The Messiah’s gifts to His church find their origin and strength in the victory described in Ephesians 4:7-10.[1] Ephesians 4:1-6 described the spiritual maturity expected of those who receive any spiritual gift, including those named in 4:11.[2]
Paul began Ephesians 4:11 by affirming that “He himself,” that is, Jesus the Messiah, “gave some” to be carriers of the five gifts named in that verse.[3] The gifts are listed in what appears to be an order: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.[4] Based on 1 Corinthians 12:28, it seems that Paul understood a certain priority at least related to the first two, “And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers.” Paul closed that section with the rhetorical question, “Are all apostles, Are all prophets? Are all teachers?” (12:29). Note that in 1 Corinthians, written from Ephesus, Paul named teachers as third rather than evangelists.
From the Apostle Paul’s own writings, especially in 2 Corinthians 10:7 through 13:10 where he defends his own apostolic call, and the meaning of the word apostle in the New Testament era, Paul recognized that apostolic anointing meant a level of spiritual authority that had a “first among equals” quality. He recognized spheres of spiritual authority as he identified himself as “an apostle to the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13; 1 Corinthians 9:2; Galatians 2:8; 1 Timothy 1:11).[5] But for Paul, who knew the teachings of Jesus, spiritual authority did not operate as world authority operates. Spiritual authority is a serving authority and not dictatorial authority. I view the five gifts in Ephesians 4:11 as resting upon people who function as “elders” in the body of Christ with the accompanying characteristics (Acts 15:2, 4, 6, 22, 23; 1 Timothy 5:17; 1 Peter 5:1, 5; 2 John 1:1; 3 John 1:1).
In this essay the survey of these five gifts will be brief, and you should review the sources in the footnote for more about these gifts.[6] Before proceeding to examine the purpose of these gifts described in Ephesians 4:12-16, we will discuss two areas. First, brief assessments of the five gifts and secondly, are these gifts operating in the body of Christ today.
First, apostle was a term known by Paul from its use in the political sphere of Rome. “It was used to describe leaders sent to colonize areas. These leaders had control of and authority over sailing vessels that carried people and cargo to expand the empire. It also described someone who was sent as an ambassador or envoy with authority based on the authority of the sender.”[7]
Second, a prophet was a person sent by God with a specific message. In both the Old and New Testaments, it had the double sense of “forth telling” as well as “foretelling.” The “forth telling” was declaring God’s Word to a specific situation based on what God hath said. The “foretelling” was about some aspect of the future based on what God had revealed in His Word regarding His divine response to obedience and to disobedience. In both senses, prophets were deeply knowledgeable of God’s Word (the Bible), history, and the Holy Spirit giving clarity regarding the future, all based upon fidelity to what God has revealed in His Word.[8] In 1 Corinthians 14:29-33 Paul gave clear instructions that prophetic messages were meant to be shared in the life of the congregation but that such messages were to be affirmed, modified, or rejected by others in the congregation.
Third, evangelists were/are people with an anointing to preach the gospel in such a way that sinners repented/repent of their sins and turned/turn to Christ. One thinks of the late Billy Graham and the anointing he had to preach a simple gospel message, and thousands respond to its truth.
Fourth, pastors are shepherds of God’s sheep. While it may be argued that the first three gifts are more translocal, a pastor has a more local oversight of a group of believers. In a large local congregation of three hundred people plus, it is practically impossible for one “pastor” to provide the pastoral care for that many people. Thus, one may find a “senior pastor” with other “associate pastors” who do the ministry that in a smaller congregation is usually done by one pastor.
The fifth group, which may belong to that of pastors, are teachers. But there seems to be a certain distinction as teachers are gifted people who know how to convey truth to others in such a way that there is spiritual transformation through applicable information.
The Apostle Paul had elements of at least some of the five gifts operating in his life. The only person who had all five gifts fully operating was Jesus in His earthly ministry. But since the Day of Pentecost Jesus has been giving one or more of these gifts to people that He calls and anoints.
In Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus, he names qualities of “bishops, overseers, elders” (1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9). It seems that in the early church these terms were used interchangeably in local and translocal leadership. There are three things from these lists that are important to remember for anyone who is called into “the ministry.” Character is foremost, then holy relationships, and the primary ministry skill is “teaching.”
This brief listing of these gifts leads to the question: are these gifts operating in the church today? The answer is a qualified Yes. The qualified answer relates specifically to the gifts of apostles and prophets. Regarding apostles, the Twelve that Jesus called plus the Apostle Paul constitute an irreplaceable foundational group.[9] These First Century apostles had to be people who had been with Jesus “from the baptism of John to that day when He (Jesus) was taken up from us” (Acts 1:22). This was particularly true for replacing Judas. That was not the case for the Apostle Paul. But because Paul had seen the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus, he was granted acceptance as a legitimate apostolic witness to the Gentiles.[10] It was these First Century apostles who gave us the Holy Spirit inspired Scriptures that constitute the New Testament.
