If you have not read Part I-III, please do so here before proceeding further
In previous parts, we have discussed Acts 2:42 and 1 Cor. 14:26 to identify the second type of Christian meetings. Let us examine one more important scripture:
- 4:15-16
“But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
Many have been quick to quote Ephesians 4:11-12 to prove that scriptures like 1 Corinthians 14:26 do not rule out the place of the 5-fold ministers who have a mandate to equip the rest of the saints. True, there is the place for gifted men to minister to the Body which we have already described as the first type of meeting in the Body of Christ. But what I have come to see as erroneous and an unfortunate misinterpretation of scripture is that popular belief that the 5-fold ministry refers to a small group of “specially called” individuals within the Body whose responsibility is to keep teaching the rest of the Body, and by so doing, the Body will grow into maturity. This is how Christendom has interpreted Ephesians 4:11-12 for several decades and even centuries. I myself also believed and taught this same perspective for more than two decades.
So how is it a misinterpretation? Simply by reading Ephesians 4:11 in isolation. That is what is called proof-texting. And virtually everyone with a Pentecostal-Charismatic background, like myself, is guilty of this. You see, no scripture is a stand-alone; you can’t just jump into verse 11 without first understanding the context of discourse right from verse 1. Obviously, from verse 1 through 6, Paul was addressing the entire body of believers: there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father who is ABOVE ALL, IN ALL and WORKING THROUGH ALL. He then went on in verse 7 to say that “BUT TO EACH ONE OF US” grace has been given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
In other words, every single member of the Body of Christ has a portion of the gift of Christ. IT IS THIS SAME GIFT OF CHRIST THAT IS NOW ELABORATED UPON IN VERSE 11 AND CATEGORIZED AS APOSTOLIC, PROPHETIC, EVANGELISTIC, PASTORAL AND TEACHING. So the error came in when we read verse 11 in isolation. But that verse can never be correctly understood without connecting it to verse 7. In fact, we can merge both verses to give us its more accurate meaning:
(7) But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. (11) It was he who gave (apportioned) some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers [NIV]
Can you see it now? He gave everybody each a portion. Some He gave to be apostles, some to be prophets and so on. Just like a father who returned from an overseas trip bringing gifts for all His children. To one, he gave a face cap, to another, he gave a T-shirt; yet to another a pair of snickers. No child was left out; all got at least one gift. So, the incontrovertible truth here is that EVERY SINGLE BELIEVER IN CHRIST JESUS HAS BEEN GIVEN A MEASURE OF GRACE TO FUNCTION IN AT LEAST ONE AREA OF THE FIVE-FOLD MINISTRY.
Can you now see that every single child of God is a member of the 5 fold ministry? This is exactly in line with Romans 12:4-8. Vs. 6 says, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.” It is exactly in line with 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 which states that “It is the same Spirit who divides to every man severally as He wills.” To say otherwise is to be guilty of twisting the scripture or what Paul calls “handling the word of God deceitfully.”
Though very popular and deeply entrenched within the very structures of Christendom for more than 1,800 years, that idea about the 5-fold being some and not all inevitably creates two divisions in the body: the priestly class (clergy); and the lay people, the “uncalled”, who have no ministerial function in the Body. Their job is to faithfully receive ministry from the 5-fold and to support them in cash and in kind. That completely nullifies the concept of “THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS” which is one major differential between the Old and the New Testaments. Even in the Old Testament, singling out the tribe of Levi for ministry was never God’s original design. This is clearly stated in Exodus 19:5-6.
Let us compare scripture with scripture to further help our understanding; please come with me to Matthew 25:14-15
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.”
You see, this passage in Matthew is exactly one and the same in meaning with Ephesians 4:11-12. Jesus is the man traveling to a far country who gave to all His servants (the entire Body) His goods (the ascension gifts popularly called the 5-fold ministry), requiring them to occupy (trade, make profit with them) till He returns. To one He gave 5 talents; to another, 2; and to yet another, 1. Now, can we say He gave gifts to JUST 3 of His servants or to ALL OF His servants? Or perhaps, He had only 3 servants? No, Luke’s rendition tells us they were 10 servants in all (Luke 19:13). SO EVEN THOUGH ONLY 3 CATEGORIES WERE STATED (5, 2 & 1), we can say beyond every shadow of a doubt that ALL HIS SERVANTS WERE GIVEN AT LEAST ONE TALENT EACH.
In exactly the same vein, every single member of the Body of Christ has a place in the 5-fold ascension gifts outlined in Ephesians 4:11. It is therefore totally wrong and biblically inaccurate for us to use Ephesians 4:11 to posit that there are some who have been called to minister to the rest of the “uncalled” Body. This wrong biblical interpretation has led to the redundancy of probably 98% of the workforce in the Body of Christ, the creation of an aristocracy within the body and the backbone of denominationalism and other evils in Christendom. It remains a major subversion to the intent of Christ for His Assembly. Thus, like the idea of the world being flat had to be consigned into the dustbin of history when faced with the truth, this evil concept must be totally uprooted from the belief systems of God’s Ekklesia, cast into fire and reduced into a heap of ash to be trodden under foot—if she, the Ekklesia, is to fulfil her glorious destiny. Amen!
Therefore, my dear friends, a more accurate view of Ephesians 4:11-12 is to simply state that we all, according to our various giftings and graces, are expected to minister to and equip one another. And that is exactly what verses 15 and 16, quoted at the beginning of this article, say. In those two verses, we can see that God’s method for building up the Body is when every part (each of us as believers) does its own share of ministry. Is there any part of our Body that is not useful? Of course, not. Likewise, every member of the Body of Christ has an important role to play in the building up of the whole. Every believer is a minister of Christ and should minister Christ at every opportunity. Each of us has a portion of Christ and when we gather as a local assembly, the expression of Christ is incomplete if a member fails to bring in his own portion. Listen to the psalmist:
I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly. Indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lord, You Yourself know.” Ps 40:9
I cannot but wonder, how often do we come across this kind of declaration in the Psalms, yet, can every believer truthfully say this? The honest answer is no because the structure of our meetings today simply does not permit it. Verse 10 sheds more light:
“I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness AND YOUR TRUTH FROM THE GREAT ASSEMBLY.” (40:10)
Does this scripture look like giving three people the opportunity to share a testimony of how God moved in their situation after pastor gave a prophetic word? I doubt it. Rather, it creates the impression that the individual believer has the express right and privilege to minister of the life of Christ in them and things that the Lord has been revealing in the closet. Emphasizing on the great assembly, in fact, implies that it is not just some informal meetings or the popular home cell fellowships put together by many of our denominations today. No, the great assembly will rather mean the main church service. This again is why I had said in previous parts that it is the second type of meeting that actually defines the local assembly.
Talking of the cell fellowships, while it is to be very much encouraged, I still think that it is an ineffective compromise of the structured denomination in an attempt to simulate the second type of meeting. This cell fellowship is simply a miniature bible study group and there is very little space for koinonia. Usually, there is a cell leader who has an outline produced by the parent denomination which must be followed religiously. This restricts the liberty of the saints in sharing their own spiritual prey/kill and directing the flow of the meeting. Even the members of the cell are mostly limited to the members of the church denomination. There is often the restraint of time and the cell meetings are not accorded as much seriousness as the ‘almighty’ Sunday service. With these restraints, the potential of such cell meetings to fully give expression to the second type of Ekklesia meeting is seriously stifled.
