But to each one of us, the grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Therefore he says, “When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to people.”
Now this, “He ascended”, what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv7–16 7. But to every one. He now describes the…
7. But to every one. He now describes the manner in which God establishes and preserves among us a mutual relation. No member of the body of Christ is endowed with such perfection as to be able, without the assistance of others, to supply his own necessities. A certain proportion is allotted to each; and it is only by communicating with each other, that all enjoy what is sufficient for maintaining their respective places in the body. The diversity of gifts is discussed in another Epistle, and very nearly with the same object.
“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4.)
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Such a diversity, we are there taught, is so far from injuring, that it tends to promote and strengthen, the harmony of believers.
The meaning of this verse may be thus summed up. “On no one has God bestowed all things. Each has received a certain measure. Being thus dependent on each other, they find it necessary to throw their individual gifts into the common stock, and thus to render mutual aid.” The words grace and gift remind us that, whatever may be our attainments, we ought not to be proud of them, because they lay us under deeper obligations to God. These blessings are said to be the gift of Christ; for, as the apostle, first of all, mentioned the Father, so his aim, as we shall see, is to represent all that we are, and all that we have, as gathered together in Christ.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7–16 Which Christ hath given.
Which Christ hath given.
He teacheth us, that we indeed are all one body, and that all good gifts proceed from Christ only, who reigneth in heaven having mightily conquered all his enemies (from whence he heapeth all gifts upon his Church:) but yet notwithstanding these gifts are diversely and sundry ways divided according to his will and pleasure, and therefore every man ought to be content with that measure that God hath given him, and to bestow it to the common profit of the whole body.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–16 7 But unto every one of us is given…
7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Ver. 7. According to the measure] And may not Christ do with his own as he listeth? Those of greater gifts are put upon hotter service, στεργε παροντα.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7–16 But unto every one of us is given grace;…
But unto every one of us is given grace; either by grace he means gifts which are not common to all believers, but proper to some, according to their various functions and places in the church, Rom 12:6; 1Co 12:11. Or rather, more generally, it comprehends also those graces which are common to all believers as such, faith, hope, love, zeal, &c.; which though they are of the same kind in all, and have the same object, yet they are received in different degrees and measures.
According to the measure of the gift of Christ; in that measure in which it pleaseth Christ to give them, who gives to some one gift, to some another; to some one degree of grace to some another: all have not the same, but need the help of those that have what they want.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv7, 14, 15 Our apostle here in these verses supplies us with…
Our apostle here in these verses supplies us with another weighty argument to persuade us to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; namely, that it is one great and chief end which Christ aimed at, in instituting the ministry of the word, in appointing the several officers in his church, of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and also in the several gifts which he bestowed upon those officers; he assures us, it was Christ’s great design, in and by all; these, to bring his people, not only to faith and knowledge, but to unity in the faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God.
And here, 1. Our apostle shows that the diversity of gifts and graces, and the different measure and degrees of those gifts and graces, bestowed by Christ upon the several members of the church, do all tend to preserve and to promote unity, they all coming from one and the same author, and being all given for one and the same end. Unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
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Learn hence, 1. That there is a grace given by Christ to all his members, bearing some proportion and similitude to that grace which was conferred upon Christ himself.
Learn, 2. That the design of Christ, in dispensing his grace in different measures and degrees, is the general good of his church, and particularly for preserving and promoting unity and love amongst his members; for seeing every one has his several graces from God, and no one has all, if one hath that grace which another wants, and if one wants that grace which another has, it shows that we want the help of one another: this is the apostle’s argument.
Next he proceeds to prove that Christ has dispensed this diversity of gifts amongst his members; affirming, that in the day of his ascension into the highest heavens, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
In which expression there is a manifest allusion to the Roman conquerors, who in the day of their triumphs scattered their munificence and bounty, their largesses and donatives, among their soldiers and their subjects.
Thus Christ, after he had triumphed over his own and his church’s enemies upon the cross, rode in the triumphant chariot of his ascension into heaven , where he received gifts as the purchase of his blood, and shed forth those gifts of his Spirit in various kinds, upon his members in general, but upon his ministers in particular: which gifts, in the first ages of Christianity, were extraordinary, as the gifts of tongues and miracles; but now ordinary, and to continue to the end of the world.
Now from the apostle’s scope and design in this argument, we learn, That though diversity of gifts in the church, and divers measures of grace in and among the members thereof, are too often a sad occasion of division and strife, through the prevalency of envy and pride, and other dividing lusts; yet this great variety and diversity of gifts and graces, rightly considered, would be found to be one of the strongest ties and bonds of union, seeing we all stand in mutual need of the gifts and graces of each other.
It is very evident, that our apostle’s scope here is, to urge and enforce unity, from the diversity of gifts and graces which are amongst the members of the church; God forbid then that they should occasion envy and animosities, strife and contention, rents and divisions.
Our apostle’s next argument for unity, is in the 11th and 12th verses, where he proves, that as the unity and edification of the church was the design of Christ in dispensing divers gifts and graces amongst the members of the church, so was it likewise his aim and end in instituting such variety of offices and officers in his church: for this end it was that he gave to his church by qualification and mission,
first, Apostles, sent forth first by his own mouth, to be witnesses of his doctrine and miracles, and then to preach the gospel throughout all the world, having received the Holy Spirit in an extraordinary manner, at the feast of Pentecost, to fit them for that sevice, Act 2:1-2.
Next, Prophets, who explained the mysteries of faith, foretold things to come, and expounded the writings of the old prophets.
Then, Evangelists, who were sent out by the apostles, some to plant, others to water the churches which they had planted, without being fixed to any particular place.
Lastly, Pastors and Teachers, called also Bishops and Elders, who were set over the churches as guides and instructors.
Learn hence, 1. That it is Christ’s special prerogative, as head of the church, to institute and appoint such offices and officers in his church, as to his own wisdom seems meet, for the edification and government of it.
Learn, 2. That the great end and design of Christ in instituting such variety of offices and officers in his church, was, his church’s unity, that by all ministerial helps and endeavours his members might be compacted and knit together, and made one entire body, by the increase of sanctity, concord, and unity. He gave some apostles, some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, (not for converting of sinners only,) and for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Observe lastly, The apostle declares how long the work of the ministry, appointed by Christ for his church’s edification and advantage, was to continue; namely, to the end of the world, to the day of judgment; till all come, by means of the same faith in Christ, and knowledge of him, unto a perfect man, and unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; that is, till the church, which is Christ’s mystical body, shall be complete and perfect, and attain its full stature from infancy to full manhood.
Learn hence, 1. That the church of Christ here on earth, is labouring for, and endeavouring after, perfection in grace and knowledge, to come unto a perfect man, and to attain to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
Learn, 2. That the ministry of the word is an ordinance of Christ’s own appointment, to continue to the end of the world, in order to that purpose and design.
Learn 3. That none of the most eminent saints on earth (the most knowing and pious ministers of the gospel not excepted) are above ordinances, above the ministry of the word, above receiving benefit and advantage by the plain and practical preaching of it; even St. Paul here puts himself in, and reckons himself among the number of those who stood in need of the ministry of God’s word, to bring him to a perfect man, and to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; he says not till ye, but till we all, come unto a perfect man.
Such people then as think themselves above ordinances, are above God himself; none need ordinances so much as those that want them least. And such hearers as turn their backs upon the preaching of the word, because they know more than the minister can teach them, and can better instruct the preacher than be instructed by him, they betray their own ignorance both of the intent and end of the ministry of the word, and also of the state of their own hearts; for if their understandings want no light, do their affections need no warmth? Have you no grace to be perfected, no corruptions to be weakened, no good resolutions to be strengthened? If your knowledge be imperfect, as sure it is, do not your affections want a fresh excitement? Admit the despised preacher cannot be your instructor, yet sure he may be your remembrancer, and excite you to that duty which you know already perhaps better than you practise it.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–16 But unto everyone of us is given grace,.... Which…
But unto everyone of us is given grace,.... Which may refer to the saints in common, and may be interpreted of justifying, pardoning, adopting, sanctifying, and persevering grace, bestowed upon them all, freely and liberally, not grudgingly, nor niggardly, and without motive and condition in them; or to the ministers of the Gospel, and so design gifts fitting for the ministry, which every one has, though differing one from another, and all of free grace:
according to the measure of the gift of Christ: either according to the gift of grace to Christ before the world began, and the measure of it, which he communicates to them in time, even grace for grace; or according to that measure of gifts which Christ received from men at his ascension: it may be observed that every member of Christ, and minister of his, receive more or less grace and gifts from him; and that what they receive is all of free grace, and in measure; and though they may have gifts differing one from another, yet all are useful; so that there is no room for pride, envy, and contempt, which would break in upon the unity of the Spirit; for what is said from Eph 4:3 contains so many arguments to stir up the saints to endeavour to preserve that.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv7–16 According to the measure of the gift of Christ…
According to the measure of the gift of Christ - According as Christ is pleased to give to each.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–16 Verse 7. Unto every one of us is given…
Verse 7. Unto every one of us is given grace] Grace may here signify a particular office; as if the apostle had said: Though we are all equal in the respects already mentioned, yet we have all different offices and situations to fill up in the Church and in the world; and we receive a free gift from Christ, according to the nature of the office, that we may be able to discharge it according to his own mind. So the free gift, which we receive from Christ, is according to the office or function which he has given us to fulfil; and the office is according to that free gift, each suited to the other.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7, 11, 12, 14, 15 Eph 4:7-10. But — Though there be so many,…
Eph 4:7-10. But — Though there be so many, and those infinitely important particulars, in which the true members of the church agree, and which furnish such powerful motives to love and unity, yet there are some things wherein they differ. For they occupy, by God’s appointment, different stations in the church, and for these they are fitted by different gifts. These distinctions, however, ought to be regarded by them, not as matters of emulation, and causes of contention, but rather as additional obligations to love and union, considering the great source and design of them all. For unto every one is given grace — Or some particular endowment proceeding from grace; according to the measure of the gift of Christ — In such a measure as seems best to him, the great Head and Governor of the church, to bestow it; whose distributions, we know, are always guided by consummate wisdom and goodness; so that all his disciples have the highest reason to acquiesce entirely in what he does. Wherefore he saith — That is, in reference to which God saith by David, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive — He took captive those who had held mankind in captivity; he conquered and triumphed over all our spiritual enemies, especially Satan, sin, and death, which had before enslaved all the world. This is spoken in allusion to the custom of ancient conquerors, who led those they had conquered in chains after them. And as they also used to give donatives to the people at their return from victory, so Christ gave gifts unto men — Namely, both the ordinary and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit: of the propriety of applying these words of the psalmist to the ascension of Christ, see note on Psa 68:18. Now this expression, that he ascended, what is it? — What does it imply, but that he descended first? — Certainly it does, on the supposition of his pre- existence as the Son of God, who had glory with the Father before the world was, and who came forth from the Father, and came into the world: otherwise it would not imply that he descended first, since all the saints will ascend to heaven, though none of them descend thence. Into the lower parts of the earth — That is, into the womb of the virgin at his incarnation, and into the grave at his passion; including, however, all the other steps of his humiliation. Bishop Pearson (on the Creed, p. 229) hath shown how very precariously this text is urged as a proof of Christ’s descent into hell, this phrase, the lower parts of the earth, in some other passages of Scripture plainly signifying the womb, as Psa 139:15, and the grave, Psa 63:9; Mat 12:40. He that descended — That thus amazingly humbled himself; is the same that ascended up — That was so highly exalted; far above all heavens — Above the aerial and starry heavens, into the heaven of heavens; or, as the meaning rather is, above all the inhabitants of the heavens, above all the angelical hosts; which is the meaning also of Heb 7:26, where he is said to be made higher than the heavens: that he might fill all things — The whole church with his Spirit, presence, and operations.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv7–16 But unto every one of us - Every Christian.
But unto every one of us - Every Christian.
Is given grace - The favor of God; meaning here that God had bestowed upon each sincere Christian the means of living as he ought to do, and had in his gospel made ample provision that they might walk worthy of their vocation. What “are” the endowments thus given, the apostle states in the following verses. The “grace” referred to here, most probably means “the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit,” or his operations on the heart in connection with the use of the means which God has appointed.
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According to the measure of the gift of Christ - Grace is bestowed upon all true Christians, and all have enough to enable them to live a life of holiness. Yet we are taught here:
(1) That it is a “gift.” It is “bestowed” on us. It is not what is originated by ourselves.
(2) It is by a certain “measure.” It is not unlimited, and without rule. There is a wise adaptation; an imparting it by a certain rule. The same grace is not given to all, but to all is given enough to enable them to live as they ought to live.
(3) That measure is the gift of Christ, or what is given in Christ. It comes through him. It is what he has purchased; what he has obtained by his merits. All have enough for the purposes for which God has called them into his kingdom, but there are not the same endowments conferred on all. Some have grace given them to qualify them for the ministry; some to be apostles; some to be martyrs; some to make them eminent as public benefactors. All this has been obtained by Christ; and one Should not complain that another has more distinguished endowments than he has; compare Rom 12:3 note; Joh 1:16 note.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16 To every one of us is given grace according…
To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. That is, as it hath pleased Christ to bestow his free gifts upon us; to shew, says St. John Chrysostom, that it was not according to any merit of ours. The words also shew that Christ is the giver and author of graces, and consequently the true God. (Witham) --- We must endeavour by all means in our power to preserve this unity, especially by avoiding jealousy, or being envious of the graces which have been given to our neighour; considering that they all proceed from the same God, who divides to each one as he pleaseth. (Tirinus)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv7, 11 b. The gift of Christ to individuals
b. The gift of Christ to individuals
(Eph_4:7-10)
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7But unto every [to each] one of us is given grace [was the13 grace given] according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8Wherefore he saith, When he ascended 9up on high, he led [a] captivity captive, and14 gave gifts unto [to] men. ([omit parenthesis] Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first [omit 10first]15 into the lower parts16 of the earth? He that [who] descended is the same also that [he it is also who] ascended up far [omit far] above all [the] heavens, that he might fill all things.) [omit) ].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Eph_4:7. Every one is cared for by Christ.—But to each one of us, ἑνὶ δὲ ἑκάστῳ ἡμῶν.—Antithetical to “through all and in all,” in order to explain it and to give prominence to the subjective condition, which is a motive for the preservation of unity; “of us” holds fast to the circle of Christians, of believers; it recalls Eph_3:20 : “in us.” After the seventh “one” and the fourth “all,” prominence is given to the specializing of what is common to all, to what is peculiar to the individuals. [Hence ἑνὶ in addition to ἑκάστῳ.—R.] It cannot be referred to teachers (Passavant), or to extraordinary Christians (Baumgarten-Crusius), or to the relation of Jewish and Gentile Christians (Olshausen). Each has a part in salvation, and should prove it in concord; each has a part in salvation, and hence should be treated in a fraternal manner.
Was the grace given [ἐδόθη ἡ χάρις].—The verb stands first for emphasis: Every one has received, no one has it of himself; each has to recognize that, for himself, in order not to be proud, for another, in order not to despise or avoid him. That which was given by Christ is “the grace,” God’s grace, which is active and noticeable in Christianity,17 and of which he has already spoken in ver.6 (Harless); or the grace imparted.
