Regarding Ephesians 4:11-16, can you help clarify the scope of this context with regards to the “spiritual gifts” mentioned in verse 11? Do all Christians in the Lord’s one true church have spiritual gifts? If so, how does a Christian determine the gifts given to them? Also, why does it seem that most congregations of Christ’s church teach very little about these gifts? Can the whole (Church) body be “joined and knit together by what every joint supplies” if we do not know or do not use our gifts?<\/p>\n\t
“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<\/em>” (Ephesians 4:11-16).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The gift mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 are the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. They are gifts given by the Lord Jesus (see Ephesians 4:7-10). Spiritual gifts are only mentioned indirectly because the apostles and prophets of the early church had these gifts. As explained in the article “Apostleship<\/a>,” the apostles were direct witnesses of Christ who then laid the foundation for the church. Accomplishing their duty, they remain with us through their writings in the New Testament. The prophets existed to fill the gap between the establishment of the church and the recording of Christ’s law. They too continue with us today through their writings, but as Paul stated there would not be new prophets once their work was completed. “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things<\/em>” (I Corinthians 13:8-11). See the sermon outline “Prophets<\/a>” for more details.<\/p>\n
Evangelists (preachers, ministers), pastors (elders, bishops, overseers), and teachers continue to exist in the church teaching the things recorded by the apostles and prophets to build up the church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Regarding Ephesians 4:11-16, can you help clarify the scope of this context with regards to the “spiritual gifts” mentioned in verse 11? Do all Christians in the Lord’s one true church have spiritual gifts? If so, how does a Christian determine the gifts given to them? Also, why does it seem that most congregations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[971,428,667],"class_list":["post-10908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-ephesians","tag-gifts-of-the-holy-spirit","tag-organization-of-the-church"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38247,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-spiritual-gifts-and-miraculous-gifts\/","url_meta":{"origin":10908,"position":0},"title":"What is the difference between spiritual gifts and miraculous gifts?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Could you give me information that points to the differences between spiritual gifts and miraculous gifts? Answer: Spiritual gifts refer to the gifts given by the Holy Spirit. They usually refer to the miraculous gifts as explained in I Corinthians 12. These gifts were not given to every Christian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2064,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/now-concerning-spiritual-gifts\/","url_meta":{"origin":10908,"position":1},"title":"Now Concerning Spiritual Gifts","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ron Drumm It would be wonderful to have a spiritual gift like the ability to do miracles or the ability to speak in tongues. There are nine gifts of the Spirit listed in the New Testament. They are the word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, working of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28162,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-elders-limited-to-the-age-of-miracles\/","url_meta":{"origin":10908,"position":2},"title":"Were elders limited to the age of miracles?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Were elders limited to the age of miracles? Was the church only supposed to have elders while the miraculous gifts were present? I have someone here who is claiming this and he bases it on Acts 20:28, Ephesians 4:11, and I Timothy 4:14. Answer: Stated to End? In order\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12830,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-are-totally-wrong-about-the-cessation-of-the-spiritual-gifts\/","url_meta":{"origin":10908,"position":3},"title":"You are totally wrong about the cessation of the spiritual gifts","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I already read so many of your articles and Q&A sections dealing with the cessation of gifts. I have to say, you are totally wrong. One mistake is not referring to this verse: \"So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10986,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-the-church-in-corinth-receive-the-gifts-of-the-holy-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":10908,"position":4},"title":"How did the church in Corinth receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How did the Corinthian church receive the Holy Spirit in a miraculous way? Was it by the laying on hands by the apostles or what? Or does the Bible not say? Answer: The church in Corinth was started by the Apostle Paul (Acts 18). He initially taught there for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28180,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/arent-we-to-desire-the-greater-gifts-so-miraculous-gift-could-not-have-ended-could-they\/","url_meta":{"origin":10908,"position":5},"title":"Aren’t we to desire the greater gifts? So miraculous gift could not have ended, could they?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have seen on a couple of occasions on this site that you believe the gifts of the spirit are a thing of the past, and that you use I Corinthians 13:8-10 to try and validate that point of view. It is very easy to take a verse or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}