Get in the Game, Part 5, Body Life

Ephesians 4:1-16

The last part of this series pulls together all the other parts, because Body Life defines how we play football (Friendship, One-anothering, Outreach, Teaching, Body Life) together.

Paul’s favourite metaphor for church is the human body. Ephesians 4 is one of Paul’s great appeals for unity and the flow of gifts, with the human body as an analogy. (The other passages in which he does this are Romans 12 & 1 Corinthians 12.) This has been a key passage for many churches over the past 30 years as we have sought to recover “Ephesians 4 ministries.” And it is a key passage for understanding Christian maturity – which only happens in the body.


1. Body Life: responds to grace
Any gifts that we have come from grace. This must be the starting point for believers: it is all grace. Our natural gifts are God’s grace, as are spiritual gifts. Without God’s grace, we wouldn’t have them! Gifts are not earned – they are gifts!

It is easy to start thinking our gifts are earned, or the result of our own skill. If we start to think like this we will start to use the gifts for our own ends, rather than for God’s. But the gifts are given, and they are given for the common good.

As well as God distributing different gifts amongst his people, he gives different measures of grace. This can feel unfair to us. We might ask, What if someone else has the same gift as I do, but more of it, so I never seem to get to use my gift, because all the focus is on them?

The answer to this is that we are to live as Paul instructs us in this passage, with humility and patience and love. If it feels like we are a little finger while someone else is a thumb, we are not resent them, but trust God that he will use what he has put in us, for his glory and the good of his people – because its all of grace!

So the question is, What is your gift? Or, put another way, What is your grace? Whatever God has given you grace for, it is to be used to his glory and the service of the church. Rather than say, “Lord here I am, send my brother,” you need to use the grace you have been given, in the measure to which it has been given.


2. Body Life: results in growth
Growth is dependent on grace, and grace’s mechanism for growth is gifts.

Ephesians 4 describes the “5-fold ministry gifts” that are needed when churches are started and to help in their on-going health: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. These are grace gifts given to build up the church, and we gladly welcome such gifts to Gateway. But the point of these gifts is they equip the church so we can grow ourselves – the aim is that, the body builds itself up in love (v16).

In this all the glory goes to God, but God works through people. God doesn’t bypass the physical in order to impart the spiritual. Rather, he works through the physical. We see this in many of Jesus’ miracles (such as making mud to heal someone who was blind), and in any area where we want to grow it will take gifts of grace working through the people of God.

We want to be a growing people, therefore, we need to use our gifts!


3. Body Life: requires others
By definition, gifts are worked out with other people. God gives gifts for the good of the body, and the bigger the body gets the greater the range of gifts we should see in operation. Body life is about seeing all the gifts in operation to strengthen the body

I once visited an orchard with over 500 varieties of apples, and was told “taste whatever you want!” This is very different from a typical supermarket with only three or four different sorts of apple. Church should be more like that orchard! We need to see a release of creativity, with everyone bringing their gifts to the table.


Let’s do Boby Life together!