According to the measure of the gift of Christ [κατὰ τὸ μέτρον τῆς δωρεᾶς τοῦ Χριστοῦ].—One kind of grace is given, and yet very differently. It is given by Christ; hence the genitive Χριστοῦ is the genitive subjecti, on which account we find in ver.Eph 8: “and gave gifts,” Eph_4:11 : “and He gave,” accordingly that gift which He has given, not received (Oeder, in Wolf). He gives to each individual, to one more, to another less, to each the entire grace, but in peculiar form, with differently manifested strength, efficacy and tendency; hence “according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” [“In proportion to the amount of the gift which Christ gives” (Ellicott), the first genitive being a simple possessive genitive, and the second that of the agent, or both being subjective. Stier tries to combine the ideas of giving and receiving in the phrase: “of Christ.” “The rule is not our merit, or our previous capacity, nor our asking, but His own good pleasure” (Hodge).—R.]
Christ has power thereto; Eph_4:8-10. a) The quotation (Eph_4:8). b) The further exposition and application (Eph_4:9-10).
Eph_4:8. Wherefore he saith.—Διό denotes that in the quotation there is a reference and proof, i.e., for “the gift of Christ;” as will appear. We most naturally supply ἡ γραφή, the Scripture, with λέγει, “saith” (Jam_4:6; Rom_15:10; Gal_3:16; 1Co_6:16 : φησίν), and not ὁ θεός (Meyer, Schenkel), or ὁ λέγων (Bleek: the writer). [The fact that Paul frequently supplies ἡ γραφή (Rom_4:8; Rom_9:17; Rom_10:11; Gal_4:30; 1Ti_5:18) is against Braune’s view; for in some of these passages there is a reason for its insertion (see Romans, p. 314), and as the Scriptures are God’s Word (Meyer), the natural aim and obvious subject is ὁ θεός. So Alford, Ellicott and most.—R.] The quotation is from Psa_68:19 : עָלִיתָ לַמָּרוֹס שָׁבִיתָ שֶׁבִי לָקָחְתָּ מַתָּנוֹת בָּאָדָם: LXX: ἀναβὰς εἰς ὕψος ἠχμαλώτευσας αἰχμαλωσίαν ἔλαβες δὁματα ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ. In Paul it reads:
When he ascended upon high he led a captivity captive, and gave gifts to men, ἀναβὰς εἰς ὕψος ἠχμαλώτευσεν αἰχμαλωσίαν καὶ ἔδωκε δόματα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις.—The citation is unmistakable up to the last clause: Paul has used the third person instead of the second, because he would mark the application and not merely quote; but in the last clause he substitutes “give” for “receive,” and the dative τοῖς ἀνθρώποις for ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ. The article is found in the Hebrew, in the Kamets, and in the singular, the general idea, which Paul expresses by the plural, inheres. Accordingly there remains but three variations of any consequence: לקח, λαμβάνειν, to receive, what is in itself inadmissible, δίδοναι, to give; instead of באדם, the dative, which is not represented by בְ, but by לְ, and the added καί. What in the glorious Psalm is said of God, whose triumphant doings on the earth are praised, and who takes up His abode on Mount Zion, in His sanctuary, to which the people festively draw near, and whither the Gentiles also will come, this the Apostle here applies to Christ. David sang of the ark of the covenant, which, after a great victory, was transferred (Stier) or brought back (Hengstenberg) to Zion. In this fact he sees the principle of the history of the Kingdom of God, appearing in ever widening circles and nobler manner; the fact is to him a type of the method and course of the Messianic kingdom. Hence the general view (Eph_4:2-7; Eph_4:29-32) and the reminiscence of the journey through the wilderness from Sinai to Zion (Eph_4:8-19). So that the Apostle is perfectly justified in finding the singer’s eye directed towards Christ and thus interpreting it. The height (“on high”) in the Psalm is first of all Zion (Eph_4:16-17; comp. Jer. 17:12, 38; Jer_31:12; Jer_34:14, where מַרוֹם is spoken of Zion); but this is a type of heaven; of the most holy height, on which account the Apostle has heaven in his mind (Eph_4:10).18 By “captivity,” αἰχμαλωσία, according to Jdt_2:9; Ezr_6:5; Rev_13:10, we must understand captives, a troop or group of them, and not prison, captivity (Luther). This the parallelism which follows in the Psalm (Eph 70: ἀπειθοῦντες, Vulgate: non credentes) teaches us; indeed the next clause (ἔλαβες δόματα ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ) indicates plainly enough that the notion of αἰχμαλωσία is that of a turba captivorum, a crowd of captives, since the passage speaks of gifts in the man (in the human race), in men, presents consisting in men, whom He received and bore with Him into the same sanctuary.19 This however the Apostle does not simply take up in his quotation, does not place it after the first clause without any connecting particle, but with καί, which denotes advance, something further, passes from the quotation over into the meaning: and He gave. For what God conquers, overcomes, leads with Himself, takes to Himself, makes His own, He does not wish to retain for Himself, but He transforms it, endows it, and makes it a gift: His captives become His servants, Israel’s servants. He makes the enemies and antagonists of His theocracy its servants. So in a higher sense Christ; He made Saul Paul, the enemy and destroyer of His church an Apostle. God’s taking, receiving, points to a subsequent giving, Christ’s giving to a previous receiving. Thus the taking of gifts in men passes over into a giving for men, and the citation from David’s Psalm the Apostle interprets as referring to Christ. By “men,” τοῖς ἀνθρώποις we must understand chiefly men conquered by Him, His men, to whom He has given gifts of grace, that they themselves may and can become gifts for men in wider circles (see Eph_4:11; Act_2:33).
After all this, it cannot be said that the citation is not from Psa_68:19, but ex carmine, quod ab Ephesiis cantitari sciret (Storr, Flatt), or that Paul did not know the exact words (Rueckert), nor nonnihil a genuino sensu detorsit, de suo adjecit (Calvin), or to invent an exegetical tradition from the Targums (which were made not earlier than the third century, and the Syriac and Arabic versions, altered to accord with the Apostle, and to suppose the Apostle had followed this (Holzhausen, Meyer and others). Nor should we go beyond the context, and find a reference, as in Col_2:15, to Satanic powers, which He has led captive (Chrysostom, Beza, Calov., Bengel, Stier and others), since this does not comport with the Apostle’s interpretation, or to the souls released from Hades (Estius, Delitzsch, Psychology, p. 358, and others), since enemies are spoken of. Finally we cannot infer from this passage in the Psalms and the use Paul makes of it this difference between the Old and New Testaments, that in the former God receives gifts from or among men, but in the latter gives to men (Schenkel).
[The real difficulty of this verse lies in the form of the last clause. That Paul quotes from the Psalm which has a Messianic reference, that Christ is represented as returning victoriously to heaven with a crowd of captives, is evident, and occasions no difficulty. But as the point of the section is Christ’s giving to men, it is singular that the words: “gave gifts to men” are not found in the Psalm, which says: “received gifts among men.” (בָאָדָם, lit., in the man), or as Braune takes it, “consisting in men,” i.e., the captives. Dr. J. A. Alexander (Psalms, in loco): “To receive gifts on the one hand and bestow gifts on the other are correlative ideas and expressions, so that Paul, in applying this description of a theocratic triumph to the conquests of our Saviour, substitutes one of these expressions for the other.” If this be deemed satisfactory, and Braune’s view, which obviates the difficulty in בָאָדָם, be accepted, the solution is complete. But if the latter be rejected (see footnote on αἰχμαλωσίαν), then we can render the original passage: “has taken gifts among men” (the collective sense is clearly correct) and consider the whole phrase recast by the Apostle to express the correlative idea which is at hand, and which is contained in the further, fuller, and deeper meaning of the Psalm, here succinctly, suggestively and authoritatively unfolded (Ellicott). This seems to be more satisfactory than to attempt to prove that the Hebrew expresses this meaning. It may be admitted that it is often=danda sumpsit (as Eadie clearly proves) but that it means this in the Psalm in question is very doubtful. The same view would render בָאָדָם, for men, which becomes to men, after the bestowal of the gift. See Eadie in loco.—R.]
Eph_4:9. Now that he ascended, τὸ δὲἀνέβη, taken from the ἀναβάς.—[Not the word, which does not occur in the passage quoted, but the predicate, which is contained in ἀναβάς (Meyer). The δέ introduces a slight explanatory transition; not strictly a proof (Hodge, Ellicott, following Hofmann and Meyer) of the correctness of the Messianic application of the passage cited, but a further explanation of what it means as thus applied. Meyer now (4th ed.) gives up his former view, remarking that such a proof was unnecessary and illogical, since the subject of the Psalm in its Messianic fulfilment was self-evident, and God Himself is conceived of in the Old Testament as ὁ καταβάς—R.]
What is it [What does it imply] but that he also descended [τί ἐστιν εἰ μὴ ὅτι καὶ κατέβη].—Τί ἐστιν=what is thereby expressed (Mat_9:13; Joh_16:17 ff; Joh_10:6)? Ὅτι καὶ κατέβη, He has not merely ascended, but has also previously descended; the former presupposes the latter: Thus heaven is indicated as His original dwelling-place (Joh_3:13) and His Person as that glorious, helping One, who can and will give gifts. [So Meyer. It is impossible to understand the verse otherwise than as indicating heaven to be the point of departure and the place of return for Him who descends and ascends. The doubt respects only the place whither He descended and whence He ascended.—R.]
Into the lower parts of the earth, εἰς τὰ κατώτερα μέρη τῆς γῆς.—This closer definition of the descending evidently indicates the depths of the lower world, the subterranean world, which is below the surface of the earth; the genitive is partitive, governed by μέρη. The thought occurs in a variety of forms (Php_2:10 : καταχθονίων; Act_2:27; Act_2:31 : εἰς ᾅδην; 1Pe_3:19 : ἐν φυλακῇ. The expression here corresponds to κατώτατα τῆς γῆς (Psa_63:10), grammatically τῆς γῆς might be the genitive of apposition (Winer, p. 494), like εἰς τὸ ὕψος τοῦ οὐρανοῦ (Isa_38:14). It is also true that the context up to this point would permit us to refer the phrase to the earth alone. But the following τὰ πάντα (Eph_4:10) and the design of the Apostle to show the power of Christ, require the fullest justifiable meaning of the expression, and hence the application to Hades. There is no reference to burial (Chrysostom and others), nor in accordance with Psa_139:15 to the mother’s womb (Calixtus and others).
[This interpretation of the phrase: “the lower parts of the earth” is the one anciently received, current among Romanist expositors, and adopted more recently by Bengel, Rueckert, Olshausen, Stier, Turner, Wordsworth, Alford and Ellicott. The other view: the lower parts, viz., the earth, is accepted by the majority of modern commentators, such as Calvin, Grotius, Harless, De Wette, Hofmann, Hodge and Eadie (who gives a full statement of views and a good defence of this interpretation). It may be remarked that while one class of expositors may have been led to the one conclusion by a desire to sustain the article of the Apostles’ Creed; “He descended into hell,” the other may have been quite as much influenced by a fear of favoring the Romanist appendages to that article. Both views are alike grammatical, for while the positive would more naturally express the latter sense and the superlative the former, we have here the indefinite comparative, which may mean either. Doctrinally either view is admissible, while the considerations mentioned by Braune perhaps make the ancient view the preferable one. On Christ’s descent into Hades, see Dr. Schaff’s note, Matthew, pp. 228–229, and Lange and Mombert, First Peter, pp. 63 f., 67–72. Zanchius, Barnes and others favor the notion that the phrase signifies, in general, lowliness or humiliation, a view altogether untenable, because opposed to the context, and an unnecessary departure from the literal meaning.—R.]
Eph_4:10. He who descended, he it is also who ascended [ὁ καταβὰς αὐτός ἐστιν καὶ ὁ ἀναβάς].—Both thoughts are here brought together, without οὖν, in a lively, joyous manner, marking the identity of the Person. Κα·ταβάς stands first, having the emphasis, and αὐτός [He, emphatic], not ὁ αὐτός [the same, as in E. V.], gives prominence to the Person, who ascended out of the deepest depths, above all the heavens, ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν οὐρανῶν; the strongest antithesis to Eph_4:9. Under the term “heavens” there is no necessity for reckoning either three (Harless and others) according to 2Co_12:2, or seven (Meyer and others), according to the prevalent Jewish opinion.20 Similar expressions: Heb_4:14; Heb_7:26.
That he might fill all things, ἵνα πληρώσῃ τὰ πάντα.—The Apostle thus gives the motive for what he has presented [in Eph_4:7]. There is nothing into which He cannot penetrate. Comp. Eph_1:23. Τὰ πάντα designates all regions into which He can carry His gifts, can penetrate with His grace and glory, all regions and all persons within them.21 There is no reference to a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy (Anselm, Koppe and others), or to the completion of the work of Redemption (Rueckert and others); nor is it to be limited to Christians (Beza, Grotius, Schenkel and others), for He rules also among and in His enemies (Psa_110:2). Chrysostom is excellent: τοῦτό ἐστι τῆς ἐνεργείας αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς δεσποτείας, that He lets none slip, gives to every one, who has permitted himself to be conquered; the gracious and efficient presence of Him, the God-man, is thus established, and Eph_4:7 explained.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The idiosyncracy and freedom of the individual is as little altered by the gift of Christ’s grace as the former is of itself able to replace the latter by its own self-originated development. There must be giving, and indeed in this there is necessary a repeated proffering, making receptive or preparing, appropriating and preserving; the Lord offers ten times before we once receive, accept, take; so little does the Lord limit the freedom of the recipient. With the gift (Gabe), however, a task (Aufgabe) is at the same time appointed to the recipient: he must use it, gain with it. The gift does not obliterate national, corporate, local, temporal, individual differences, but purifies and ennobles them. Temperament and natural mental powers, talents and inclinations are only refined, directed, moved and used for the Lord’s kingdom and our own salvation. “It is self-evident that the gifts of grace are not mere developments of the natural talents of the man,—but this does not deny that they are planted in a natural talent” (Kahnis, Lehre vom heil. Geist I. p. 72).
2. Christ is the Lord, who gives. He has fought the fight of Redemption, and stands as a conqueror there; has overcome as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and as the Lamb of God, who bears the sins of the world. He can give to every one and He is willing to do so. His χρίσμα, by means of which He makes men Christians, is a χάρισμα, grace in a special manner adapted to the individual. Comp. 1Co_12:8 ff.
