The God-Appointed Shepherds (Ephesians 4:11–13)

In the community of Christians, every person has his own natural abilities and receives his own distinctive gift of grace. Although these gifts spring from one and the same source and need not work in opposition, they may not operate in harmony with one another and may therefore fail to advance the common goal of all. Hence arise disorder, disarray, and confusion—even when people strive to act as they ought. There is need, therefore, of directors of the common activity, of governors and guides—for all and for each. If we add to this that, even though the Christian community is a community of grace, freedom and personal initiative are not removed from anyone, and one may therefore expect that anyone might sometimes act wrongly and stray entirely from the right path—then this necessity becomes even more evident: the strong must bear the infirmities of the weak. Moreover, not all the world is yet Christian, nor were they in the beginning of Christianity, nor are they to this day. And the words of the Lord, “and them also” “I” “must bring” (Jn. 10:16), are not false. There must therefore be among Christians these bringers of non-Christians to the Lord. For just as in the beginning He was pleased to bring them not in person but through the Apostles, so He acts always.

For these reasons the Lord, the head of the Church, was pleased to establish in the Church a special order of persons, laying upon them the care for the advancement of existing Christians and for the conversion of non-Christians, and equipping them with the appropriate gifts of grace. In each of his epistles the holy Paul calls them to mind—so essential are they to the community of Christians that one cannot address that community without turning to them. In the present epistle the holy Paul gives a fuller portrayal of their significance in the Church: a) by enumerating their kinds, b) by setting out the duties that rest upon them, and c) by indicating the goals toward which they must direct their labours.

Eph. 4:11. And He Himself gave some to be Apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

What is said here about the Lord’s giving is not the same as what is meant in v. 7. There the subject is what is given to each Christian in the sacrament of chrismation, whereas here the subject is the special gifts of grace given to particular persons appointed as guides of the community. In other passages the Apostle indicates that these gifts are communicated through ordination (1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6; Heb. 6:2). Here he states only that persons of this kind in the Church derive not from the Christian community itself but from the Lord Himself. “He Himself gave” all those who were then in this order; He has continued and continues even now to give such persons to the Church, through the grace transmitted in succession from one to another, and sometimes with the aid of immediate, extraordinary indications. In this word “gave” we must see both the divine institution of leadership in the Church and the divine appointment of its leaders. The holy Paul speaks of them in this way throughout, though he sometimes attributes their appointment and election to God the Holy Spirit, as in his final address to the same Ephesians: “in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers (bishops)” (Acts 20:28); sometimes to God the Father, as in the epistle to the Corinthians: “God has appointed in the church first Apostles” and so on (1 Cor. 12:28); and here to God the Son. For the actions of the most holy Trinity are inseparable (holy Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact).

In first place the Apostle sets the Apostles: for they possessed all things (holy Chrysostom). These are properly the Twelve, together with the holy Paul himself—eyewitnesses of the Lord, witnesses of His resurrection, sent by Him directly, and filled to overflowing with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They were prophets, they were evangelists, they were pastors, they possessed gifts of healing and all knowledge—everything was combined in them and through them deposited into the Church. Upon them the Holy Spirit descended in the fullness of His being, and through them went forth into the Church and fills it. They are the channels of grace that has poured out upon the whole world. The order of Apostleship in the power it had in the first Apostles is not to be repeated. Nor does this appear necessary, for the Apostles placed everything into the Church. They handed down to her all the truth that the Spirit of God revealed to them; they handed down to her the sacraments for the sanctification of the faithful, and within her they established the pastorate—the direct succession of the Apostleship—whose duty is to preserve what the Apostles placed in the Church, to keep it active over all and throughout the entire Christian community. The Church lives by apostolic treasures and by the grace that poured from them and flows ceaselessly from generation to generation. Where this stream is cut off, there is no true life in Christ the Lord.