But have there been apostles since the close of the First Century? Yes, they are often called missionaries. They are people with a Holy Spirit anointing to establish new congregations where the gospel has not been preached or where the gospel message has faded from spiritual neglect.
Prophets have similar qualifications. The Old and New Testament prophets cannot be replaced. Their messages, recorded in Holy Scripture, remain the authoritative Word of God for all time. Any contemporary prophet who claims to have another revelation of Jesus Christ is a false prophet. Any prophet whose teaching does not conform to Scripture must either be corrected (that is, be teachable) or if unteachable, rejected. But there are people through the past two thousand years who have a prophetic anointing to speak to situations and declare revelation that conforms to Scripture and brings new life and light to that situation.
As for evangelists, pastors, and teachers, there is little debate that those gifts abide today in the lives of men and women.
In some churches it is common to refer to spiritual leaders by a variety of titles: pastor, evangelist, prophet, apostle, elder, teacher, etc. In the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, a person may be called by one of these terms as a recognition of a particular anointing for that season and location in their life. However, the IPHC does not license or ordain anyone as one of those gifts. Rather, people are ordained into the ministry with the recognition that their gift mix may change as they grow in the grace of serving Jesus. The reason for this licensure or ordination as “minister” is made clear in Ephesians 4:12-16. In these verses Paul shifts the attention away from the individual in whom one or more of these gifts abide. In other words, it’s not about me or you as “apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher.” It’s all about Christ and His body and its global mission to reach this lost world.
Four key themes emerge from Ephesians 4:12-16: 1) Equipping (4:12); 2) Maturity (4:13); 3) Protection (4:14); 4) Prevailing Love (4:15, 16). We will briefly examine each of these.
Equipping. Ephesians 4:12 indicates that the five gifts of verse 11 are meant to equip “the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Before describing the meanings of equip, a point of punctuation needs to be discussed. If you grew up reading the King James Version of the Bible, verse 12 probably read like this: “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Notice the two commas. The two commas indicate that the five gifts have three purposes: “perfect (equip) the saints, do the work of the ministry, and edify the body of Christ.” To use the gift of pastor as an example, this implies that only a pastor is to do the work of the ministry and make sure that everyone in the local church is being edified.
But if you remove the first comma, as most new Bible translations do, including new editions of the King James Version, the verse reads: “for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” No, the primary purpose of the five gifts is to equip the saints, the people of God in that local congregation, to do the work of the ministry so that body of Christ is edified. It’s no longer just the pastor who does ministry; it’s the whole congregation of redeemed people engaged in ministry. Those with five-fold ministry gifts in local congregations or in other leadership positions should be equipping the saints to do the ministry.
You may be wondering if changing the punctuation is tampering with the Word of God. Keep in mind when the Bible was written punctuation was not used. Punctuation did not enter the Bible until 500 to 600 years after the First Century. Chapter and verse divisions did not occur until 1551. So, it’s not tampering with the Bible to rethink punctuation considering the total witness of God’s Word.
Equipping is the Greek word katartismos.[11] In his study of Ephesians 4:12, B.E. Underwood used these eight words to show the breadth of meaning of this one word: mending, organizing, restoring, equipping, training, maturing, uniting, and perfecting.[12] With the first comma removed, these five gifted-by-Christ persons have the assignment of equipping the people of God for the kind of ministry that builds up (edifies) the body of Christ.
Maturity. In Greek, Ephesians 4:11-16 is another of Paul’s long sentences. Thus, the three statements in verse 13 are not isolated from the purpose of the five gifts or the edifying of the church. Until Jesus returns, Ephesians 4:11, 12 identify two continuing purposes. First, Paul envisioned “we all come to the unity of the faith.” This is a goal that Jesus Himself prayed (John 17:21). This is not a human-made institution but a spiritual reality whereby we recognize the presence of Jesus with one another wherever the gospel is faithfully lived. The purpose is, in Jesus’ words, “that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:22).
The second is that we all come “to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man.” I have made the decision to include “perfect man” with this clause. The reason is that I believe Paul’s primary focus is to locate unity within the reality of who Jesus is as the Son of God. The word translated man in the NKJV is aner and refers specifically to a male. Many commentators believe Paul uses this word rather than the more generic anthropos to contrast it with children used in verse 14. Though this is probably correct, it is more than a contrast. It is the recognition that Jesus is the Son of God, the God-man, the Word made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Thus, Jesus is the perfect man, and we as members of His body, are in the process of being conformed to His image.