3. Respecting the internal connection of the Old and New Testament, as well as for Hermeneutics and Homiletics, much can be deduced from the application of this citation from the Psalms in our passage.
a. “The Apostle knows that what the Old Testament contains, the New Testament must also contain, only in a more glorious manner. Comp. 2Co_3:7-11. He knows that however different according to the different relations, which are indicated in the very character of the Old Testament revelation, it still inheres in the nature of this unity of the two revelations, to bear witness of this unity to those who can and will seek it. All that was written aforetime was written εἰς ἡμετέραν διδασκαλίαν (Rom_15:4).” Harless. Besides the definite prophecies, there are in the Old Testament enough types and things typical of Christ and what has taken place in and through Him. What occurred in the people of Israel and is narrated as history or sung by holy men of old, is something pointing to the future; while at the time indeed it is accomplished fact or acute sketching of a living person, yet beyond this it has a validity for the Messianic period, so that when this comes in it is related to it as σκιά to σῶμα, shadow to body. In the Old Testament the Logos is concerned, but concealed, in all; in the New Testament manifested openly in all glory, full of grace and truth. The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Redeemer in the New. Comp. Riehm, Lehrbegriff des Hebräerbriefs, I. p. 131 ff.
b. Hermeneutics should perceive and show forth, in the acts of God narrated or sung in the Holy Scriptures, His administration, both going back to seek the preparatory and prophetic types, and forwards to point out the advancing accomplishment. But there must be a distinction made between what the passage to be expounded expresses as the sense and meaning of the writer, and what the deed or person, so simply and transparently described, signifies in the kingdom of God, in His people, of which signification the writer may be entirely unconscious. “The knowledge which looks back to the guidance of youth is the knowledge belonging to Christianity; the guidance of youth is the history of the Old Testament theocracy; the veil which rests on the guidance of youth disappears with the knowledge of manhood in Christ (2Co_3:4-16).” Harless. Every important poet, every skilful artist, may first perceive in the later inspection of his work thoughts therein, of which he neither was nor became conscious in making it. So in the Scripture often enough is there more than the writer had in his consciousness. [Comp. Exeg. and Doctr. Notes, Galatians, Gal_4:19-30. Even Eadie, who is most earnest in the effort to prove that the Apostle cites from the Psalm in accordance with its original and exact sense, says: “Our position is, that the same God is revealed as Redeemer both under the Old and New Testament, that the Jehovah of the one is the Jesus of the other, that Psalms 68 is filled with imagery which was naturally based on incidents in Jewish history, and that the inspired poet, while describing the interposition of Jehovah, has used language which Was fully realized only in the victory and exaltation of Christ.”—R.]
c. Homiletics may and should place the biblical history of the Old and New Testament, as a concrete manifestation of a Divine thought or of Divine guidance and ways, which enclose love and wisdom for men, besides others in the present life of the world or of individuals, in order to place these latter in that true light, which the former gives. For God and the Saviour Jesus Christ is the same in the Old and the New Testament, and at all times, ours as well, in His Church. Gaupp (Homiletik I. p. 174) calls this the tropological view. [Admitting both the usefulness of teachings drawn from analogy, since analogy, figure, type, etc., all indicate the harmony of the Divine will in Creation, Providence and Redemption, and the propriety of such extensions and applications of the Old Testament on the part of an inspired Apostle, we must remember that our tropological exposition is not authoritative, and that we can base no doctrine or precept upon it, but only use it to elucidate established doctrine or enforce plain precept.—R.]
4. The Christology of this passage. It says that Christ is originally in heaven; there is His eternal dwelling-place. But He betook Himself into lowliness and penetrated the universe even to the lower regions, in order to fill all with His glory. He works as King, dispensing victoriously, where He has wrought as champion. His pre-existence is taken for granted, while we are especially taught His eternal activity of grace in all directions and for all times and for every man.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Only take what Christ gives thee; thou needst envy no one.—Thankfully recognize what He has given to another; it benefits thee also.—Do not be satisfied with the natural endowments of your nation, your class, your family, or your intellect; let them be sanctified, purified, penetrated by grace in Christ. The most highly gifted natural man is always smaller and poorer than a living Christian (Goethe, Tersteegen).—Christ is King, Lord; His sword is His word, but this is a sword.—He has descended into the deep as a Redeemer: thy sin is not too deep and thy heart is not too bad: He can fill it.
Starke:—Each member must be contented with his measure of gifts, received without pride, shared without envy.—Dear Christian, wilt thou ascend with Christ and reach His glory, then must thou first descend and suffer.
Rieger:—No one has all, and no one need be concerned lest he come away entirely empty.—The origin of all gifts is to be found especially in the exaltation of Christ, which began with the victory over the rulers of darkness, over the principalities and powers who held us captive, who were themselves taken captive in the deep path of Christ’s humiliation, and in the moment of Christ’s death, when they believed they had gained the mastery over Him, must find and feel Him to be their Conqueror and Destroyer.
Heubner:—The diversity of gifts as respects degree and subject, should not occasion boasting or envy. In working together for the Kingdom of God there can be no envy; where there is envy, there the labor is for personal advantage.—Christ’s Kingdom embraces also the invisible Kingdom of God. Would this be conceivable, were He a mere man?
Passavant:—It has ever been the indiscretion and folly of men in the world, that they have forgotten the One Great Giver in the gifts and gifted, looking with especial astonishment to this teacher, with especial love to this benefactor, with especial admiration to this hero;—a virtual idolatry.—The main blow and the victory for all time and for eternity took place in and with the death of Christ—in and with His Resurrection.
Stier:—Each for himself and all together have to walk the same way in Christ.—The gifts of Christ are themselves at the same time men; all gifts of grace are pre-eminently official gifts.
[Eadie:
Eph_4:7. The law of the Church is essential unity in the midst of circumstantial variety. Each gift in its own place completes the unity.
Eph_4:9. Reproach and scorn and contumely followed Him as a dark shadow. Persecution at length apprehended Him, accused Him, calumniated Him, scourged Him, mocked Him, and doomed “the man of sorrows” to an ignominious torture and a felon’s death. His funeral was extemporized and hasty; nay, the grave He lay in was a borrowed one. He came truly “to the lower parts of the earth.”
Eph_4:10. But as His descent was to a point so deep, His ascent is to a point as high. His position is the highest in the universe.—R.]
[Hodge:
Eph_4:7. To refuse to occupy the place assigned to us in the Church, is to refuse to belong to it at all.
Eph_4:9-10. All other comings were typical of His coming in the flesh, and all ascensions were typical of His ascension from the grave.—It is God clothed in our nature who now exercises this universal dominion; and therefore the Apostle may well say of Christ, as the incarnate God, that He gives gifts unto men.—R.]
Footnotes:
[13]Eph_4:7.—[The article is omitted in B. D.1 F. G. L., a few cursives, by Lachmann; bracketted by Alford; inserted in א. A. C. D.3 K., accepted by Tischendorf and most recent editors. The omission was probably due to the η which precedes, and some glosses still further sustain its genuineness.—The order of the E. V. is altered for the sake of retaining the article, and was substituted for is, to bring out the force of the aorist.—R.]
[14]Eph_4:8.—[Καί is omitted in א. A. C.2 D.1 F., versions and fathers; rejected by Lachmann, Tischendorf (ed. 2), Ellicott. It is found in (Rec.) א.3 B. G.13 D.3 K. L., nearly all cursives, versions (Syrian, etc.), fathers; accepted by Tischendorf (ed. 7), Meyer, Alford, Braune. As it is wanting in the LXX, the internal evidence seems to decide in its favor; an insertion for the sake of connection is not probable.—See Exeg. Notes for the text of the original Hebrew and the LXX.—R.]
[15]Eph_4:9.—The Rec. inserts πρῶτον. on the authority of א.3 B. C.3 K. L., cursives, versions and fathers; it is not found in א. A. C. D.1.F?., and is rejected by modern editors as an explanatory gloss.—R.]
[16]Eph_4:9.—[The authority for μέρη is much stronger than for πρῶτον (א. A. B. C. D 3 K. L., nearly all cursives, a few versions and fathers), though it is open to suspicion as an explanatory gloss, and is rejected by Tischendorf, Meyer and Ellicott (omitted in D.1 F, most fathers). It is however retained, on account of the strong uncial support, by Lachmann, Scholz, Rückert, Alford and Braune.—R.]
[17][The aorist points to a definite act: “by Christ, at the time of His exaltation—when He bestowed gifts on men” (Alford).—“The grace,” as the article is to be retained, has some shade of a transitive force, denoting the energizing grace which manifests itself in the peculiar gift (Ellicott) rather than the spiritual gift itself and the influence, function, or office flowing from it (Hodge).—R.]
[18][The inspired and prophetic character of the Psalm, and its antiquity are undoubted (see Hitzig, Hengstenberg, Delitzsch against De Wette and Ewald). It was probably composed after a battle, and quite as probably (against Eadie) “at some bringing up of the ark to the hill of Zion,” which took place after a victory (Hengstenberg: taking of Rabbah, 2Sa_12:26). Alford, with reference to the return of the ark. says: “It is therefore a Messianic Psalm. Every part of that ark, every stone of that hill, was full of spiritual meaning. Every note struck on the lyres of the sweet singers of Israel, is but part of a chord, deep and worldwide, sounding from the golden harps of Redemption. The partial triumphs of David and Solomon only prefigured as in a prophetic mirror the universal and eternal triumph of the Incarnate Son of God. Those who do not know this, have yet their first lesson in the Old Testament to learn.” Comp. Doctr. Note 3.—R.]
[19][In the revision, by Four Anglican Clergymen, captives is substituted for captivity. “A captivity” is a literal rendering which points to the concrete sense.—As regards this concrete sense, there is little difference of opinion, the only question being: Who are the captives? Obviously enemies who have been overcome, either (a) men who become His servants, those referred to in τοῖς ἀνθρώποις (Braune, following some fathers, Harless, Olshausen and others), who were previously prisoners of Satan (though Braune does not bring this out, or (b) Satan, sin, death (Chrysostom, Bengel, Meyer, Stier, Eadie, Alford, Hodge, Ellicott); Calvin seeks to combine the two. The former view greatly lessons the difficulty in the last clause of the quotation, helping to justify the substitution of the notion of giving for that of receiving in the original passage. But this very fact lays it open to suspicion as an exegesis for an emergency. The other view is favored by Col_2:15 (though not to be limited by the reference there), it preserves the analogy of the comparison, and gives a forcible meaning. Other views have been suggested, but not very probable ones.—R.]
[20][Alford: “It is natural that one who, like St. Paul, had been brought up in the Jewish habit of thought, should still use their method of speaking.” But this does not imply an acceptation of such a division of the heavens; rather this: “Whatsoever heaven is higher than all the rest which are called heavens, into that place did He ascend” (Bish. Pearson in Ellicott).—R.]
[21][So Hodge, Eadie, Alford and Ellicott. Even Dr. Braune does not attempt to justify the use made of this passage to defend the doctrine of the ubiquity of Christ’s body (Farm. Concord.). On which Ellicott aptly says: “Christ is perfect God, and perfect and glorified man; as the former He is present everywhere, as the latter He can be present anywhere.”—R.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7–16 But--Though "one" in our common connection with "one Lord,…
But--Though "one" in our common connection with "one Lord, one faith, &c., one God," yet "each one of us" has assigned to him his own particular gift, to be used for the good of the whole: none is overlooked; none therefore can be dispensed with for the edifying of the Church (Eph 4:12). A motive to unity (Eph 4:3). Translate, "Unto each one of us was the grace (which was bestowed by Christ at His ascension, Eph 4:8) given according to," &c.
the measure--the amount "of the gift of Christ" (Rom 12:3, Rom 12:6).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7–16 b. As being gifted with Christ-bestowed ministries, Eph_4:7-12.
b. As being gifted with Christ-bestowed ministries, Eph_4:7-12.
7. Unto every one—Having in the previous paragraph in spirit secured the unity of his model Church, St. Paul now attends to their individualities.
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According to the measure—For this unity does not presuppose a perfect equality. It requires that each one should recognise his own measure; and should exercise his gifts, and be expected to so exercise, according to that measure.
Gift—A beautiful term to indicate that our every ability, natural, acquired, or gracious, is a divine gratuity, demanding thanks and imposing responsibilities.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–16 7. But unto every one] A motive to holy…
7. But unto every one] A motive to holy union from the opposite side; that of “diversity of gifts.” See Rom_12:3-8; 1Co_12:4, &c.; 1Pe_4:10-11. Harmony of spiritual life and work should be promoted by equal remembrance of the oneness of the source of life and the inevitable diversity of its exercises and applications.
is given] Was given, in the great ideal distribution at the Lord’s exaltation, and actually when we were each “sealed” (Eph_1:14).
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according to the measure of the gift of Christ] I. e., not indefinitely, or confusedly, but as the great Master, Christ, adjusted, measured, His mighty Gift to His sovereign allotment of each servant’s work. All was mere bounty, free gift; but all also profound design, manifold in detail, one in end.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–16 (7) But unto every one of us is given…
(7) But unto every one of us is given grace.—This verse should be rendered, To every one of us the grace (the one “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ”) was given—that is, given in the Divine purpose in the regeneration of the whole body, although it has to be received and made our own, separately in each soul, and gradually in the course of life. It was and is given “according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” (See below, Eph_4:13-16.) In Him it dwells “without measure” (see Joh_3:34); He gives it to each according to the measure of his capacity to receive it in faith (called in Rom_12:3 the “measure of faith”). Compare with this verse the fuller description of the differences of “gifts,” “ministries,” and “operations” in 1Co_12:4-6, in which passage there is the same general reference to the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity; but the particular reference is there to the Holy Spirit, while here it is to the Son.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv7–16 Vers. 7-16. VARIETY OF GIFTS IN CONNECTION WITH UNITY;…
Vers. 7-16. VARIETY OF GIFTS IN CONNECTION WITH UNITY; USE TO BE MADE OF THEM.
But to each one of us was grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. In the Church all do not get alike; grace is not given in equal measures as the manna in the wilderness; Christ, as the great Bestower, measures out his gifts, and each receives according to his measure. Compare parable of talents. "Grace" does not refer merely to supernatural gifts, but also to the ordinary spiritual gifts of men. These are varied, because what each gets he gets for the good of the rest; the Church is a fellowship or brotherhood, where each has an interest in all and all in each, and is bound to act accordingly.
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Vers. 7-11.
Christ"s gifts to his Church.
The grand object of the apostle in this section of his Epistle is to show the ample provision made by Christ for the welfare of his Church. The Church may sing as well as the individual, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want." The particular object is to indicate that the gifts conferred by him on the members individually (vers. 7-10), and especially the appointment of the several classes of office-bearers (ver. 10), show the Lord"s earnest desire to raise his Church to the highest possible condition of grace and honor; to make her complete and glorious, as the one body of which he is the Head, the one vessel into which he is to pour all his fullness, the bride on whom he is to exhaust every ornament. The marks of Christ"s care for his Church are innumerable; they recede back through all eternity and forward for evermore. (Eph_3:18, Eph_3:19) His death marked the climax of his self-sacrifice; but even that did not end Christ"s service for his Church. For her he not only descended from heaven to earth, but for her too he reascended from earth to heaven; like the high priest, he went into the holiest of all with his Name on his breastplate, and he only changed the sphere in which his mediatorial office was exercised. But more; the good Shepherd is ever renewing the miracle of the five loaves and two fishes; ever saying with reference to his people, Give ye them to eat;" and ever appointing and qualifying suitable officers to take care of his Church and break among them the bread of life. He is ever qualifying his ministers for ruling and feeding his flock, for filling the empty soul, speaking a word in season to the weary, guiding the perplexed, reclaiming the erring, strengthening the weak, supporting the feeble-minded, and sending on the ransomed of the Lord to Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. The subject divides into two the gift-giving (vers. 7-11), and the end or purpose for which the gifts are given (vers. 12-16). In the first part we find:
1. The source of the gifts and the principle of distribution (ver. 7).
2. Confirmation of this from the sixty-eighth psalm (ver. 8).
3. Commentary and inferences therefrom (vers. 9, 10).
4. The special gift of suitable officers.
I
1. Christ is the great Source of grace, including ordinary and extraordinary gifts ("the gift of Christ").
2. Christ leaves no one out; to every one of us is given grace.
3. The grace was not given in equal measures to all.
4. But according to the measure of the gift of Christ,
II From the sixty-eighth psalm it appears that this proceeding was symbolized when the ark was placed on Mount Zion, when David"s victories were celebrated, and a distribution of gifts took place.