In second place the Apostle sets the prophets—not those of the Old Testament, but those who appeared in the new grace: persons with a special gift of foreseeing the future. “At that time there were those who were granted the gift of prophetic grace. The history of Acts mentions the prophet Agabus (Acts 11:27, 28, 21:10) and others who prophesied in Antioch, among whom was the most blessed Apostle Paul himself (Acts 13:1)” (Theodoret). On the basis of certain references to them one may infer that together with foreknowledge of the future they were given the ability to perceive the secrets of the human heart and what is hidden in Scripture, and sometimes to speak an instructive word by a special impulse of the Spirit of God—a word most needful for the Christians present. Their existence in the Church has not ceased and does not cease; but the manifestation of their gift is not always public or evident to all. The gift itself is not bound to any position in the Church or society, and it not infrequently belongs to persons on whom, by the ordinary standard, no one would deign to look. Judging by the fact that only the pure in heart behold God, and that prophetic perception is possible only in God and through God, one must conclude that this gift takes up its dwelling in souls that have striven above all for purity of body and soul and have made progress therein.

In third place the holy Paul sets the evangelists. “These are those who did not travel through all countries, but only preached, like Priscilla and Aquila” (holy Chrysostom). That is, they proclaimed the Gospel as and where occasion arose, without having proclamation as their exclusive occupation. But this does not apply to all those known by the name of evangelists. Philip, one of the seven deacons, is called an evangelist (Acts 21:8); and he, having left Caesarea, subsequently travelled with his daughters through Asia Minor and proclaimed the Gospel, though under the guidance of the holy John the Theologian. And alongside other Apostles there were persons who laboured in preaching at their direction. All of them may be numbered among the evangelists. In the work of preaching they were second after the Apostles; only the Apostles were the originators, while those depended upon them and were sent by them wherever need required. The holy Chrysostom adds: “Perhaps by evangelists he also means those who wrote the Gospel.” The holy Damascene writes: “One person in the Church performs the proclamation of good news by word, another by writing—as, for instance, Philip proclaimed by word and those who wrote the Gospels by writings.” And there is no basis whatsoever for supposing that the holy Paul did not have them in mind as well, since by that time the first three Gospels were already circulating among Christians—and among the apostolic companions, the evangelists, were the holy Evangelists Mark and Luke. In these two modes of proclamation, evangelistic ministry has always remained in the Church. Some were sent by the pastors, successors of the Apostles, to preach in lands that do not know God and His Christ; while others, with their blessing and guidance, wrote, setting forth the truths of God. To the former belong all those equal to the Apostles—such as Cyril and Methodius for the Slavic peoples—and to the latter belong all ecclesiastical writers. In our time and in our land the evangelists are our missionaries, who would more fittingly be called evangelists. May God’s blessing rest upon their heads and accompany all their labours!

In fourth place the holy Paul sets pastors and teachers, “to whom the entire people was entrusted” (holy Chrysostom) and “who were appointed by the Apostles in cities and villages” (Theodoret). These are bishops and priests—last in the Apostle’s list but first in the labours of building the Church, then and afterward and now. Bishops as successors of the Apostles, and priests as their close assistants. To the bishop souls are entrusted; but since he cannot be everywhere himself, he shares his labour with others capable of bearing it. Priests are the eyes, feet, and hands of the bishop. The bishop together with his priests is one undivided pastorate. It sometimes happened that the Apostles, having sown the faith in some place, would leave it and move on, committing the believers to pastors whom they had chosen and ordained, who then, by God’s grace, caused the seed planted by the Apostles to grow into a great tree—building up the existing believers and gaining new ones, in the same locality or even in the surrounding regions. We see the pattern of this in the labours of the holy Paul. In Acts it is recounted that, after having preached the Gospel in succession in Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, the Apostle once again passed through all those places—“strengthening” “the souls” “of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and when they had ordained elders for them in every church, and had prayed with fasting,” they commended“them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (Acts 14:22, 23). And on another occasion the Apostle visited there—but only to oversee whether everything was proceeding as it should. The churches, however, grew by God’s grace from what had been placed in them at the beginning under the guidance of the God-given pastorate. What took place in those localities was repeated in all others, throughout the entire world. The Apostles then passed on. In the churches everywhere there remained the successors they had appointed—the pastors; and it was these who remained as the chief guides and executors of the work of Christ, yet not as originators but as those acting according to the principles laid down by the Apostles. The apostolic authority and power remained in the Church, yet it belongs not to particular individuals but to the entire body of bishops, which, acting in council, is the legislator and ruler of the Church. Thus the pastorate became the chief office in the Church, after the beginning, in her subsequent life. And it is to the pastorate above all that what the Apostle says next about the duties and goals of those who lead in the Church is primarily addressed.

