefore, the passive voice of this verb didōmi (δίδωμι) here in Ephesians 4:7 is another case of a “divine-passive” appearing in the Ephesian epistle.
The aorist tense of this verb didōmi (δίδωμι) is a consummative or culminative aorist, which emphasizes the cessation of the act of grace in the form of the unmerited blessing of a spiritual gift being bestowed upon each member of the body of Christ at the moment of justification by the Father through the work of the Holy Spirit.