III The word "ascended," applied to the Son of God, implied a previous descent; for when he ascended, he went to his own home and seat; previous to this he came down, and the apostle dwells especially on his having come down to the lower parts of the earth, such as Gethsemane, Calvary, and the grave. His was no holiday visit to earth, to green fields, or golden palaces; "He was taken from prison and from judgment." Yet even there he triumphed over all his enemies, and now he is exalted "far above all heavens." This last expression is very remarkable, especially in the view of what modem astronomy teaches on the extent of the heavens. It is a marvelous testimony to the glory of the risen Lord. Still higher is the testimony to his glory in the purpose for which he has gone on high he might fill all things." The sun, in the center of the solar system, fills that system, spreading light and heat and manifold influences to its extremest limits. All the colors that beautify earth, sea, and sky; all the heat that fosters life and gladdens living creatures of every kind; all the chemical influences that are so manifold in their effects on the economy of nature, radiate from the sun. So Christ is Sun and Center of the infinite universe, and the universe is filled by him with heavenly influences. There are many suns, but only one Savior; there are many systems of worlds, according to our modern astronomy, and even firmaments of worlds, beyond the ken of our strongest instruments; but all are joined by one glorious bond; for not only have they been all formed by one Creator, but all have been "filled" by the one all-glorious Mediator-Lord. What resources does that expression, "that he might fill all things," ascribe to Christ! If he can fill all thins, he can fill us; our hearts are not easily filled; but what can be wanting to us out of such fullness?
IV But from the stars we come back to the Church, and consider Christ as exalted to fill his Church. With this view he has qualified and commissioned certain officers to minister to his Church. Of these it is generally allowed that apostles and prophets were special and temporary; while evangelists, pastors, and teachers are ordinary and permanent (see Exposition). Observe that such men are to be received (and when needed to be asked too) as gifts of Christ to his Church. It is the Lord of the harvest who equips and furnishes laborers for his harvest. We should not seek ministers of the gospel, as some do, for our own pleasure or credit, rejecting them if they do not quite answer our idea; but as gifts of Christ, in which their great object will be to build up his Church and promote the beauty of his bride.
Diversity of gift in unity of body.
There are three points suggested by this verse.
I THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH IS CONSISTENT WITH GREAT DIVERSITY OF GIFTS. As in the human body there are many members with different functions, so the Church is "not one member, but many." Diversity of gift, so far from being inconsistent with unity, is really essential to it. "If all were one member, where were the body?" All the great purposes of life would be frustrated if every part of the organism did not find its due place.
II EACH MEMBER OF THE CHURCH HAS HIS SEPARATE GIFT. This does not say that any one member has all gifts. Each has received his measure. There are those who would make the Church all "tongue," as if all were called to the gospel ministry. The gifts differ both in nature and in measure. One has the gift of speech, another the gift of sagacity, another the gift of enterprise, another the gift of sympathy, another the gift of wealth and influence. All ought to be contributory to the unity of the Church.
III THE ORIGIN AS WELL AS MEASURE OF THE GIFTS IS TO BE TRACED TO CHRIST. The position of each member in the body is not determined by itself, but by God. The eye does not make itself the eye, nor the hand the hand. So the position of believers in the Church is determined, not by themselves, but by Christ. The grace "is given according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Christ is the Source of all spiritual gifts, and he determines their adjustment as well as their amount. He does not give according to our merit, or our capacity, or our desires, but according to his sovereign pleasure. There is, therefore,
(1) no room for self-inflation if we have received the largest gifts;
(2) there is no room for envy or jealousy because others have received more gifts than ourselves;
(3) but rather an argument in the fact that one has a grace which another wants, for our helping each other in the Lord. Thus the true unity of the Church is promoted. T.C.
Vers. 7-16.
Redemptive influence the gift of Christ.
unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, anal carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." The subject is Moral restorative influence the gift of Christ. The "grace" mentioned in the seventh verse refers undoubtedly to the spiritual influences of God in the salvation and perfection of man. There are four things in this remarkable passage concerning this grace, this restorative influence.
I THIS GIFT IS COMMUNICATED BY CHRIST. "But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. The expression, "according to the measure of the gift of Christ," means, I think, that its bestowment is entirely according to his sovereign purpose.
1. Borne have a higher measure of grace than others. Some have wider and clearer views of truth, a richer experience of Divine love and faithfulness, broader and stronger sympathies, more soul-uplifting hopes and aspirations than others. There are babes in Christ and there are men in
2. Christ. Some are qualified to be ministers, martyrs, apostles, etc. Some are only fitted for a humble place in his vineyard.
3. This measure is determined by the will of Christ. It is according to "the measure of the gift of Christ," not according to the measure of a man"s capacity, merit, or effort. The fact removes all ground for boasting in the most distinguished in his Church. By the grace of God each disciple is what he is.
II THIS GIFT IS COMMUNICATED BY CHRIST AS THE RESULT OF HIS WONDERFUL HISTORY. "Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive.
1. His history was a history of wonderful triumphs. "He led captivity captive." He achieved the most brilliant victories. He triumphed over "principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly." He triumphed over death, rose from the grave, and became the Prince of life. He triumphs over the enmity of the human heart and brings the souls of the rebellious into captivity to himself.
2. His history was a history of wonderful changes.
(1) It involved the lowest descension. "He descended into the lower parts of the earth." He not only came down to the condition of humanity, but he took his place in the lowest social grade. "He made himself of no reputation," etc. He descended even into the grave and Hades.
(2) It involved the highest ascension. He ascended on high ... ascended up far above all heavens." How many heavens are there? Who can tell the height of the lowest? He is "far above" the highest. He thus descended and ascended in order that "he might fill" all human things with his spiritual influence, fill all human souls with his ideas, principles, and aims.
III THIS GIFT IS COMMUNICATED BY CHRIST IN A GREAT VARIETY OF MINISTRIES. "He gave some, apostles; some, prophets; some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers." Apostles." No one was an apostle but those immediately appointed by Christ, who had seen him after his resurrection and endowed with a special inspiration. Prophets." Those who, being divinely inspired, taught in the name of God. Evangelists." Probably itinerant preachers, missionaries, such as Philip. "Pastors and teachers." Overseers and instructors. All who in any way promote spiritual Christianity in the world, flora those who were the most feeble in power to those of loftiest capacity, are the gift of Christ. He calls them, qualifies them, and appoints them their respective spheres.
IV THIS GIFT IS COMMUNICATED BY CHRIST IN ORDER TO PERFECT HIS CHURCH. "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry." Spiritual perfection is the grand aim of all.
1. Perfection in service. "For the work of the ministry." The twelfth verse teaches that a perfect ministry implies a perfect character. There is no perfect service where there is not a perfect character. A man must be good to do good.
2. Perfection in unity. "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God." This may mean oneness or harmony of mind in relation to the doctrine and spirit of Christ, a common thought and sympathy in relation to the Son of God.
3. Perfection in character. "Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Christ is the Standard of excellence, and perfection of character is conformity to him. His character is the measure. To be Christ-like is to be perfect.
4. Perfection in strength. "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine.
(1) The strength of firmness... Possessing power enough to stand against all the winds and waves of religious opinions. There are some men at the mercy of every new doctrine. Their souls have no anchorage; they are not" rooted and grounded in the faith.
(2) The strength of determination. "By the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness." The ideas seem to be not influenced by the mere contingencies of sentiment nor the craftiness of heretical teachers.
5. Perfection in Church growth. "Speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ." The two verses teach:
(1) That Church growth is an advancing assimilation to Christ. "We may grow up into him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ." The true growth of the soul is progress towards a perfect conformity to Christ.
(2) That Church growth requires the loving exhibition of truth. "Speaking the truth in love." There is a truth, a reality in the gospel, and the ministry of this truth in love is necessary to promote the true growth of the Church.
(3) That Church growth is in every part dependent upon its vital connection with Christ. "From whom the whole body fitly joined together," etc.
(4) That Church growth requires the healthy action of all its members. "By that which every joint supplieth," etc. D.T.
Measured grace.
I CHRISTIANS ARE RECIPIENTS OF GRACE.
1. Without grace we can do nothing. All our attainments will be proportionate to the amount and kind of grace we receive. We cannot fulfill our vocation nor realize the grand unity of the Church by unaided human efforts.
2. But grace is vouchsafed to Christians. It is the peculiar privilege of the New Testament dispensation that it brings the energy of grace as well as the light of truth.
II CHRISTIAN GRACE IS THE GIFT OF CHRIST.
1. Grace must be a gift. It would cease to be grace if we could create, earn, or deserve it. All the blessings of the gospel are free gifts, as are also our natural endowments.
2. Christian grace comes direct from Christ. His sacrifice won it. His ascension enables him to dispense it (vers. 8-10).
III THIS GRACE IS GIVEN TO ALL CHRISTIANS. It is not reserved for high ecclesiastical officials and select saints. We are no Christians if we have it not. The Church is the body of all Christians, and it is one because "the same grace flows through the whole brotherhood. The gospel is broad and democratic.
IV THIS GRACE IS DISPENSED TO EACH INDIVIDUAL SEVERALLY. Each one receives the gift. We cannot be blessed by Divine grace in crowds and masses. The Church can only be endowed with grace when her private members are personally blessed. We do not receive grace by becoming part of the grand Catholic Church. But we realize the unity of the Church when we have been first blessed with Christ"s grace in our own souls.
V THIS GRACE IS MEASURED OUT IN VARYING PROPORTIONS. In Christ there was grace without measure. In us it is measured. Christ has a right to measure it, because it is a gift which he can withhold or bestow as he pleases. Yet if it is measured there is no stint, for if Christ has first given us himself, we may be sure that he will never keep back any needful lower blessings. The measure of the grace is determined by our spiritual capacity, our faith, our need, our special mission. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 But unto every one of us is grace given…
Eph_4:7
But unto every one of us is grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
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Grace determining function
I. The function or office of any Christian in the church depends upon the gift which he possesses.
II. This gift originates in the grace of Christ.
1. It is not merely by nature or education.
2. Nor is it the reward of desert.
3. Still less is it arbitrary or capricious.
III. Therefore the position and task determined by this grace should be accepted with grateful unquestioning obedience.
1. Every Christian has received some gift fitting him for usefulness.
2. Loyalty and faith towards the Head of the Church demands that he should make the utmost use of it.
3. By so doing he is the more certain to receive increase of grace for further and higher service. Every gift of the Spirit is a prophecy of greater gifts. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
The gift of Christ
The gift of Christ is the gift which He confers. That gift is measured, and each individual receives according to the sovereign will of the Supreme distributor. And whether the measure be great or small, whether its contents be of more brilliant endowment or of humbler and unnoticed talent--all is equally Christs gift, and of Christs adjustment, and all is equally indispensable to the union and edification of that Body in which there is no schism. The law of the Church is essential unity in the midst of circumstantial variety. Differences of faculty or temperament, education or susceptibility, are not superseded. Each gift in its own place completes the unity. What one devises another may plead for, while a third may act out the scheme; so that sagacity, eloquence, and enterprise form a three-fold cord, not easily broken. It is so in the material creation--the little is as essential to symmetry as the great--the star as well as the sun--the raindrop equally with the ocean, and the hyssop no less than the cedar. The pebble has its place as fittingly as the mountain, and colossal forms of life are surrounded with the tiny insect whose term of existence is limited to the summer twilight, Why should the possession of this grace lead to self-inflation? It is simply Christs gift. The amount and character of grace possessed by others ought surely to create no uneasiness nor jealousy, for it is of Christs measurement as well as of His bestowment, and every form and quantity of it as it descends from the one source is indispensable to the harmony of the Church. The one Lord will not bestow conflicting graces, nor mar nor disturb, by the repulsive antipathy of His gifts, that unity which Himself creates and exemplifies. (J. Eadie, D. D.)
Gifts differ--be natural
Now you that have lately been converted, do not go and learn all the pretty phrases that we are accustomed to use. Strike out your own course. Be yourself. But I should be odd. You need not mind that. All the trees that God makes are odd. The Dutch chip them round, or make them into peacocks, but that style of gardening is not to our mind. Some people say, What a lovely tree. I say, What a horribly ugly thing it is. Why not let the tree grow as God would have it. Do not clip yourselves round or square, but keep your freshness. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Use your own gift
It is said that in Derby resides Mr. Thomas Eyre, a veteran in the temperance cause, for forty years an abstainer and an earnest worker, but unable now to go out and labour, being paralyzed. In his window is hung a small board, with the following notice: A temperance pledge kept here. All who are weary of drinking, come in and sign. Yesterday, said our aged friend, one who has long been a slave to drink, and in great distress, came in, and for the first time signed the pledge. This example is worthy of being imitated.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv7, 13 Chapter 17
Chapter 17
THE MEASURE OF THE GIFT OF CHRIST
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Eph_4:7-12
In Eph_4:7 the apostle passes from the unities of the Church to its diversities, from the common foundation of the Christian life to the variety presented in its superstructure. "To each single one of us was the grace given." The great gift of God in Christ is manifold in its distribution. Its manifestations are as various and fresh as the idiosyncrasies of human personality. There is no capacity of our nature, no element of human society which the gospel of Christ cannot sanctify and turn to good account.
All this the apostle keeps in view and allows for in his doctrine of the Church. He does not merge man in humanity, nor sacrifice the individual to the community. He claims for each believer direct fellowship with Christ and access to God. The earnestness with which in his earlier epistles St. Paul insisted on the responsibilities of conscience and on the personal experience of salvation, leads him now to press the claims of the Church with equal vigour. He understands well that the person has no existence apart from the community, that our moral nature is essentially social and the religious life essentially fraternal. Its vital element is "the communion of the Holy Spirit." Hence, to gather the real drift of this passage we must combine the first words of Eph_4:7 with the last of Eph_4:12 : "To each single one of us was the grace given-in order to build up the body of Christ." Gods grace is not bestowed on us to diffuse and lose itself in our separate individualities; but that it may minister to one life and work towards one end and build up one great body in us all. The diversity subserves a higher unity. Through ten thousand channels, in ten thousand varied forms of personal influence and action, the stream of the grace of God flows on to the accomplishment of the eternal purpose.
Like a wise master in his household and sovereign in his kingdom, the Lord of the Church distributes His manifold gifts. His bestowments and appointments are made with an eye to the furtherance of the state and house that He has in charge. As God dispenses His wisdom, so Christ His gifts "according to plan". {Eph_3:11} The purpose of the ages, Gods great plan for mankind, determines "the measure of the gift of Christ." Now, it is to illustrate this measure, to set forth the style and scale of Christs be-stowments within His Church, that the apostle brings in evidence the words of Psa_68:18. He interprets this ancient verse as he cites it, and weaves it into the texture of his argument. In the original it reads thus:
"Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led Thy captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts among men, -Yea, among the rebellious also that the LORD God might dwell with them." (R.V.) Let us go back for a moment to the occasion of the old Hebrew song. Psalms 68, is, as Ewald says, "the greatest, most splendid and artistic of the temple-songs of Restored Jerusalem." It celebrates Jehovahs entry into Zion. This culminating verse records, as the crowning event of Israels history, the capture of Zion from the rebel Jebusites and the Lords ascension in the person of His chosen to take His seat upon this holy hill. The previous verses, in which fragments of earlier songs are embedded, describe the course of the Divine Leader of Israel through former ages. In the beat and rhythm of the Hebrew lines one hears the footfall of the Conquerors march, as He "arises and His enemies are scattered" and "kings of armies flee apace," while nature trembles at His step and bends her wild powers to serve His congregation. The sojourn in the wilderness, the scenes of Sinai, the occupancy of Canaan, the wars of the Judges were so many stages in the progress of Jehovah, which had Zion always for its goal. To Zion, the new and more glorious sanctuary, Sinai must now give place. Bashan and all mountains towering in their pride in vain "look askance at the hill which God has desired for His abode," where "Jehovah will dwell forever." So the day of the Lords desire has come I From the Kidron valley David leads Jehovahs triumph up the steep slopes of Mount Zion. A train of captives defiles before the Lords anointed, who sits down on the throne that God gives him and receives in His name the submission of the heathen. The vanquished chiefs cast their spoil at his feet; it is laid up in treasure to build the future temple; while, upon this happy day of peace, "the rebellious also" share in Jehovahs grace and become His subjects.