Blessed Jerome lingers longer than others on the subject of pastors, stating first that pastors and teachers are one and the same; then offering lessons to pastors, which it is fitting for us to hear from the lips of a man of such strict life. “One must not think that just as in the preceding words—some Apostles, some Prophets, some evangelists—the Apostle designated different persons, so also in the words ‘some pastors and teachers’ he designated different persons. For he did not say ‘some pastors, some teachers,’ but ‘some pastors and teachers,’ giving us to understand that these are one and the same persons, and teaching that whoever is a pastor must also be a teacher, and that in the churches no one who is unable to teach those in his care must take upon himself the pastorate. Every head of a church must be both pastor and teacher—pastor of sheep, teacher of human beings. I believe that today in the churches, just as there are prophet and evangelist, pastor and teacher, so there may also be an Apostle with all the marks of Apostleship. And conversely, just as outside, so also within—just as in the Church, so also in heretical assemblies—there are many false apostles and false prophets, false evangelists, false pastors and false teachers. As for the heretics, there is no doubt whatsoever that since their faith is false, everything in them is false. But do you not see even in the Church false pastors who feed the sheep not as pastors but as hirelings, caring neither for the salvation of the flock nor for the conversion of the straying or the recovery of the lost, but only for gathering from the sheep milk and wool—that is, food and clothing?”

Eph. 4:12. For the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.

Such are the God-appointed occupations and tasks of the heads of the churches!

The first and chief obligation is the equipping of the saints. The faithful are called saints (Oecumenius). Their equipping is expressed by the word καταρτισμος, which means bringing a thing into its proper order and arrangement, placing it in such a state that it becomes what it ought to be according to its significance and purpose. Applying this meaning to the faithful, we must understand their equipping as bringing them into order and keeping them there, so that each person is in his proper place and performs his proper work as he ought. This is the outward dimension. The inward dimension is the ordering of their minds and hearts, their thoughts, feelings, dispositions, and entire life—in the manner that Christianity requires, or as befits those whose characteristic mark is life in Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Keeping Christians in outward order is governance; the right ordering of their inner life is soul-edification, or the care for their salvation. If someone is zealous, direct him to what is best; if someone has grown slack, rouse his zeal; if someone has gone astray, restore him to the right path; if someone is crushed by grief, console and encourage him; if someone has taken up what is not fitting for him, instruct him; if there has been a quarrel, reconcile; if an offence has occurred, adjudicate rightly; if poverty oppresses, arrange relief; if something is not understood, explain it; if passions overwhelm someone, show him how to overcome them. Thus at all times—now by word, now by deed, now with severity, now with gentleness, now alone, now together—keeping one thing in view: that all may be “perfect and entire, lacking nothing” (Jas. 1:4).

Everything pertaining to this includes: in a time of general peace, bringing all to a more perfect knowledge of the faith and to a holy life in accordance with the faith, so that each of those whom they guide and build up may be “complete,” as“a man of God, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (εξηρτισμενος— 2 Tim. 3:17). To achieve this: “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2).

The second duty of the representatives of the Church is “the work of ministry.” The holy Paul calls his own apostolic labours a ministry (Rom. 11:13; 2 Cor. 4:1, 6:3). When he came to any place, he converted persons and communities, consecrated them through the sacraments, established the ordering of common or ecclesial assemblies, explained everything pertaining to the life of Christians, ordained heads for the administration of all the orders and for leading Christians toward further advancement—and then departed to another place. The continuation of the apostolic ministry for each local Church remained entirely with the heads. Part of this ministry they fulfilled by leading the saints toward perfection, as was said already. What remains is: the sanctification through the sacraments, the conduct of the ecclesial assemblies so that everything there proceeds decently and in order, the kindling in all of the spirit of prayer, the keeping of everyone in noetic and heartfelt communion with God. And this is what the Apostle calls in the present passage the work of ministry. It encompasses everything that is performed in the Church—all the ecclesial rites: those of prayer, of sanctification, and of completion (the sacraments). This is the heart of pastoral labours. The word, by which one chiefly acts in fulfilling the first-named duty, does act, to be sure; but if it is not secured in the heart by the power of God, its action will evaporate and the soul will again be empty. What is sown by the word is united with the soul by the grace of the sacraments, and further developed by the prayerful rites of the Church. The spark cast by the word is implanted by the grace of the sacrament (it takes hold, as one commonly says of fire), and is fanned into a flame by prayer. Grace builds up. Consequently, the work of ministry in the sense described must occupy the greatest share of pastoral cares and solicitudes—as indeed it does in the Orthodox Church. Conduct this part worthily of God, O pastor, and you will see the wondrous fruits of your pastorate: the invisible, mysterious tending of your flock.

