4:7 [NASB]
But
    to each one of us
        grace
            was given
                according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

THE COMMENTARY

 
This is the beginning of one very long sentence (Ephesians 4:7-16).

But, first we need to look back to the very beginning of the chapter and see our general situation. In the first 3 verses Paul lists three specific major problems with mankind. 1) Humans lack the general ability to follow a “Godly Walk.” Man, outside of God’s enablement through faith and belief, considers himself to be a god and looks to have all things fall into his individual control. 2) Humans lack the general ability to follow a “Godly love.” Once again, we are self-love-driven, even when we are “in love with” another. Our love is based on whether we feel loved. 3) Humans lack the general ability to bind together in absolute unity. Once again, this is related to our self-godliness. In each of those first three verses Paul speaks to believers who have the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, and a relationship with Almighty God, and a commitment to God’s Son Jesus and tells us that it takes work to listen the Spirit’s knowledge and guidance and ACT in a manner pleasing to God’s holiness.
 
In the next 3 verses (4-6) Paul tells us about the workings of God (Father, Son, Spirit) in calling all believers into a single “corporation” that is “Coordinated” by God the Father through His grace into a multi-layered UNITY. There is One Body, One Spirit, One Hope, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and He is Father of All, He is Over All, Through All, and In All. Paul calls each believer to learn to function in this corporation of Unity and to be Unified in our cooperation belonging to this corporation.
 
BUT, Paul also tells us that there is more than enough of God’s Grace to cover each and every one who believes, and enough of God’s grace to cover the full and entire Universal Body of Christ. He also refines his knowledge of God’s working of Grace by “measuring out” God’s gift of grace, through Christ’s Gift to us, “appropriately enough to meet any single or corporate need.” “But all gifts were meaningful in the corporate group and purposeful in the long view.”[1]
 
“But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Corinthians 12:7)
 
“And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
 
“As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” (1 Peter 4:10)

THE STUDY, Ephesians 4:8

GOD’S SPECIAL SECRET

B. The Corporateness of the New Mankind 4:7-11
    1. The Rightful Giver 4:7-10
        a) The Measure of Christ’s Gift 4:7
        b) Christ Gave Gifts to Men 4:8

4:8 [Mac]
    It is for this reason
        He says, When
        He ascended into the height
        He led a host of prisoners captive,
        He gave gifts to men.

4:8 [NASB]
Therefore it says,

“When
    He ascended on high,
    He led captive a host of captives, And
    He gave gifts to men.”

THE COMMENTARY

Paul is making an allusion to Psalm 68:18, not a quote. He’s building a picture of the differences between the heights of heaven (up from here – way up) and the depths of the earth (down from here on the surface, perhaps way down) while he is addressing verses 8-9. Paul’s original words seem to indicate the picture of a triumphal march of persons rescued in war. Our hero, Jesus, upon His death on the cross and His burial, became the only one ever who could, in the past or the future, take those who have been captives of sin and sins and lead them, march them, from an earthly life/death to an eternally living life in the heavens above.

“And He gave Gifts to men.” Paul’s emphasis is that these gifts were given to the Church and not upon the gifted individuals.[2] The meanings here are that men given with spiritual gifts were given to the Church, and spiritual gifts were given to Church functioning men so they can properly function in their spiritual responsibilities.

Such a grand corporate structure, but who but God could design so complete a design. What started out in A.D. 33 with a handful of men and women, has currently grown to over 2.4 billion who are alive in the world today – roughly one-third of the world’s population. We all know that many of those may not be true believers, but still…!

THE STUDY, Ephesians 4:9

GOD’S SPECIAL SECRET

C. The Corporateness of the New Mankind 4:7-11
    1. The Rightful Giver 4:7-10
        a) The Measure of Christ’s Gift 4:7
        b) Christ Gave Gifts to Men 4:8
        c) Christ left His heavenly home to come to earth and do The Father’s Will. 4:9

4:9 [Mac]
 (But
    what does
        'He ascended' imply?
            Nothing other than
        He also previously descended into the lower regions,
            which are the earth?

4:9 [NASB]
Now this expression,
    “He ascended,”
        what does it mean except that
    He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth

THE COMMENTARY

I suppose that we could come up with many possible interpretations of this verse, But MacCorkle has helped us here. “Christ left His heavenly home to come to earth and do The Father’s Will.” Once again, we are being reminded of who this person is who has done all these wonderful things for His Father who is in heaven. We have to be reminded, due to our human hearts and minds, that the whole story, from beginning to end, is about Jesus. John reminds us:

“In the beginning was the word, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and part from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:1-5)

We should see here that the whole plan of God, as told to us in the scriptures, is about Jesus… and the Father’s plan to offer and bring salvation to those humans who would freely and voluntarily (as the Hebrew Shema proclaims to their nation Israel):

“The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).

John further explains:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

The whole plan is for Jesus to bring completion to the plan and make human salvation possible by giving His life on the Cross. Jesus, God Himself, came down from heaven to accomplish this task. Having completed it, He returned to heaven. As we would tell it, from heaven to hell and back again – all for completing His Father’s plan.

THE STUDY, Ephesians 4:10

GOD’S SPECIAL SECRET

D. The Corporateness of the New Mankind 4:7-11
    1. The Rightful Giver 4:7-10
        a) The Measure of Christ’s Gift 4:7
        b) Christ Gave Gifts to Men 4:8
        c) Christ left His heavenly home to come to earth and do The Father’s Will. 4:9
        d) Christ’s return to heaven brought great Honor and Glory to Jesus Christ, The King. 4:10

4:10 [Mac]
He Himself,
Who descended,
    is also the One Who ascended far above all the heavens,
    with the purpose of filling all things.)