In this conquest David "gave to men" rather than "received"-gave even to his stubborn enemies (witness his subsequent transaction with Araunah the Jebusite for the site of the temple); for that which he took from them served to build amongst them Gods habitation: "that," as the Psalmist sings, "the Lord God might dwell with them." St. Pauls adaptation of the verse is both bold and true. If he departs from the letter, he unfolds tire spirit of the prophetic words. That Davids giving signified a higher receiving, Jewish interpreters themselves seem to have felt, for this paraphrase was current also amongst them.
The author of this Hebrew song has in no way exaggerated the importance of Davids victory. The summits of the elect nations history shine with a supernatural and prophetic light. The spirit of the Christ in the unknown singer "testified beforehand of the glory that should follow" His warfare and sufferings. From this victorious height, so hardly won, the Psalmists Verse flashes the light of promise across the space of a thousand years; and St. Paul has caught the light, and sends it on to us shining with a new and more spiritual brightness. Davids "going up on high" was, to the apostles mind, a picture of the ascent of Christ, his Son and Lord. David rose from deep humiliation to a high dominion; his exaltation brought blessing and enrichment to his people; and the spoil that he won with it went to build Gods house amongst rebellious men. All this was true in parable of the dispensation of grace to mankind through Jesus Christ; and His ascension disclosed the deeper import of the words of the ancient Scripture. "Wherefore God saith" (and St. Paul takes the liberty of putting in his own words what He saith)-"wherefore He saith: He ascended on high; He led captivity captive; He gave gifts to men."
The three short clauses of the citation supply, in effect, a threefold measure of the gifts of Christ to His Church. They are gifts of the ascended. Saviour. They are gifts bestowed from the fruit of His victory. And they are gifts to men. Measure them, first, by the height to which He has risen - from what a depth! Measure them, again, by the spoils He has already won. Measure them, once more, by the wants of mankind, by the need He has undertaken to supply.- As He is, so He gives; as He has, so He gives; as He has given, so He will give till we are filled unto all the fulness of God.
I. Think first, then, of Him. Think of what and where He is! Consider "what is the height" of His exaltation; and then say, if you can, "what is the breadth" of His munificence.
We know well how He gave as a poor and suffering man upon earth-gave, with what affluence, pity, and delight, bread to the hungry-thousands, wine to the wedding-feast, health to the sick, sight to the blind, pardon to the sinful, sometimes life to the dead! Has His elevation altered Him? Too often it is so with vain and weak men like ourselves. Their wealth increases, but their hearts contract. The more they have to give, the less they love to give. They go up on high as men count it, and climb to places of power and eminence; and they forget the friends of youth and the ranks from which they sprang-low-minded men. Not so with our exalted Friend. "It is not one that went down, and another that went up." says Theodoret. "He that descended, it is He also that ascended up far above all the heavens!" (Eph_4:10). Jesus of Nazareth is on the throne of God, -"the same yesterday and to-day!" But now the resources of the universe are at His disposal. Out of that treasure He can choose the best gifts for you and me.
Mere authority, even Omnipotence, could not suffice to save and bless moral beings like ourselves; nor even the best will joined to Omnipotence. Christ gained by His humiliation, in some sense, a new fulness added to the fulness of the Godhead. This gain of His sufferings is implied in what the apostle writes in Col_1:19 concerning the risen and exalted Redeemer: "It was well-pleasing that all the fulness should make its dwelling in Him." His plenitude is that of the Ascended One who had descended. "If He ascended, what does it mean but that He also descended into the under regions of the earth?" (Eph_4:9). If He went up, why then He had been down!-down to the Virgins womb and the manger cradle, wrapping His Godhead within the frame and the brain of a little child; down to the home and the bench of the village carpenter; down to the contradiction of sinners and the level of their scorn; down to the death of the cross, - to the nether abyss, to that dim populous underworld into which we look shuddering over the graves edge! And from that lower gulf He mounted up again to the solid earth and the light of day and the world of breathing men; and up, and up again, through the rent clouds and the ranks of shouting angels, and under the lifted heads of the everlasting doors, until He took His seat at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens.
Think of the regions He has traversed, the range of being through which the Lord Jesus passed in descending and ascending, "that He might fill all things." Heaven, earth, hades-hades, earth, heaven again are His; not in mere sovereignty of power, but in experience and communion of life. Each He has annexed to His dominion by inhabitation and the right of self-devoting love, as from sphere to sphere He "travelled in the greatness of His power, mighty to save." He is Lord of angels; but still more of men, -Lord of the living, and of the dead. To them that sleep in the dust He has proclaimed His accomplished sacrifice and the right of universal judgment given Him by the Father.
Nor did Abraham alone and Moses and Elijah have the joy of "seeing His day," but all the holy men of old, who had embraced its promise and "died in faith," who looked forward through their imperfect sacrifices "which could never quite take away sins" to the better thing which God provided for us, and for their perfection along with us. On the two side-posts of the gate of death our great High Priest sprinkled His atoning blood. He turned the abode of corruption into a sweet and quiet sleeping chamber for His saints. Then at His touch those cruel doors swung back upon their hinges, and He issued forth the Prince of life, with the keys of death and hades hanging from His girdle. From the depths of the grave to the heaven of heavens His Mastership extends. With the perfume of His presence and the rich incense of His sacrifice Jesus Christ has "filled all things." The universe is made for us one realm of redeeming grace, the kingdom of the Son of Gods love.
"So there crowns Him the topmost, ineffablest, uttermost crown;
And His love fills infinitude wholly, nor leaves up nor down
One spot for the creature to stand in!"
So "Christ is all things, and in all." And we are nothing; but we have everything in Him. How, pray, will He give who has thus given Himself, -who has thus endured and achieved on our behalf? Let our hearts consider; let our faith and our need be bold to ask. One promise from His lips is enough: "If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it."
II. A second estimate of the gifts to be looked for from Christ, we derive from His conquests already won. David as he entered Zions gates "led captivity captive,"-led, that is in Hebrew phrase, a great, a notable captivity. Out of the gifts thus received he enriched his people. The resources that victory placed at his disposal, furnished the store from which to build Gods house. In like fashion Christ builds His Church, and blesses the. human race. With the spoils of His battle He adorns His bride The prey taken from the mighty becomes the strength and beauty of His sanctuary. The prisoners of His love He makes the servants of mankind.
This "captivity" implies a warfare, even as the ascent of Christ a previous descending. The Son of God came not into His earthly kingdom as kings are said to have come sometimes disguised amongst their subjects, that they might learn better of their state and hear their true mind; nor as the Greeks fabled of their gods, who wandered unknown on earth seeking adventure and wearied haply of the cloying felicities of heaven, suffering contempt and doing to men hard service. He came, the Good Shepherd, to seek lost sheep. He came, the Mighty One of God, to destroy the works of the devil, to drive out "the strong one armed" who held the fortress of mans soul. He had a war to wage with the usurping prince of the world. In the temptation of the wilderness, in the strife with disease and demoniac powers, in the debate with Scribes and Pharisees, in the anguish of Gethsemane and Calvary that conflict was fought out; and by death He abolished him who holds the power of death, by His blood He "bought us for God." But with the spoils of victory, He bears the scars of battle, -tokens glorious for Him, humbling indeed to us, which will tell forever how they pierced His hands and feet!
For Him pain and conflict are gone by. It remains to gather in the spoil of His victory of love, the harvest sown in His tears and His blood. Arid what are the trophies of the Captain of our salvation? what the fruit of His dread passion? For one, there was the dying thief, whom with His nailed hands the Lord Jesus snatched from a felons doom and bore from Calvary to Paradise. There was Mary the Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons, the first to greet Him risen. There were the three thousand whom on one day, in the might of His Spirit, the ascended Lord and Christ took captive in rebel Jerusalem, "lifted from the earth" that He might draw all men unto Him. And there was the writer of this letter, once His blasphemer and persecutor. By a look, by a word, Jesus arrested Saul at the height of his murderous enmity, and changed him from a Pharisee into an apostle to the Gentiles, from the destroyer into the wise master-builder of His Church.
St. Pauls own case suggested, surely, the application he makes of this ancient text of the Psalter and lighted up its Messianic import. In the glory of His triumph Jesus Christ had appeared to make him captive, and put him at once to service. From that hour Paul was led along enthralled, the willing bond-slave of the Lord Jesus and celebrant of His victory. "Thanks be unto God," he cries, "who ever triumphs over us in the Christ, and makes manifest through us the savour of His knowledge in every place."
Such, and of such sort are the prisoners of the war of Jesus; such the gifts that through sinners pardoned and subdued He bestows upon mankind, -"patterns to those who should hereafter believe." Time would fail to follow the train of the captives of the love of Christ, which stretches unbroken and ever multiplying through the centuries to this day. We, too, in our turn have laid our rebel selves at His feet; and all that we surrender to Him, by right of conquest He gives over to the service of mankind.
"His love the conquest more than wins;
To all I shall proclaim:
Jesus the King, the Conqueror reigns
Bow down to Jesus name!"
He gives out of the spoil of His war with evil, -gives what He receives. Yet He gives not as He receives. Everything laid in His hands is changed by their touch. Publicans and Pharisees become apostles. Magdalenes are made queens and mothers in His Israel. From the dregs of our streets He raises up a host of sons to Abraham. From the ranks of scepticism and anti-Christian hate the Lord Christ wins new champions and captains for His cause. He coins earths basest metal into heavens fine gold. He takes weak things of the earth and foolish, to strike the mightiest blows of battle.
What may we not expect from Him who has led captive such a captivity! What surprises of blessing and miracles of grace there are awaiting us, that shall fill our mouth with laughter and our tongue with singing-gifts and succours coming to the Church from unlooked-for quarters and reinforcements from the ranks of the enemy. And what discomfitures and captivities are preparing for the haters of the Lord, -if, at least, the future is to be as the past; and if we may judge from the apostles word, and from his example, of the measure of the gift of Christ.
III. A third line of measurement is supplied in the last word of Eph_4:8, and is drawn out in Eph_4:11-12. "He gave gifts to men-He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, with a view to the full equipment of the saints for the work of ministration, for building up of the body of Christ." Yes, and some martyrs, some missionaries, some Church rulers and Church statesmen, some poets, some deep thinkers and theologians, some leaders of philanthropy and helpers of the poor; all given for the same end-to minister to the life of His Church, to furnish it with the means for carrying on its mission, and to enable every saint to contribute his part to the commonwealth of Christ according to the measure of Christs gift to each.
Comparison with Eph_4:16 that follows and with Eph_4:7 that precedes, seems to us to make it clear that we should read, without a comma, the second and third clauses of Eph_4:12 as continuations of the first. The "work of ministering" and the "building up of the body of Christ" are not assigned to special orders of ministry as their exclusive calling. Such honour have all His saints. It is the office of the clergy to see that the laity do their duty, of "the ministry" to make each saint a minister of Christ, to guide, instruct, and animate the entire membership of Christs body in the work He has laid upon it. Upon this plan the Christian fellowship was organised and officered in the apostolic times. Church government is a means to an end. Its primitive form was that best suited to the age; and even then varied under different circumstances. It was not precisely the same at Jerusalem and at Corinth; at Corinth in 58, and at Ephesus in 66 A.D. That is the best Church system, under any given conditions, which serves best to conserve and develop the spiritual energy of the body of Christ.
The distribution of Church office indicated in Eph_4:11 corresponds closely to what we find in the Pastoral epistles. The apostle does not profess to enumerate all grades of ministry. The "deacons" are wanting; although we know from Php_1:1 that this order already existed in Pauline Churches. Pastors (shepherds)-a title only employed here by the apostle-is a fitting synonym for the "bishops" (i.e., overseers) of whom he speaks in Act_20:28, Php_1:1, and largely in the epistles to Timothy and Titus, whose functions were spiritual and disciplinary as well as administrative. Addressing the Ephesian elders at Miletus four years before, St. Paul bade them "shepherd the Church of God."
1Pe_5:1-2 the same charge is laid by the Jewish apostle upon his "fellow-elders, " that they should "shepherd the flock of God, making themselves examples" to it; Christ Himself he has previously called "Shepherd and Bishop of souls". {1Pe_2:25} The expression is derived from the words of Jesus recorded in Joh 10, concerning the true and false shepherd of Gods flock, and Himself the Good Shepherd, -words familiar and dear to His disciples.
The office of teaching, as in 1Ti_5:17, is conjoined with that of shepherding. From that passage we infer that the freedom of teaching so conspicuous in the Corinthian Church {1Co_14:26, etc.} was still recognised. Teaching and ruling are not made identical, nor inseparable functions, any more than in Rom_12:7-8; but they were frequently associated, and hence are coupled together here. -Of apostolic evangelists we have examples in Timothy and the second Philip; men outside the rank of the apostles, but who, like them, preached the gospel from place to place. The name apostles (equivalent to our missionaries) served, in its wider sense, to include ministers of this class along with those directly commissioned by the Lord Jesus.
The prophets, like the apostles and evangelists, belonged to the Church at large, rather than to one locality. But their gift of inspiration did not carry with it the claim to rule in the Church. This was the function of the apostles generally, and of the pastor-bishops, or elders, locally appointed. The first three orders (apostles, prophets, evangelists) linked Church to Church and served the entire body; the last two (pastors and teachers) had charge of local and congregational affairs. The apostles. (the Twelve and Paul), with the prophets, were the founders of the Church. Their distinctive functions ceased when the foundation was laid and the deposit of revealed truth was complete. The evangelistic and pastoral callings remain; and out of them have sprung all the variety of Christian ministries since exercised. Evangelists, with apostles or missionaries, bring new souls to Christ and carry His message into new lands. Pastors and teachers follow in their train, tending the ingathered sheep, and labouring to make each flock that they shepherd and every single man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Marvellous were Christs "gifts for men" bestowed in the apostolic ministry. What a gift to the Christian community, for example, was Paul himself! In his natural endowments, so rich and finely blended, in his training and early experience, in the supernatural mode of his conversion, everything wrought together to give to men in the apostle Paul a man supremely fitted to be Christs ambassador to the Pagan world, and for all ages the "teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." "A chosen vessel unto me," said the Lord Jesus, "to bear my name."
"Such a gift to the world was St. Augustine: a man of the most powerful intellect and will, master of the thought and life of his time. Long an alien from the household of faith, he was saved at last as by miracle, and utterly subdued to the will of Christ. In the awful crisis of the fifth century, when the Roman empire was breaking up and the very foundations of life seemed to be dissolved, it was the work of this heroic man to reassert the sovereignty of grace and to reestablish faith in the Divine order of the world."
Such another gift to men was Martin Luther, the captive of justifying grace, won from the monastery and the bondage of Rome to set Germany and Europe free. What a soul of fire, what a voice of power was his! to whose lips our Lord Christ set the great trumpet of the Reformation; and he blew a blast that waked the sleeping peoples of the North, and made the walls of Babylon rock again to their foundation. Such a gift to Scotland was John Knox, who from his own soul breathed the spirit of religion into the life of a nation, and gave it a body and organic form in which to dwell and work for centuries.
