June 3rd, 2006
A Study on Talents
Ephesians 4:1-16
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Now, this is weird, I intended Friday’s QT to tie into hope, but today, I didn’t, but alas, here it is, in this scripture, HOPE. Actually, I wanted to prepare my heart… just preparation and such. I don’t know why, I just feel the need. And when I did the search, it pulled 94 scriptures and this one really pulled at me, so here we are, I liked the surrounding verses, and thought I would use the whole section to save context. Today is spiritual birthday… going to do a lot of digging into the Greek here.
When I came across the scripture, this is what first intrigued me: “…to prepare God's people for works of service…” so, when I saw this, I thought, hey, this is the scripture that I would like to study today.
Ephesians 4:12 prepare:
katartismos
kat-ar-tis-mos'
Complete furnishing (objectively): - perfecting.
More interesting is those who do the preparation, “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.” If the preparation is done correctly, “we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Evangelist (noun):
A Study on Talents
Ephesians 4:1-16
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Now, this is weird, I intended Friday’s QT to tie into hope, but today, I didn’t, but alas, here it is, in this scripture, HOPE. Actually, I wanted to prepare my heart… just preparation and such. I don’t know why, I just feel the need. And when I did the search, it pulled 94 scriptures and this one really pulled at me, so here we are, I liked the surrounding verses, and thought I would use the whole section to save context. Today is spiritual birthday… going to do a lot of digging into the Greek here.
When I came across the scripture, this is what first intrigued me: “…to prepare God's people for works of service…” so, when I saw this, I thought, hey, this is the scripture that I would like to study today.
Ephesians 4:12 prepare:
katartismos
kat-ar-tis-mos'
Complete furnishing (objectively): - perfecting.
More interesting is those who do the preparation, “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.” If the preparation is done correctly, “we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Evangelist (noun):
- A preacher of the Christian gospel.
- One who practices evangelism.
Ephesians 4:11 evangelist:
euaggelistēs
yoo-ang-ghel-is-tace'
A preacher of the gospel: - evangelist.
Pastor (noun):
- A Christian minister or priest having spiritual charge over a congregation or other group.
- A layperson having spiritual charge over a person or group.
- A shepherd.
Ephesians 4:11 pastor:
poimēn
poy-mane'
Of uncertain affinity; a shepherd (literally or figuratively): - shepherd, pastor.
These things, I think were my original intent for this study was to simply look at this scripture, prepare my heart, see what my talent is, and am I helping others becoming mature by using my talent? It doesn’t say that I have to have a paycheck from a church to be a pastor. It doesn’t say to be one who practices evangelism you have to be in the full time ministry and preach from the pulpit. The bible (in a number of other scriptures) says that we (myself included) are given talents. Everyone has a talent. It would make sense that the talent is to advance God’s kingdom in someway or another, I mean why would God give me a tool to do him harm or the kingdom harm. It is written God would not give me a snake instead of bread, or something to that nature. God wants me to get better, he wants me to help others get better, and that is what the talent (or talents) that he has given is for.
There is SO much more with this scripture… in fact, so much that I with have to continue on in another day. THIS is exciting. SO-SO-SO exciting. I can’t say that I haven’t been excited by a scripture this much in quite a while, and it was really stumbling through the E-Sword that I got curious… anyway, so much to study, not nearly enough time. Laterz. Johnny Out.
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