Thirty years after Paul wrote this letter, during the decade of the 90s, the Apostle John who had moved to Ephesus with Mary the mother of Jesus, wrote of the significance of the confession that Jesus is the Son of God. In 1 John 2:18-23; 4:1-3 John warned of the spirit of antichrist which denies that Jesus is the Son of God and came in human flesh.
Thus, when Paul in Ephesians 4:13 wrote of coming to “the knowledge of the Son of God,” he was addressing profound theological truths that have bearing on who Jesus is and on the reality of His atoning mission and death.
This maturity includes “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” This naturally follows on Jesus being the perfect man and His body being the spiritual and physical entity where His fullness is being manifested. Of the twelve times Paul uses fullness is his letters, half occur in Ephesians and Colossians (Eph. 1:10, 23; 3:19; 4:13; Col. 1:19; 2:9). In this verse, Paul’s view of the expansive and prevailing presence of the Kingdom through the Messiah continued what he had earlier written about the Messiah in Ephesians 1:20-23, 3:18-21 and 4:8-10. For everyone in the Roman Empire, Paul’s understanding of the fullness of Christ was more than spiritual fantasy. It was a clear political statement that the Emperor and Rome, or any human instrument of power, would bow at the feet of the Messiah.
Paul was keenly aware of the moral, intellectual, and spiritual weakness (even sinfulness) of individual Christians. But he understood that the power of divine holiness in the life of Jesus is always greater than the power of sin in humans and human institutions. This means that the Holy Spirit is always at work in us individually and together as members of the Messiah’s body to bring us to the fulfillment to be revealed at the return of the Messiah.
Protection. Frank Thielman wrote of Ephesians 4:14, “The church’s goal, negatively viewed, is to move believers out of childhood, with its susceptibility to various false teachings. A church moving toward full unity with Christ is leaving behind immaturity, with its intertwined characteristics of ignorance (cf. 1 Cor. 13:11; 14:20; Rom. 2:20; Col. 1:28), gullibility (cf. Heb. 5:12-14), and individualism (cf. 1 Cor. 2:6; 3:1-4; Phil. 3:15).”[13]
It is important to note that Paul’s concern is with false teaching. We often think of spiritual immaturity in terms of our attitudes and actions. That is true, but Paul’s warning is deeper than any personal emotional immaturity. He was concerned that the Ephesians be alert to what he called “every wind of doctrine.” The language of “tossed” and “wind” was language from the Gospel of Luke 8:24 that Paul knew from the life of Jesus. The same Greek words are used in Luke’s account. When we remember that Luke was part of Paul’s missionary team, it helps us understand that Paul knew the same accounts of the life of Jesus that Luke recorded in his record.
The final clauses of 4:14 reveal Paul’s disdain for those who taught “a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6-9). It should not surprise us that in the first decades after the resurrection Satan worked to bring confusion about doctrine. Thought defeated in the death and resurrection of Jesus, Satan continues to resist the kingdom of God and works to deceive us. Jesus knew this and warned His disciples about Satan’s efforts (Luke 21:8, 34-36).
Prevailing Love. Ephesians 4:15, 16 ties together all that Paul has been writing to the encompassing power and presence of God’s love in Christ. Nineteen times in Ephesians Paul used either the noun agape or verb form agapao for “love, loves, loved” as translated in the New King James. Observe the use of the personal pronoun “we” in verse 14. That pronoun controls the opening of verse 15, “we” are the ones “speaking the truth in love.”[14] The issue of “the truth” corresponds to “every wind of doctrine” in verse 14. While it is appropriate to view verse 15 in terms of personal relationships of admonition, correction, the primary focus of verse 15 is to bring correct doctrine in an atmosphere of transforming love within the Christian community. Love is the attitude of heart that knows the importance of saving another from error that will hinder their witness or destroy their life. When a parent warns a child not to touch a hot stove the parent is showing love for the child. It’s more than mild mannered speech. The speech may be strong but nonetheless flows from a heart of love designed to save.
Speaking the truth in love is part of how we “may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ.” It is interesting that the word translated “grow up” in verse 15 is the same word used in Luke 1:80; 2:40 referring to the growth of John the Baptist and Jesus.[15] When the Ephesians heard this letter read, they connected the language of “grow” back to Ephesians 2:20 where the church “grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” In every aspect of life (all things) we grow into the body of Jesus. Jesus is the head, and we belong to His body. This is the second use of “head” in Ephesians (1:22) and Paul maintained this metaphor in Ephesians and Colossians. The language of Christ as the head reflects Jesus’ own words that He will build His church (Matthew 16:18).