4:10 [NASB]
He
    who descended
        is Himself also
    He who ascended
        far above all the heavens,
        so that He might fill all things.)

THE COMMENTARY

Paul continues His description of what Jesus had done and here he tells us that on His return… He ascended above all of the heavens so that He might fill all things, but He does not tell us what that means. Instead, he will move on to telling us what "gifts" he gives, as a result, to the Church Universal and to those who are part of it.

THE STUDY, Ephesians 4:11

GOD’S SPECIAL SECRET

 I. CHAPTER 1 – The Church AS The Body of Christ
II. CHAPTER 2 – The Church AS The Temple of Christ
III. CHAPTER 3 - The Church AS God's Top Secret
IV. CHAPTER 4 – The Church AS The New Mankind
    A. The Coordination of the Church 4:1-6
    B. The Corporateness of the New Mankind 4:7-11
        1. The Rightful Giver 4:7-10
            a) The Measure of Christ’s Gift 4:7
            b) Christ Gave Gifts to Men 4:8
            c) Christ left His heavenly home to come to earth and do The Father’s Will. 4:9
            d) Christ’s return to heaven brought great Honor and Glory to Jesus Christ The King. 4:10
        2. The Right Gifts 4:11

4:11 [Mac]
And it is
    He Himself that gave
        some as apostles,
        some as prophets,
        some as evangelists,
        some as pastor and teachers.

4:11 [NASB]
And
    He gave
        some as apostles, and
        some as prophets, and
        some as evangelists, and
        some as pastors and teachers,

COMMENTARY

Paul is still focusing upon God the Father and the reasons why He is worthy of such Glory. We should not see these gifts as a way to glorify those who have been given a gift. We should see that each gift was given to an individual for the benefit of the whole body of the Church. The Glory belongs to the giver, not to the individual receiver.

MacCorkle points out that there are four (4) classes of “Gifts.”[3] Apostles; Prophets; Evangelists, and Pastors and Teachers. If we go back to Chapter 2 and verse 20 we should see that the first two classes of “Gifts,” Apostles and Prophets, were to lay down the “foundation” of the Church Universal, and then the second two classes, the Pastors and Teachers would be then gifted for the continued building of the superstructure – using Paul’s imagery of the building of the “Body of Christ.”

Paul wrote his letters two thousand years ago. It was His job to “start-up” the Church. At that time, it was clear to him, and by the revelation given to him, that Apostles and Prophets were a dying breed – used by God over the centuries to get to this miraculous place where the plan of God had accomplished the start of this brand-new administration. The nation of Israel had been put aside, the elements of their covenant had been put aside. Now the Gospel was opened up for the whole world. The Apostles and Prophets jobs of laying the biblical foundation for the Church was done. It was time for the evangelists, those who travel and spread the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and Pastor/Teachers, those who stay at home teaching the local church to begin building the rest of the amazing Church Temple of Christ – and the right gifted men and women were given for accomplishing this task. There are more gifted men and women ahead to be defined, but we’ll have to wait till the next lesson to begin that part of this new administration.

To God be the Glory!

Look at the question and ignore the answer. Then study the answer!

4:7 [Mac]
7 But, in addition, grace was given to each one of us in accord with the measure of Christ's gift.

1 In Addition to what?
In this new “Body of Christ” there was "Grace" and One Body, One Spirit, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism

2 Define the grace “in accord with the measure of Christ’s gift.”
God’s grace given in each of Christ’s gifts is given in such a way that the gift given was flexible in that whatever the powers of the gift needed for the given task would be able to complete the task.

4:8 [Mac]
 8 It is for this reason He says, When He ascended into the height He led a host of prisoners captive, He gave gifts to men.

For what reason – that He gave gifts to men?Exactly as it says in the questions above. Because there was this new administration that was under the power of unity (One: body, Spirit, Lord, Faith, Baptism) Christ gave gifted people for the administration and growth of it (The Body of Christ, The Church Universal).

4:9 [Mac]
 9 (But what does 'He ascended' imply? Nothing other than He also previously descended into the lower regions, which are the earth?

No question implied here, just the fact.
Jesus ascended back to heaven after completing God’s plan for Him, back home to heaven where He came down from.

4:10 [Mac]
 10 He Himself, Who descended, is also the One Who ascended far above all the heavens, with the purpose of filling all things.)

Why restate the same thing again?
It may appear like the same statement again, just using a different image, but the key to understanding this image is the end of the sentence – “With the purpose of filling all things.” This little tag tells us that Jesus, as the Glorifying factor of God, was now placed into the position of the one who would be in charge of ALL Things, everywhere, always.

4:11 [Mac]
11 And it is He Himself that gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastor and teachers.

1 WHY?
The answer begins for us in the preceding answer. As the One who would be in charge, then in the matter of the Church Universal, He would have to establish an administration team to establish and administer that new body on earth and heaven.

2 What made up the team?
Since God (Jesus) works through all of eternity, the team chosen covers that same administration. Throughout the Past He called and used Apostles (those called with a message) and Prophets (those called with New Scripture revelation) to create a foundation upon which this new administration would build it’s “Temple of Christ.” Then in a more immediate past (post Jesus death and ascension) He called Evangelists (those who would work through the Holy Spirit to bring Salvation consciousness to each human individual – through whom many would be “saved.”) and Pastor/Teachers (those who were gifted with teaching, leading, training, in the Word of God and the spreading of the Gospel message among all the people).

2025-04-04 update