Such a gift to England was John Wesley. Can we conceive a richer boon conferred by the Head of the Church upon the English race than the raising up of this great evangelist and pastor and teacher, at such a time as that of his appearance? Standing at the distance of a hundred years, we are able to measure in some degree the magnitude of this bestowment. In none of the leaders and commanders whom Christ has given to His people was there more signally manifest that combination of faculties, that concurrence of providences and adjustment to circumstances, and that transforming and attempering influence of grace in all-the "effectual working in the measure of each single part" of the man and his history, which marks those special gifts that Christ is wont to bestow upon His people in seasons of special emergency and need. We are passing into a new age, such as none of these great men dreamed of, an age as exigent and perilous as any that have gone before it. The ascendency of physical science, the political enfranchisement of the masses, the universal spread of education, the emancipation of critical thought, the gigantic growth of the press, the enormous increase and aggregation of wealth, the multiplication of large cities, the worldwide facilities of intercourse, -these and other causes more subtle are rapidly transforming human society. Old barriers have disappeared; while new difficulties are being created, of a magnitude to overtask the faith of the strongest. The Church is confronted with problems larger far in their dimensions than those our fathers knew. Demands are being made on her resources such as she has never had to meet before. Shall we be equal to the needs of the coming times?-Nay, that is not the question; but will He?
There is nothing new or surprising to the Lord Jesus in the progress of our times and the developments of modern thought, nothing for which He is not perfectly prepared. He has taken their measure long ere this, and holds them within His grasp. The government is upon His shoulders-"the weight of all this unintelligible world"-and He can bear it well. He has gifts in store for the twentieth century, when it arrives, as adequate as those He bestowed upon the first or fifth, upon the sixteenth or eighteenth of our era. There are Augustines and Wesleys yet to come. Hidden in the Almightys quiver are shafts as polished and as keen as any He has used, which He will launch forth in the war of the ages at the appointed hour. The need, the peril, the greatness of the time will be the measure of the gift of Christ.
There is a danger, however, in waiting for great leaders and in looking for signal displays of Christs power amongst men. His "kingdom comes not with observation," so that men should say, Lo here! or Lo there! It steals upon us unforeseen; it is amongst us before we know. "We looked," says Rutherford, "that He should take the higher way along the mountains; and lo, He came by the lower way of the valleys!" While men listen to the earthquake and the wind rending the mountains, a still, small voice speaks the message of God to prepared hearts. Rarely can we measure at the first the worth of Christs best gifts. When the fruit appears, after long patience, the world will haply discover when and how the seed was sown. But not always then. "The sower, passing onward, was not known; And all men reaped the harvest as their own." Those who are most ready to appraise their fellows are constantly at fault. Our last may prove Christs first; our first His last! "Each of us shall give account of himself to God": each must answer for his own stewardship, and the grace that was given to each. "Let us not therefore judge one another any more." But let every man see to it that his part in the building of Gods temple is well and faithfully done. Soon the fire will try every mans work, of what sort it is.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv7–16 7–10. But unto every one of us. While all…
7–10. But unto every one of us. While all named above is common, the Lord has given grace to each one according to the measure of the gift of Christ. That is, there are special offices, and special gifts, that Christ deals to each.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv7, 13 Eph_4:7. But unto every one of us is given…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Eph_4:7. But unto every one of us is given grace.—The distributing Spirit (1Co_12:11) leaves no humblest member of the body of Christ without his endowment.
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Eph_4:8. Wherefore He saith.—What follows is a quotation of Psa_68:18 “with free alteration” (Meyer), adapting the return of the hero-king to his own city to that most magnificent of all triumphs—over Hades and Death—achieved by Him “who was dead and is alive for evermore.” “Being by the right hand of God exalted He hath poured forth this” abundance, as a conqueror scatters his largess.
Eph_4:9-10. Now that He ascended … that He might fill all things.—The exaltation, in His case, presupposed the humiliation. From the throne of the universe—“the glory which He had with the Father”—to the profoundest depths where any poor lost piece of humanity that is redeemable can be found, and thence again to the throne He relinquished. The same also.—Exalted, to be confidingly and adoringly loved; humbled, to be worshipped no less as “the Son of man who is in heaven.”
Eph_4:11. And He gave some to be, etc.—“Christ gave the persons, and the community gave to them the service” (Meyer). Apostles … prophets … evangelists.—We cannot accept the order as significant of rank. It would grace an angel to be the “evangelist” of such a salvation. As apostles they went forth “sent” by their Master to men in their need; as prophets they “spoke out” what He had taught them; as evangelists they were the messengers of good tidings. They were apostles that they might be evangelists (Mat_10:5-7), “going about heralding” the kingdom and gathering men into it. Pastors and teachers.—Shepherds and instructors of those gathered together by men of another order. These are the true “bishops,” whatever “other name” they bear (1Pe_5:1-4).
Eph_4:12. For the perfecting of the saints.—“Saints,” whilst a title of the highest honour, is often expressive of the ideal rather than the real life of those who bear it; the “perfecting” is the rendering into actual life of what is implied in the term of honour. For the work of the ministry.—R.V. “into the work.” If the end of all Christ’s gifts so far as “the saints” are concerned is their perfect equipment, so far as His messengers are concerned they go forth unto service first, honour afterwards. For the edifying of the body of Christ.—Practically the same as the foregoing, but with an ultimate reference to Christ. The double figure of a building and of a body is familiar to our own speech, as when we speak of “building up a strong frame.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Eph_4:7-12
The Gifts of Christ to His Church—
I. That each member of the Church possesses some gift from Christ.—“Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (Eph_4:7). All are not alike talented, but each one has some gift of grace. Every gift is not from earth, but from heaven; not from man, but from Christ. Look not down, then, as swine to the acorns they find lying there, and never once up to the tree they come from. Look up; the very frame of our body bears that way. It is nature’s check to the body. “Graces are what a man is; but enumerate his gifts and you will know what he has. He is loving, he has eloquence, or medical skill, or legal knowledge, or the gift of acquiring languages, or that of healing. You have only to cut out his tongue, or to impair his memory, and the gift is gone. But you must destroy his very being, change him into another man, obliterate his identity, before he ceases to be a loving man. Therefore you may contemplate the gift separate from the man; you may admire it and despise him. But you cannot contemplate the grace separate from the man” (F. W. Robertson).
“If facts allure thee, think how BACON shined,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.”
Pope.
The humblest member of the Church of Christ is not without his gift. The grace of the gospel elevates and sanctifies all his powers and opportunities, and turns them into noblest uses.
II. That the gifts of Christ to His Church are distributed with the lavish generosity of a conquoror returning from the field of victory (Eph_4:8-10).—We have read of the profuse gifts of victorious warriors:—of Gonsalvo, the great Spanish captain, whose unselfish prodigality was proverbial. “Never stint your hand,” he was accustomed to say: “there is no way of enjoying one’s property like giving it away”;—of Alexander the Great, who on one occasion gave a blank draft to one of his generals with liberty to fill in any amount he chose. When the treasurer, surprised at the enormous sum inserted, asked his imperial master if there was not some mistake, he answered: “No; pay it, pay it: the man honours me by assuming the inexhaustible resources of my empire”;—of Belisarius, whose victories were always followed by liberal and extravagant largesses. “By the union of liberality and justice,” writes Gibbon, “he acquired the love of his soldiers, without alienating the affections of the people. The sick and wounded were relieved with medicines and money, and still more efficaciously by the healing visits and smiles of their commander. The loss of a weapon or a horse was instantly repaired, and each deed of valour was rewarded by the rich and honourable gifts of a bracelet or a collar, which were rendered more precious by the judgment of Belisarius. He was endeared to the husbandmen by the peace and plenty which they enjoyed under the shadow of his standard. Instead of being injured, the country was enriched by the march of the Roman armies; and such was the rigid discipline of their camp that not an apple was gathered from the tree, not a path could be traced in the fields of corn. Victory by sea and land attended his arms. He subdued Africa, Italy, and the adjacent islands, led away captives the successors of Genseric and Theodoric, filled Constantinople with the spoils of their palaces, and in the space of six years recovered half the provinces of the Western empire”;—and of Aurelian, whose triumphant entry into Rome after his victories in the East was the longest, most brilliant, and imposing of any recorded in the annals of the empire, and was signalised by rich donations to the army and the people; the Capitol and every other temple glittered with the offerings of his ostentatious piety, and the temple of the sun alone received above fifteen thousand pounds of gold. But who can measure the munificence of the ascended Saviour, the divine Conqueror, who, as the fruit of His unparalleled victory, has scattered His gifts among men, to enrich them for ever? He gives not grudgingly and sparingly, but after the measure of His own great nature. He gives not for display but for blessing, and His smallest gift out-values the most lavish donation of the richest earthly benefactor.
III. That the gifts of Christ qualify men for special work in His Church (Eph_4:11).—The “apostles, prophets, evangelists” linked Church to Church and served the entire body; the “pastors and teachers” had charge of local and congregational affairs. The apostles, with the prophets, were the founders of the Church. Their distinctive functions ceased when the foundation was laid and the deposit of revealed truth was complete. The evangelistic and pastoral callings remain; and out of them have sprung all the variety of Christian ministries since exercised. Evangelists, with apostles or missionaries, bring new souls to Christ and carry His message into new lands. Pastors and teachers follow in their train, tending the ingathered sheep, and labouring to make each flock that they shepherd, and every single man, perfect in Christ Jesus.
IV. That the gifts of Christ furnish the full moral equipment of the members of His Church (Eph_4:12).—Christ’s gifts of great and good men in every age have been bestowed for a thoroughly practical purpose—“the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, the edifying of the body of Christ.” No one man has all the gifts requisite for the full development of the Church; but it is the privilege and honour of each worker to use his special gift for the general good. The combination of gifts, faithfully and diligently employed, effects the desired end. The Church must be built up, and this can be done only by the harmonious use of the gifts of Christ, not by mere human expedients. “We may have eloquent preaching, crowded churches, magnificent music, and all the superficial appearance of a great religious movement, whilst the vaunted revival is only a poor galvanised thing, a corpse twitching with a strange mimicry of life, but possessed of none of its vital energy and power.” Gifts are dangerous without the grace and wisdom to use them. Many a brilliant genius has gone down into oblivion by the reckless abuse of his gifts. Christ endows His people with gifts that they may use them for the increase and upbuilding of His Church, and they must be exercised in harmony with the rules and purpose of the divine Architect. “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”
Lessons.—
1. Christ’s estimate of His Church is seen in the spiritual riches He has lavished upon it.
2. The gifts of each member of the Church are for the benefit of all.
3. The gifts of Christ to His Church are the offerings of a boundless love.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Eph_4:7. The Gospel according to Mark.—The writers of the four gospels completed their work not for the sake of making a literary reputation for themselves, or of adding to the literary masterpieces of the world, but for the spiritual benefit of the Christian Church. Christ our Lord sitting in the heavens, seeing exactly what was wanted in the apostolic Churches, and in the Church of all time, seeing what was wanted in the evangelists themselves if they were to supply the Church’s wants, measured out His gifts to the evangelists. Accordingly, to each evangelist He gave that special gift which was needed in order to do his particular work. What was the grace that was given to St. Mark? It has been said that St. Mark’s gospel has no special character, that it is the least original of the four, that it is insipid, that it might have been dispensed with without loss to the harmony of the evangelical narrative. Even St. Augustine has spoken of it as an epitome of St. Matthew; and his deservedly great authority has obtained a currency of this opinion in the Western Church. But in point of fact, although St. Mark has more in common with St. Matthew than with any other evangelist, he is far from being a mere epitomist of the first gospel. He narrates at least three independent incidents which St. Matthew does not notice. He has characteristics which are altogether his own.
I. St. Mark is remarkable for his great attention to subordinate details.—He supplies many particulars which evangelists who write more at length altogether omit. From him, for instance, we learn the name of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, and of Bartimæus, the blind man healed by our Lord. From him we learn how Simon of Cyrene was related to well-known Christians of the next generation—Alexander and Rufus. He it is who tells us that the woman of Canaan whose petition our Lord so indulgently received was a Syrophenician, and that our Lord was popularly spoken of as the carpenter. He is careful to point out more minutely than do others the scenes in which our Lord took part on four occasions. He describes particularly our Lord’s look. He notes the express affections of our Lord’s human soul, His love for the rich young man, His anger with the Pharisee, His pity for the leper, His groaning in spirit on two separate occasions. And here we have something more than a literary peculiarity—than a style of writing which corresponds to those pre-Raphaelite artists who render every leaf and every blade of grass with scrupulous accuracy. I say that we are here face to face with a moral and spiritual excellence which forms part of the special grace given to St. Mark. Close attention to details in any workman means a recognition of the sacredness of fact. Where details are lost sight of, or blurred over, in the attempt to produce a large, general, indistinct effect, there is always a risk of indifference to the realities of truth. The very least fact is sacred, whatever be its relative importance to other facts. But in a life like that of our Lord, everything is necessarily glowing with interest, however trivial it might appear to be in any other connection. This care for details is thus the expression of a great grace—reverence for truth, reverence for every fragment of truth that touched the human life of the Son of God.
II. St. Mark is remarkable for the absence of a clearly discernible purpose in his gospel, over and above that of furnishing a narrative of our Lord’s conflict with sin and evil during His life as man upon the earth. The three other evangelists have each of them a manifest purpose in writing of this kind. St. Matthew wishes to show to the Jews that our Lord is the Messiah of the Jewish prophecy. St. Luke would teach the Gentile Churches that He is the Redeemer whose saving power may be claimed through faith by the whole race of men. St. John is, throughout, bent upon showing that He speaks and acts while in the flesh as the eternal Word or Son of God, who has been made flesh and was dwelling among us. And it has been said that St. Mark’s narrative is an expansion of those words of Peter—that Jesus of Nazareth “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.” Probably this is true; but then these words describe not a purpose beyond the narrative, but the substance of the narrative itself. St. Mark simply records a sacred life as he had learned it from the lips of Peter, not for any purpose beyond the narrative itself; but whatever it might prove beyond itself, it was to a believing Christian unspeakably precious.
III. A few words in conclusion.—“Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” As no two human souls exactly resemble each other, so no two souls are endowed in an exactly similar way. And for the difference of endowment let us be sure there is always a reason in the divine Mind, for each soul in every generation has its appointed work to do, without itself as within itself; and it is endowed with exactly the grace, whether of mind or heart, which will best enable it to do that particular work. Some may think that they have received little or nothing—some gift so small as to be scarcely appreciable. The probability is that they have not yet considered what God has done for them. They have spent their time in thinking of what He has withheld, instead of thinking of what He has given; of what they might have been, instead of what they are. Certainly the grace which our Lord gave to St. Paul when he wrote his great epistle to the Romans was immensely greater than that which He gave to Tertius, the poor amanuensis, who took it down from the apostle’s dictation, and who inserts a greeting from himself just at the end of the document. And yet Tertius, too, had his part in the work—a humble but a very real part, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. He did not say, “Because I am not the eye I am not of the body.” He made the most of the grace which was certainly his. And others may think, rightly or wrongly, that unto them very great graces have been given according to the gift of Christ, that they are the hands or the eyes of the holy body, the men who do its work, or the men who discern the truths which support its life. Well, if it be so, this is a reason, not for confident satisfaction, but for anxiety. Such gifts as these are edge tools; they may easily prove the ruin of their possessors. For all such gifts an account must one day most assuredly be rendered; and if self has appropriated that which belongs to God or to His Church, it cannot but entail misery on the possessor. If a man has wealth, or ability, or station; much more if he has cultivated intelligence and generous impulses; most of all if his heart has been fired by the love of God, and the unseen is to him a serious reality, and he has hopes and motives which really transcend the frontiers of the world of sense, then, assuredly, his safety lies in remembering that he is a trustee who will one day have to present his account at the great audit, when the eminence of his gifts will be the exact measure of his responsibility. Eighteen centuries have passed since St. Mark went to reign somewhere beneath his Master’s throne whose life he had described; but he has left us the result of his choicest gift—he has left us his gospel. What has it—what have the three gospels—hitherto done for each of us? It is recorded that John Butler, an excellent Church of England layman of the last generation, stated on his death-bed that on looking back on his life the one thing he most regretted was that he had not given more time to the careful study of the life of our Lord in the four evangelists. Probably he has not been alone in that regret; and if the truth were told, many of us would have to confess that we spend much more thought and time upon the daily papers, which describe the follies and errors of the world, than on the records of that life which was given for the world’s redemption. The festival of an evangelist ought to suggest a practical resolution that, so far as we are concerned, the grace which he received, according to the measure of the gift of Christ, shall not, please God, be lost. Ten minutes a day seriously spent on our knees, with the gospel in our hands, will do more to quicken faith, love, reverence, spiritual and moral insight and power, than we can easily think.—H. P. Liddon.
