All have different functions

Equipped for service

Both the Ephesians 4 ministry-gifts and the local leaders in the church have as their task to equip the Christians for service. The church can only be built up as God wants it when all Christians function with their talents and gifts. All leaders have as their goal to help Christians to function together as parts of a body. It is only when everyone contributes with that which they have received from the Lord that the church will grow with God’s growth and become what God wants.

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. (Eph. 4:11-12)

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Eph. 4:16)

One body - many parts

In a living church each Christian has a part to play - a ministry to perform which is necessary for the church to thrive and make progress. A Christian church is not a one-man-act or a playground for a little elite group. The church is more like a school and a workshop where we all receive teaching and practical training in how to serve our fellow men.

To each one a different task

We are one body in Christ but we are many parts and all have different tasks. No one is superfluous. We are all absolutely necessary if the body - the fellowship – is to be able to function as a tool through which Christ’s life and love can be expressed to the world. A thumb cannot function removed from the hand and the hand cannot function if it is removed from the arm. None of us can function isolated from the rest of the church. We are one another’s joints. We are reliant on one another. We need one another in order to function in a meaningful way.

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Rom: 12.4-5)

Exercise:

What is the purpose of all the leaders in the church?

What is the implication of the fact that the church is a body with many members?

Continue to memorise Bible verses and add this one:

But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love. (Eph. 4:15-16)