Ephesians 4.11-Jesus Christ Generously Gave Four Communication Gifts to the Church
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday February 1, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:11-Jesus Christ Generously Gave Four Communication Gifts to the Church
Lesson # 223
Ephesians 4:7 Now, however, to each one of us grace was given corresponding to the incomparable Christ’s proportionate gracious giving. 8 Therefore, it says, “When he ascended to the highest place, he captured captives. He generously gave gifts to certain members of the human race.” 9 In other words, what is the meaning of the statement, “he ascended?” Namely that, he also descended into the lower regions, which are part of the earth? 10 He, the very one who has descended is the one who also has ascended above each and every one of the heavens in order that He would enter into the state of bringing to completion each and every animate and inanimate object. 11 Therefore, on the one hand, He Himself generously gave some to be apostles but on other hand, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors, specifically, teachers. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:11 begins a section in the Ephesian epistle, which ends in Ephesians 4:16 and presents a list of four communication gifts.
The function of apostleship, prophecy and teaching is for the spiritual growth of the body of Christ while on the other hand, the function of the gift of evangelism is for the numerical growth of the body of Christ.
In verses 12-14, Paul presents the purpose of these gifts, namely, to provide capacity to the members of the body of Christ to function in their spiritual gifts and also to provide spiritual nourishment in the form of sound doctrine to facilitate spiritual growth (vs. 12-13) and protection from false doctrine (vs. 14).
Lastly, in verses 15-16, Paul addresses the subject of spiritual growth by asserting that the teaching the members of the body of Christ received from the apostles, prophets and teachers provides them the capacity to obey the command to love one another as Christ loved the believer.
He reiterates in verse 16 the importance of the function of these three gifts in relation to the spiritual growth of the members of the body of Christ.
In this verse, he uses the ligament metaphor to describe these three communication gifts.
Now, Paul states in Ephesians 4:13 the ultimate purpose of these communication gifts is to promote unity in the body of Christ.
This supports my contention that the purpose of Ephesians is to maintain unity experientially in the body of Christ with emphasis upon the Jewish and Gentile wings of the church maintaining this unity experientially by practicing the love of God when interacting with each other.
Like Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Peter 4:10-11, Ephesians 4:11-12 discusses spiritual gifts.
However, unlike Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4:11-12, 1 Peter 4:10-11 does not contain some sort of a list of spiritual gifts bestowed upon the body of Christ by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Also, the emphasis in Ephesians 4:11-12 is the function of the communication gifts in the body of Christ whose function provides not only the capacity for the other gifts to function but also is instrumental in the spiritual growth of the body of Christ.
The emphasis in Romans 12:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 12 is the diversity of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ, whose function is to benefit the body itself.
Lastly, the emphasis in 1 Peter 4:10-11 is the responsibility to employ one’s gift to serve the body of Christ with the result of being a good steward with this gift which ultimately brings glory to God.
Therefore, all these lists are not exhaustive but representative.
Ephesians 4:11 is a correlative clause, which presents the result of Paul’s statements in Ephesians 4:8-10, which presents the basis for his assertion in Ephesians 4:7.
In the latter Paul makes the assertion that to each member of the body of Christ, grace in the form of a spiritual gift was given according to the incomparable Christ’s proportionate gracious giving.
Verse 8 presents the inference from this statement in the form of a quotation from Psalm 68:18, which serves as the confirmation or as the basis for his assertion in verse 7.
The quotation prophesies that the Divine Warrior, who is Jesus Christ, captured captives and generously gave gifts to certain members of the human race when He ascended to the highest place in creation, i.e., the right hand of the Father.
Verse 9 is composed of a rhetorical question followed by an appositional clause, which together help to explain the quotation in verse 8.
In fact, it explains the entire quotation from Psalm 68:18.
Paul asks the meaning of the statement that “He ascended?”
He answers this by stating that “He also descended into the lower regions, which are part of the earth?”
Verse 10 also explains the quotation by solemnly asserting that the one who has descended is the same one who also has ascended above each and every one of the heavens.
The reference to descending in verses 9-10 refers to Jesus Christ descending to Hades after His physical death and before His resurrection.
The reference to ascending refers to Jesus Christ ascending to the right hand of His heavenly Father, which took place forty days after His resurrection.
This correlative clause which constitutes Ephesians 4:11 is a result clause, which presents the result of the contents of Ephesians 4:8-10.
It asserts that Jesus Christ Himself on the one hand generously gave to some in the body of Christ the gift of apostleship but on the other hand, He also graciously gave to some the gift of prophecy, and some the gift of evangelism and some the gift of teaching, which along the gift of leadership, constitutes the position of pastor in the church.
Therefore, this indicates that Jesus Christ gave these four communication spiritual gifts to men in the body of Christ “as a direct result of” ascending to the right hand of His heavenly Father ten days before the day of Pentecost.
On that particular day, the Holy Spirit, who the Lord promised to His disciples they would receive from Him after He ascended to His Father, descended upon them and gave them spiritual gifts.
This correlative is formed by the particle of affirmation men (μέν) and the conjunction de (δέ), which is employed three times in Ephesians 4:11.
The former functions as a particle of affirmation which presents the spiritual gift of apostleship, which Paul seeks to contrast with the spiritual gifts of prophecy, evangelism and teaching.
On the other hand, the latter introduces these three spiritual gifts, which stand in contrast with the spiritual gift of apostleship.
Therefore, these two words unite the giving of the spiritual gift of apostleship and the spiritual gifts of prophecy, evangelism and teaching because they all fall under the category of communication gifts.
As was the case in Ephesians 4:8, the verb didōmi (δίδωμι) here in Ephesians 4:11 means “to give generously” since the word pertains in this context to giving someone something implying something of great value and a gift.
It speaks of giving someone something as an expression of generosity.
In context, it is used in relation to the spiritual gifts of apostleship, prophecy, evangelism and teaching.
As was the case in Ephesians 4:10, the referent of the nominative masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός) here in Ephesians 4:11 is the Lord Jesus Christ.
This intensive personal pronoun emphasizes identity and is the demonstrative force intensified.
The use of the nominative first person singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός) here in Ephesians 4:10 is unnecessary in Greek since the form of a finite verb in this language indicates the person, number and gender of the subject.
This is what makes Greek an “inflectional” language.
When the personal pronoun is used therefore, it may serve to clarify the subject or contrast the subject with someone else or for emphasis.
Now, in Ephesians 4:11, the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός) is used for emphasis and contrast.
First, it emphasizes with the reader that Jesus Christ Himself as the subject performed the action of generously giving to some in the church the spiritual gifts of apostleship, prophecy, evangelism and teaching.
Secondly, it is used to mark a contrast between Jesus Christ and those who received these gifts from Him at the moment of justification by the power of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