Eph_4:9-10. The contrasted Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ.
I. The circumstances of the Saviour’s depression from His original state.—We say that a person stoops, that he bends, that he sinks. Moral correspondencies to these actions are understood. They are condescensions. Immanuel is the name of our Saviour when born into our world and dwelling in it—God with us. A local residence is thus described. And we are informed of the degree which marks His coming down from heaven, of the manner in which He came into the world—He descended into the lower parts of the earth. What lowliness is this! Similar terms are employed in other portions of the inspired volume; by collating them with those of the text we shall most satisfactorily determine its sense.
1. The incarnation of Christ may be thus expressed.—To what did He not submit? By what was He not buffeted? What insult did not disfigure His brow? What shade did not cloud His countenance? What deep waters did not go over His soul? His was humanity in its severest pressures and humblest forms.
2. This form of language may denote the death of Christ.—It is the ordinary phrase of the Old Testament: “They shall go into the lower parts of the earth: Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.” Does it not seem strange that His soul should be commended hence who had often bound death to His bidding and summoned from the grave its prey? He is brought low to the dust of death. The erect figure is prostrated. The instinctive life is arrested. That mysterious frame—related to the infinite and the divine temple of all greatness, shrine of all sanctity—that “Holy Thing” sleeps in death.
3. This style may be intended to intimate that burial to which He yielded.—“Lest I become like them that go down into the pit.” “So must the Son of man be in the heart of the earth.” He has made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death! He is put away into darkness. He is held of death in its gloomy chambers. He is as a victim and a prey. It is a prison-keep.
4. The separation of the Redeemer’s body and spirit may be described in these words.—We mark in this departure of His soul the simple requirement of death. It could not be retained. It descended into the lower parts of the earth. This is the reverse of resurrection and heavenward flight. It was humiliation. These are the gradations of His descent. These are the “lower parts of the earth” to which He declined. This is His coming forth from the Father! This is His coming down from heaven! This is His coming into the world! His measureless surrender of claims! His inconceivable renunciation of honours! Stooping to inferior and still inferior levels of ignominy! Plunging to deeper and still deeper abysses of shame!
II. The glory of His subsequent exaltation.—
1. It is in itself an absolute expression of love.
2. It justifies an expectation of surpassing benefits.
3. The act regulates and secures its own efficiency.
4. This act is to be regarded as of incomparable worth and excellence.—The mission of Christ contemplated the highest principles which can direct the divine conduct. He came to vindicate that character which to conceive aright is the happiness of all creatures—to uphold and avenge that law which cannot be infringed without an utter loss of good and overthrow of order—to atone for sin whose slight and impunity would have been the allowance of infinite mischiefs and evils—to bring in an everlasting righteousness adequate to the justification of the most guilty, and of the most multiplied objects who needed it—leaving it for ever proved that no rule nor sanction of God’s moral government can be violated without a necessary and meet resentment! His ascension was a radiant triumph. Scarcely is it more described than His resurrection. We catch but a few notes of the resounding acclaim, we mark but a few fleeces of the glory-cloud, we recognise but a few attendants of the angel-train. With that laconic force which characterises holy writ, it is simply recorded, “Who is gone into heaven.”
III. The reciprocal influence of these respective facts.—“The same” was He who bowed Himself to these indignities and who seized these rewards. And this identity is of the greatest value. Not only do we hail Him in His reinstatement in original dignities, but in the augmentation of His glories. Deity was never so beheld before. There is a combination and a form of the divine perfections entirely new. We repine that He is not here. We forget that it is expedient that He should go away. Heaven alone provides scope for His undertakings and channel for His influences. There must He abide until the restitution of all things. But nothing of His sympathy or His grace do we forego.—R. W. Hamilton.
Eph_4:9-10. The Ascension and its Results.
I. With respect to the new heavens and the new earth, what may we not infer from the ascension of Christ in full integrity of His nature above all heavens with respect to the conversion and transformation and ennobling of this material?—The nature and history of His person revealed the relations clearly between heaven and earth, between God and man, between the material and the spiritual. We cannot for a moment look upon the transformation and exaltation of Christ’s nature as an isolated fact dissociated from the restitution and exaltation of all things spoken of in His word. The nature with which He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven was the same nature in which He was crucified, though glorified and swallowed up of life. Must we not say, then, that the body which ascended in relation to the body which was crucified and laid in the grave may illustrate the relation of the present heavens and the new earth? And, in accordance with this idea, are there not every way most wonderful changes and transformations of which the ascension of Christ’s body seems to be the fulfilment and crown and also the firstfruits? The flower from its imprisoned bud, the insect from its grovelling form, light out of darkness, electricity from ponderable elements, the strange affinities of matter striving to break forth from their captivity, the unerring instincts of animal life held, as it were, in bondage—all seem to point with prophetic finger to a future deliverance and ennobled state and condition whilst meekly waiting, but with earnest expectation, with the whole creation for the deliverance and glorious liberty of the sons of God. The gospel therefore contains a gospel for nature as well as for man—the prediction of the day when the strife of elements shall cease, when the powers of darkness shall be swallowed up of life, when the lion shall lie down with the lamb, when the tares shall no longer grow with the wheat, when creation, now so weary, shall lift up her head and rejoice in the redemption for which she now groans and travails.
II. If we cannot dissociate the history of Jesus from the history of the earth, much less can it be dissociated from the history of mankind.—He is humanity, root and crown. Humanity exists nowhere else but in Him. No aggregate of men make humanity, nor can personality be ascribed to humanity except in Him. Individual men may have a personality, but humanity is only an idea except it exists in Him who is its root and crown; and it is in this sense that He is spoken of, and that He speaks of Himself as, the Son of man. In His ascension, therefore, which carries as a necessary presupposition all the facts of His history, mankind is delivered from its curse and from bondage. Identity of nature and reciprocity of choice now constitute the most intimate union and most blessed fellowship of which we are conscious, and it is the fair offshoot, the true type of that which is to be the highest, to which He is exalted above all heavens, from which height He has promised to gather together our common humanity. In such and for such a relation He is exalted to the throne of universal dominion as the Bridegroom of mankind, to be the Head over all things to His Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him which filleth all in all.
III. What may we not learn from the fact of Christ’s ascension—not merely with respect to the new heavens and the new earth, not merely with respect to mankind and its history, but with respect to the government and providence of earth? If all nature is gathered up and represented in human nature, and if all human nature is gathered up and represented in the Son of man, and if the Son of man resteth and sitteth upon the throne of universal dominion, then, my brethren, the conclusion is as direct as it is clear, that all things must be working together in the interests of His kingdom and of His Church, that all things have but one purpose and one end to which the whole creation moves. We may say with Herbert:
“For us the winds do blow,
The earth does rest, heavens move, and
fountains flow;
Nothing we see but means our good—
’Tis our delight or has our treasure.
The whole is either cupboard of our food
Or cabinet of pleasure.”
These lines contain as deep a philosophy as they do good poetry. “All things unto our flesh are kind in their descent and being.” As they descend to us they bless our lower nature, but as we follow them in their ascent they bless our minds. And in history are there not changes similar to and commensurate with those which we have seen in nature, and all subordinated to one end? Mighty nations and kingdoms have arisen and passed away, and passed away, we might add, in the greatness of their might. What strange development, as it has well been asked, is it that the power of the world should rise to a great height of glory, and, not able to sustain it, pass away? Because they knew not God—because they were prejudicial to the interests of man. The present state and prospects of the world are but the results of all its past history, of the action and reaction, the strife and ceaseless conflict, which have been going on from the first—the strife and ceaseless conflict between the spirit of man’s revolt in all the forms of will-worship and idolatrous power, and the returning spirit of allegiance towards God and His kingdom of life and love. On the one hand, therefore, we have a series of rapid and mighty developments of the very power which destroyed them when at the very height of their glory; on the other hand, we have the continuous and silent growth and expansion of the same ideas—all-conquering ideas and all-conquering beliefs personally embodied from the first in men confessing their allegiance to God.—Dr. Pulsford.
Eph_4:10. The Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ.
I. Christ’s humiliation.—Implied in the words, “He that descended.” These words bear the same sense with those in Psa_139:15, and may be properly taken for Christ’s incarnation and conception in the womb of the Virgin—
1. Because other expositions may be shown to be unnatural, forced, or impertinent, and there is no other besides this assignable.
2. Since Paul here uses David’s words it is most probable he used them in David’s sense.
3. The words descending and ascending are so put together in the text that they seem to intend a summary of Christ’s whole transaction in man’s redemption, begun in His conception and consummated in His ascension.
II. Christ’s glorious advancement and exaltation.—“He ascended far above all heavens” to the most eminent place of dignity and glory in the highest heaven.
III. The qualification and state of Christ’s person in reference to both conditions.—He was the same, showing the unity of the two natures in the same person.
IV. The end of Christ’s ascension.—“That He might fill all things.” All things may refer—
1. To the Scripture prophecies and predictions.
2. To the Church as He might fill that with His gifts and graces.
3. To all things in the world. This latter interpretation preferred. He may be said to fill all things—
1. By the omnipresence of His nature and universal diffusion of His Godhead.
2. By the universal rule and government of all things committed to Him as Mediator upon His ascension.—South.
Eph_4:11-12. The Work of the Ministry.
I. It is evident that public teachers in the Church are to be a distinct order of men.—Christ has given some pastors and teachers. None has a right publicly to teach in the Church but those who are called, sent, authorised to the work in the gospel way. All Christians are to exhort, reprove, and comfort one another as there is occasion; but public teaching in the Church belongs peculiarly to some—to those who are given to be pastors and teachers.
II. Public teachers are here called Christ’s gifts.—“He gave some pastors and teachers.” The first apostles were commissioned immediately by Christ. They who were thus commissioned of Heaven to preach the gospel were authorised to ordain others. Christ gave pastors and teachers, not only to preach His gospel, but to train up and prepare holy men for the same work.
III. Ministers are to be men endued with gifts suitable to the work to which they are called.—As in the early days of the gospel public teachers were called to extraordinary services, so they were endued with extraordinary gifts; but these gifts were only for a season. As the business of a minister is to teach men the things which Christ has commanded in the Scriptures, so it is necessary he himself should be fully instructed in them. In the early days, as there were evangelists who went forth to preach the gospel where Christ had not been named, so there were pastors and teachers who had the immediate care of Churches already established.
IV. The great object of the ministry is the building up of the Church of Christ.—The ministry is intended for the improvement of saints, as well as for the conversion of sinners. The apostle mentions also the unity of the knowledge of Christ. We must not rest in attainments already made, but continually aspire to the character of a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.—Lathrop.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv8, 11, 14 8-10. The reader would do well here to exchange…
ARGUMENT 16
THE DESCENSION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST
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8-10. The reader would do well here to exchange this book for Volume 2, and read the Commentary on 1Pe 3:19. It takes in this whole subject, and corroboratively expounds this Scripture. When our Savior expired on the cross, his human soul descended into hell (Act 2:31); the herald of his own victory achieved on Mount Calvary having triumphed over the pandemonium, he crosses the chasm (Luk 16:26) impassable to all finite beings, enters the intermediate paradise, called Abraham’s bosom, meets the thief according to promise (Luk 23:43), and all the Old Testament saints there awaiting the verification of the Abrahamic covenant by the sufferings of Christ; on the third morning, abolishing the intermediate paradise, leads them all up, receives his body out of the sepulcher, all the mighty hosts of Old Testament saints accompanying him during his forty day on the earth, invisible because disembodied, and ascend with him into heaven from Mount Olivet; constituting his triumphal procession, as seen by the prophetic eye of David (Psalms 24), they enter the glorified city of God amid the shouts of angels, archangels, and redeemed spirits. “Christ, the first-fruits of them that slept,” must lead the way into heaven, throwing wide the pearly gates for every disembodied saint in all coming ages to sweep with a shout.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv7, 13
EPHESIANS
‘THE MEASURE OF GRACE’
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Eph 4:7
The Apostle here makes a swift transition from the thought of the unity of the Church to the variety of gifts to the individual. ‘Each’ is contrasted with ‘all.’ The Father who stands in so blessed and gracious a relationship to the united whole also sustains an equally gracious and blessed relationship to each individual in that whole. It is because each receives His individual gift that God works in all. The Christian community is the perfection of individualism and of collectivism, and this rich variety of the gifts of grace is here urged as a reason additional to the unity of the one body, for the exhortation to the endeavour to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
I. Each Christian soul receives grace through Christ.
The more accurate rendering of the Revised Version reads ‘the grace,’ and the definite article points to it as a definite and familiar fact in the Ephesian believers to which the Apostle could point with the certainty that their own consciousness would confirm his statement. The wording of the Greek further implies that the grace was given at a definite point in the past, which is most naturally taken to have been the moment in which each believer laid hold on Jesus by faith. It is further to be noted that the content of the gift is the grace itself and not the graces which are its product and manifestation in the Christian life. And this distinction, which is in accordance with Paul’s habitual teaching, leads us to the conclusion, that the essential character of the grace given through the act of our individual faith is that of a new vital force, flowing into and transforming the individual life. From that unspeakable gift which Paul supposed to be verifiable by the individual experience of every Christian, there would follow the graces of Christian character in which would be included the deepening and purifying of all the natural capacities of the individual self, and the casting out from thence of all that was contrary to the transforming power of the new life.
Such an utterance as this, so quietly and confidently taking for granted that the experience of every believer verifies it in his own case, may well drive us all to look more earnestly into our own hearts, to see whether in them are any traces of a similar experience. If it be true, that to every one of us is given the grace, how comes it that so many of us dare not profess to have any vivid remembrance of possessing it, of having possessed it, or of any clear consciousness of possessing it now? There may be gifts bestowed upon unconscious receivers, but surely this is not one of these. If we do not know that we have it, it must at least remain very questionable whether we do have it at all, and very certain that we have it in scant and shrivelled fashion.
The universality of the gift was a startling thing in a world which, as far as cultivated heathenism was concerned, might rightly be called aristocratic, and by the side of a religion of privilege into which Judaism had degenerated. The supercilious sarcasm in the lips of Pharisees, ‘This people which knoweth not the law are cursed,’ but too truly expresses the gulf between the Rabbis and the ‘folk of the earth’ as the masses were commonly and contemptuously designated by the former. Into the midst of a society in which such distinctions prevailed, the proclamation that the greatest gift was bestowed upon all must have come with revolutionary force, and been hailed as emancipation. Peter had penetrated to grasp the full meaning and wondrous novelty of that universality, when on Pentecost he pointed to ‘that which had been spoken by the prophet Joel’ as fulfilled on that day, ‘I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh ... Yea, and on my servants and handmaidens ... will I pour forth of my Spirit.’ The rushing, mighty wind of that day soon dropped. The fiery tongues ceased to quiver on the disciples’ heads, and the many voices that spoke were silenced, but the gift was permanent, and is poured out now as it was then, and now, as then, it is true that the whole company of believers receive the Spirit, though alas! by their own faults it is not true that ‘they are all filled with the Holy Spirit.’