Ephesians 4:16 closes this long sentence by using human body analogies to describe how the body of the Messiah operates in the world. In a sense, Paul paints a picture of the “one new man” in Ephesians 2:15. From the head, which is from Jesus the Messiah, the body on earth is nourished. The body of the Messiah, “the whole body,” is “joined and knit together by what every joint supplies.” In Greek the two words “joined” and “knit” are a mouthful: synarmologoumenon and symbibazomenon. The underlined syllables mark the accents for pronunciation. The first term “joined” is a repetition from Ephesians 2:21. The term “joint” (haphe) in this verse is unclear. Some view it as joints, ligaments or tendons. The primary meaning of the word relates to “touch or contact.”[16] Regardless the specific piece of anatomy, the main point is that Paul describes the presence of the Holy Spirit in people making connections that hold the body together.
The final clauses of Ephesians 4:16 takes us back to the various spiritual gifts operating in the body of Christ, including those named in 4:11. As each of us does out part as redeemed, Spirit-filled and anointed servants of Christ, the body of Christ grows for the purpose of building up itself in agape, love. The Apostle John, about 30 years after Paul wrote Ephesians, wrote to the Ephesians and other churches in western Turkey that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The goal of redemption is the restoration of the fallen created order to the image of its Creator, the God who is love.
As we close these thoughts on Ephesians 4:11-16, I remind you that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus around 53-54 A.D. What he wrote to them not only addressed the problems they sent him but also reflected what Paul was teaching in Ephesus. Thus, when he wrote about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, he intentionally placed the great love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, between the two gift chapters. This was not a random poem selection. It was something Paul was teaching in Ephesus. When he wrote the Ephesians letter in the early 60s, about 8-10 years after he wrote 1 Corinthians, he was reminding the Ephesians that it is holy love, God’s own nature, that is the hope of the world and what empowers the body of Christ as His witnesses in this fallen world.
[1] See the previous essay at https://iphc.org/gso/2025/10/22/the-messiahs-gifts-to-his-church-part-1-ephesians-47-10/.
[2] https://iphc.org/gso/2025/09/30/live-worthy-of-the-call-ephesians-41-3/ and https://iphc.org/gso/2025/10/09/ephesians-44-6-seven-ones-four-all/. The gifts named in 4:11 are sometimes called “Christ’s Gifts,” “Ascension Gifts,” “Leadership Gifts,” or “Equipping Gifts.” These terms are often used interchangeably.
[3] αὐτὸς ἔδωκεν τοὺς. The word translated “some” is the definite article masculine plural. The masculine gender should not be interpreted to mean that only males have been appointed to these designated ministries. This is controversial in certain parts of global Christianity. For reasons from other New Testament passages, many Pentecostals and other Protestants hold that men and women are called by Christ to serve in these capacities.
[4] There is some debate whether pastors and teachers are one and the same. This is because Paul used definite articles for the first three but only one definite article for the last two. From a grammatical viewpoint it can be argued that pastors and teachers are meant as one or they are meant as two. The commentary on these last two will treat them as separate but with pastors having overlapping teaching giftings.
[5] Paul recognized that Peter was an apostle to the Jews, something that Peter himself affirmed (Galatians 2:7, 8; 1 Peter 1:1).
[6] For an IPHC official position paper see https://iphc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Apostolic-Position-Paper.pdf. Also, for an overview of IPHC history and theology on these gifts see Doug Beacham, Rediscovering the Role of Apostles and Prophets (Franklin Springs, GA: LifeSprings Resources, 2003). Chapters 1-5 are a historical study, chapters 6-8 are a theological/exegetical study primarily of Ephesians, and Chapters 9, 10 review the late 20th century and early 21st century views on apostles and prophets within certain aspects of the charismatic movement.
[7] Beacham, Rediscovering the Role of Apostles and Prophets, 132.
[8] I am convinced that the Old Testament prophets, and legitimate prophets in our era, are good historians and understand history, its direction and goal, considering God’s revelation in His Word.
[9] This includes Matthias as the replacement of Judas (Acts 1:15-26).
[10] Paul had to battle through much of his ministry for his apostolic calling to be recognized. A reading of Acts and Paul’s letters makes that clear.
[11] Frank Thielman argues that equip is the best translation of the Greek given the context, Ephesians: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: MI: Baker Academic, 2013) 279.
[12] B.E. Underwood, Spiritual Gifts: Ministries and Manifestations (Franklin Springs, GA: Advocate Press, 1984) 24, italics Underwood. As observed in the previous essay, this book as been the defining book on spiritual gifts for the IPHC.
[13] Thielman, 282.
[14] “Speaking the truth” is one word in Greek, a present participle of means “defining more closely the verb αὐξήσωμεν [grow] and describing the way in which the growth takes place.” Thielman, p. 285 Kindle Edition.
[15] The more I read Paul’s letters and Luke’s Gospel and the book of Acts, the more convinced I am that these two men, along with others in their ministry, knew and shared information about Jesus. While Luke’s Gospel record is usually dated later in the first century, I’m finding it likely that at least an early version of Luke’s Gospel account was well known to Paul.
[16] Thielman, page 287.