Christ is the giver. He has ‘power over the Spirit of Holiness’ and as the Evangelist has said in his comment on our Lord’s great words, when ‘He stood and cried,’ ‘If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink,’ ‘This spake He of the Spirit which they that believed on Him were to receive.’ We cannot pierce into the depth of the mutual relations of the three divine Persons mentioned in the context, but we can discern that Christ is for us the self-revealing activity of the divine nature, the right arm of the Father, or, to use another metaphor, the channel through which the else ‘closed sea’ of God flows into the world of creatures. Through that channel is poured into believing hearts the river of the water of life, which proceeds out of the one ‘throne of God and of the Lamb.’ This gift of the Spirit of Holiness to all believers is the deepest and truest conception of Christ’s gifts to His Church. His past work of sacrifice for the sins of the world was finished, as with a parting cry He proclaimed on Calvary, and the power of that sacrifice will never be exhausted, but the taking away of the sins of the world is but the initial stage of the work of Christ, and its further stages are carried on through all the ages. He ‘worketh hitherto,’ and His present work, in so far as believers are concerned, is not only the forthputting of divine energy in regard to outward circumstances, but the imparting to them of the Divine Spirit to be the very life of their lives and the Lord of their spirits. Christian people are but too apt to give undue prominence to what Christ did for them when He died, and to lose sight, in the overwhelming lustre of His unspeakable sacrifice, of what He is doing for them whilst He lives. It would tend to restore the proportions of Christian truth and to touch our hearts into a deeper and more continuous love to Him, if we more habitually thought of Him, not only as the Christ who died, but also as the Christ who rather is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
II. The gift of this grace is in itself unlimited.
Our text speaks of it as being according to the measure of the gift of Christ, and that phrase may either mean the gift which Christ receives or that which He gives. Probably the latter is the Apostle’s meaning here, as seems to be indicated by the following words that ‘when He ascended on high, He gave gifts unto men,’ but what He gives is what He possesses, and the Apostle goes on to point out that the ultimate issue of His giving to the Church is that it attains to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
It may cast some light on this point if we note the remarkable variety of expressions in this epistle for the norm or standard or limit of the gift. In one place the Apostle speaks of the gift bestowed upon believers as being according to the riches of the Father’s glory; then it has no limit short of a participation in the divine fulness. God’s glory is the transcendent lustre of His own infinite character in its self-manifestation. The Apostle labours to flash through the dim medium of words the glory of that light by blending incongruously, but effectively, the other metaphor of riches, and the two together suggest a wonderful, though vague thought of the infinite wealth and the exhaustless brightness which we call Abba, Father. The humblest child may lift longing and confident eyes and believe that he has received in very deed, through his faith in Jesus Christ, a gift which will increase in riches and in light until it makes him perfect as his Father in heaven was perfect. It was an old faith, based upon insight far inferior to ours, which proclaimed with triumph over the frowns of death. ‘I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.’ Would that those who have so much more for faith to build on, built as nobly as did these!
The gift has in itself no limit short of participation in the likeness of Christ. In another place in this letter the measure of that might which is the guarantee of Christian hope is set forth with an abundance of expression which might almost sound as an unmeaning accumulation of synonyms, as being ‘according to the working of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ’; and what is the range of the working of that might is disclosed to our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus, and the setting of Him high above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every creature in the present or in any future. Paul’s continual teaching is that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was wrought in Him, not as a mere human individual but as our head and representative. Through Him we rise, not only from an ethical death of sin and separation from God, but we shall rise from physical death, and in Him the humblest believer possessing a vital union with the Lord of life has a share in His dominion, and, as His own faithful word has promised, sits with Him on His throne, even as He is set down with the Father on His throne.
That gift has in itself no limit short of its own energy. In another part of this epistle the Apostle indicates the measure up to which our being filled is to take effect, as being ‘all the fulness of God’ and in such an overwhelming vision breaks forth into fervent praise of Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, and then supplies us with a measure which may widen and heighten our petitions and expectations when He tells us that we are to find the measure of God’s working for us, not in the impoverishment of our present possessions, but in the exceeding riches of the power that worketh in us-that is to say, that we are to look for the limit of the limitless gift in nothing short of the boundless energy of God Himself. In the Epistle to the Colossians Paul uses the same illustration with an individual reference to his own labours. In our text he associates with himself all believers, as being conscious of a power working in them, which is really the limitless power of God, and heartens them to anticipate that whatever limitless power can effect in them will certainly be theirs. God does not leave off till He has done and till He can look upon His completed work and pronounce it very good.
III. This boundless grace is in each individual case bounded for the time by our own faith.
When I lived near the New Forest I used to hear much of what they called ‘rolling fences.’ A man received or took a little piece of Crown land on which he built a house and put round it a fence which could be judiciously and silently pushed outwards by slow degrees and enclosed, year by year, a wider area. We Christian people have, as it were, our own small, cultivated plot on the boundless prairie, the extent of which we measure for ourselves and which we can enlarge as we will. We have been speaking of the various aspects under which the boundlessness of the gift is presented by the Apostle, but there is another ‘according to’ in Christ’s own words, ‘According to your faith be it unto you,’ and that statement lays down the practical limits of our present possession of the boundless gift. We have as much as we desire; we have as much as we take; we have as much as we use; we have as much as we can hold. We are admitted into the treasure house, and all around us lie ingots of gold and vessels full of coins; we ourselves determine how much of the treasure should be ours, and if at any time we feel like empty-handed paupers rather than like possible millionaires, the reason lies in our own slowness to take that which is freely given to us of God. His word to us all is, ‘Ye are not straitened in Me, ye are straitened in yourselves.’ It is well for us to keep ever before us the boundlessness of the gift in itself and the working limit in ourselves which conditions our actual possession of the riches. For so, on the one hand, should we be encouraged to expect great things from God, and, on the other hand, be humbled by the contrast between what we might be and what we are. The river that rushes full of water from the throne can send but a narrow and shallow trickle through the narrow channel choked with much rubbish, which we provide for it. It is of little avail that the sun in the heavens pours down its flood of light and warmth if the windows of our hearts are by our own faults so darkened that but a stray beam, shorn of its brightness and warmth, can find its way into our darkness. The first lesson which we have to draw from the contrast between the boundlessness of the gift and the narrow limits of our individual possession and experience of it, is the lesson of penitent recognition and confession of the unbelief which lurks in our strongest faith. ‘Lord I believe, help Thou mine unbelief,’ should be the prayer of every Christian soul.
Not less surely will the recognition that the form and amount of the grace of God, which is possessed by each, is determined by the faith of each, lead to tolerance of the diversity of gifts. We have received our own proper gift of God, that which the strength and purity of our faith is capable of possessing, and it is not for us to carp at our brethren, either at those in advance of us or at those behind us. We have to remember that as it takes all sorts of people to make up a world, so it takes all varieties of Christian character to make a church. It is the body and not the individual members which represents Christ to the world. The firmest adherence to our own form of the universal gift will combine with the widest toleration of the gifts of others. The white light appears when red, green, and blue blend together, not when each tries to be the other. ‘Every man hath his own proper gift of God, one after this fashion and another after that,’ and we shall be true to the boundlessness of the gift and to the limitations of our own possession of it, in the measure of which we combine obedience to the light which shines in us, with thankful recognition of that which is granted to others.
The contrast between these two must be kept vivid if we would live in the freedom of the hope of the glory of God, for in the contrast lies the assurance of endless growth. A process is begun in every Christian soul of which the only natural end is the full possession of God in Christ, and that full possession can never be reached by a finite creature, but that does not mean that the ideal mocks us and retreats before us like the pot of gold, which the children fancy is at the end of the rainbow. Rather it means a continuous succession of our realisations of the ideal in ever fuller and more blessed reality. In this life we may, on condition of our growth in faith, grow in the possession of the fulness of God, and yet at each moment that possession will be greater, though at all moments we may be filled. In the Christian life to-morrow may be safely reckoned as destined to be ‘as yesterday and much more abundant,’ and when we pass from the imperfections of the most perfect earthly life, there will still remain ever before us the glory, which, according to the measure of our capacity, is also in us, and we shall draw nearer and nearer to it, and be for ever receiving into our expanding spirits more and more of the infinite fulness of God.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv11–12 In 1Co 12:8-28 the Spirit is seen as enduing…
gave
In 1Co 12:8-28 the Spirit is seen as enduing the members of the body of Christ with spiritual gifts, or enablements for a varied service; here certain Spirit-endued men, viz. apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, are themselves the gifts whom the glorified Christ bestows upon His body the church. In Corinthians the gifts are spiritual enablements for specific service; in Ephesians the gifts are men who have such enablements.
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some
The Lord, in bestowing the gifted men, determines, providentially (e.g.) Act 11:22-26 or directly through the Spirit (e.g.); Act 13:1; Act 13:2; Act 16:6; Act 16:7 the places of their service. "Some" (churches or places) need one gift, as, (e.g.) evangelist; "some" (churches or places) need rather a pastor or teacher. Absolutely nothing in Christ’s service is left to mere human judgment or self-choosing. Even an apostle was not permitted to choose his place of service Act 16:7; Act 16:8.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v7 2. The Ministry and Its Purpose
2. The Ministry and Its Purpose
CHAPTER 4:7-16
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1. Ministry according to the measure of the gift of Christ (Eph 4:7-10)
2. The needed and permanent gifts (Eph 4:11)
3. The purpose and the goad (Eph 4:12-16)
Each member in the body of Christ has a specific place for a specific work. See Rom 12:4-5 and 1Co 12:4-5. And the bestowal of gifts for service in the body is in His hands. He ascended upon high and triumphed over all enemies. He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. He triumphed over the devil, who has the power of death and stripped him of that power. And all who constitute His body share in His triumph. They are no longer under the power of Satan, but delivered from the power of darkness, they are His trophies. “He led captivity captive,” i.e., those who were in captivity, or “a troop, a multitude of captives.” The view held by some that the Old Testament saints are meant, whom He led forth from Hades is incorrect.
Psa 68:1-35 is quoted. But we discover an omission. Psa 68:18 reads, “Thou has received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” The last sentence is omitted, for the rebellious are the Jews; they are as the rebellious nation not in view in Ephesians, though the day will come when Israel will be converted and the promised gifts will be bestowed upon that nation. And He who ascended also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. It means the deepest depths of suffering, the shameful death of the cross and that He was buried. (This passage has nothing to do with 1Pe 3:18 - The meaning of this Scripture will be fully explained in our annotations of the First Epistle of Peter.) As the Ascended One He has given gifts for the ministry in the body. These gifts are “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.” Other gifts are mentioned in First Corinthians such as the gift of healing, the gift of tongues, etc. These were not permanent gifts, and not absolutely necessary for the perfecting of the saints and the building up of the body of Christ.
The gifts mentioned here in Ephesians abide to the end until the Church is complete and removed from the earth. The apostles are the apostles of the beginning. The apostolate of Mormonism and similar cults is an invention. Nowhere does it say that Paul, Peter or John should have successors; all who lay claim to the title of apostle in the church are deceivers (Rev 2:2). The doctrines of the apostles are in our possession as the supreme gifts of the exalted Lord to His body. New Testament prophets are such who speak the message of God for the comfort and exhortation of God’s people. The evangelist preaches the gospel. The pastor and teacher are practically one. The teacher expounds the Word and teaches the doctrines of the Bible. And these gifts remain till the Lord comes for His saints. The gifts are for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of the ministry for the building up of the body of Christ. And each gift is not for a certain part of the church, but for the whole body. “Till we all come unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” This measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ will be reached when the body is joined to the Head. When the Church enters into His presence and He presents the church to Himself (Eph 5:27), then this completion has come. Till then He will give the gifts to the Church, His body, for the upbuilding of that body. And He puts this body together and ministers unto its needs (Eph 4:16).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv7, 11, 15 Christ’s gifts to the individual Christians:
Christ’s gifts to the individual Christians:
v. 7. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
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v. 8. Wherefore He saith, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
v. 9. (Now that He ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
v. 10. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things.)
This bit of information very properly follows the instruction concerning the union of all believers in the holy Christian Church, for it throws the responsibility upon the individual as a member of the whole: But to every single one of us is given the grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. The union of all believers in Christ does not exclude the fact of their having received various and distinctive gifts of grace. With emphasis the apostle states that every single Christian has received special gifts or some special gift from God, which he should apply in the interest of the Church, for the benefit of the brethren. He is speaking of gifts of grace, evidence of which is to be seen in the various talents of preaching, teaching, organizing, governing, mission-work, tact in charity, etc. Every Christian, by reason of the grace which he has received, through the special spiritual talent which Christ distributes from His boundless hoard, is pledged to do his part toward the maintenance of unity and peace, as well as toward the further growth of the Church.
For the fact that Christ bestows such gifts of grace in the measure which He considers best, the apostle quotes a passage of the Old Testament, Psa 68:18, calling upon the witness of God for the truth of his statement: Ascending up on high, He led captivity captive, He gave gifts to men. Psa 68:1-35, in spite of all its references to the history of the Jews, is a Messianic psalm and speaks of the triumph of the Lord Jehovah, the promised Messiah, which was fully realized by His ascension to heaven, by His entering into the unlimited use of the authority and power which was transmitted to his human nature at the time of His incarnation. Of this exalted Christ Paul now says, no longer in the form of a direct quotation, but in a free use of the passage in the quoted psalm, that He bestows gifts upon men, various gifts of His grace, of which the apostle speaks also in other places, Rom 12:6.
Paul now adds an explanation of the passage quoted by him: But this, "He ascended," what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? The apostle does not mean to say that these two events are always correlated, but refers to the case of Jesus in particular. To His ascension to the right hand of Power in the heavenly places corresponds His descent and victorious entrance into the kingdom of Satan. Christ, having been made alive in the grave, as transfigured God-man, according to body and soul, descended into hell; and the same God-man then, before the eyes of His astounded disciples, ascended up into heaven bodily. See 1Pe 3:19-20. Thus Christ, by returning to life in the grave, had actually destroyed the power of death and of the prince of death, and His ascension was the triumphant entry of the Victor into the palace of heaven. In order to bring home this thought, Paul repeats it: He that descended, He it is that also ascended above all heavens, that Re might fill all things. The greatest height is here contrasted with the greatest depth. Above all created heavens Christ ascended, the height which He reached is the sitting at the right hand of His heavenly Father. And the object of the ascension was that He might fill all things. The exalted Christ now fills the universe with His almighty omnipresence, which fact assures us also of His gracious presence in His Church, to whose members He gives the gifts of His grace and mercy. Although the enemies of the Church, the devil and his angels, are not definitely and everlastingly bound and confined in their kingdom of darkness as yet, they are conquered, they are in Christ’s power, they cannot hinder the growth of the Church, And the final triumph of the Church with Christ, made possible by the victory of Christ, is merely a matter of time. With the conversion of the last of God’s elect the day of salvation in the endless joy of heaven will dawn.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 9, 11, 14 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul reminds believers of the gifts that Christ gives believers to use in the church, which is the whole body of believers.
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General Information:
The quote here is from a song that King David wrote.
To each one of us grace has been given
This can be stated using an active form. AT: "God has given grace to each one of us" or "God gave a gift to each believer" (See: Active or Passive)
When he ascended to the heights
"When Christ went up into heaven"
translationWords
gift
word of God
enslave
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 4:7-16 Though believers share a common faith, God has…
4:7-16 Though believers share a common faith, God has given different special abilities to each individual believer for building up the church.
4:7 He has given each one of us a gift of his grace for building up the community of believers (see 1 Cor 12:7; cp. Rom 12:6; 1 Cor 12:11).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.