The last duty of the pastors he called “the building up of the body of Christ.” The body of Christ is the Church—universal and one. The Apostles built and have built it. How? By converting persons and communities and adding them to the common wholeness of believers; and the Church grew as a building grows when course upon course of new stones is laid upon it. The Apostle uses here the word οικοδομη— not the inner arrangement of a house (economy) but the building of it, the structure. In relation to the Church, this means the addition of new believers, the spread of the faith, the expansion of the boundaries of the Church. How the Apostles did this is evident; but how can and must the heads of each particular Church fulfil this? The good order of their small church they accomplish by leading the saints to perfection and rightly performing the work of ministry; yet this is not the building up of the whole body of the Church but of its smallest member. The Apostle, however, lays upon them the duty of building up the whole body of the Church alongside the building up of their own small part of it. This they could not and cannot fulfil otherwise than by gaining new believers. And how is this done? By sanctifying the children being born in the midst of the Christians; by converting to the faith the non-believers living in the same locality—in the same settlement or roundabout; by undertaking, when possible, further missionary circuits, or by preparing from among their own Christians those capable of this work and sending them wherever they are needed. From history it is evident that the heads of the churches endeavoured to fulfil not only the first two duties but this last one as well. It was also fulfilled in our Russian Church. A more decisive move toward its fulfilment has been made in recent times through the establishment of a society for this purpose—with central and diocesan branches.

Our holy fathers and ecclesial commentators, in expounding the content of this verse, speak in general of the ministry for the salvation of souls. The holy Chrysostom sees three works in each of those who have received a special ministry and special gifts in the Church: “Do you see—each one builds up, each one orders, each one serves.” The holy Damascene writes: “These gifts are given so that those consecrated in the faith may be directed toward perfection, through the ministry of those in the community who have received these gifts.” In Oecumenius it is stated that special persons with special gifts are established in the Church “for the equipping—that is, the final completion of the saints, or what is the same, the faithful—so as to serve in the Church and build it up.”

Eph. 4:13. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Just as a person assigned to some task or who has taken it upon himself, in order to sustain his zeal for the work and bring it to completion rather than stopping halfway, must keep in view the goal to which he must bring the work—a kind of measure and standard of his task—so the holy Paul sets before the pastors the goal, the limit, the measure to which they must strive to bring their pastoral work. And just as he previously laid three duties upon them, so now he points to three limits, three measures and goals for the fulfilment of those duties.

He speaks as if to say: the duty rests upon you to build up the body of the Church by adding new believers to her—go on adding more and more, until not one unbeliever remains; until we all, as human beings, attain to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. “Unity” — ενοτης— oneness—until we attain to the point where all share one faith and an equal knowledge of the Son of God: one faith, so that no non-Christians remain; one knowledge of the Son of God, so that even among Christians there may be no diversity of opinion, but all understand equally what the Son of God is and what is the work of salvation accomplished by Him on earth, and how each person can and must appropriate it to himself. The holy Chrysostom says: “Until we all prove to have one faith, for that is what the oneness of faith means—when we shall all be one, when we shall all understand this union in the same way. And until then must you labour, if you have received the gift of building up (οικοδομης) others. When we believe the same—that is the unity of faith.”

Further: the duty rests upon you to perfect the saints; and labour tirelessly at this without ceasing, until you have made every one of them a perfect man. Every believer at the beginning, like a child, is imperfect in knowledge and unsteady in the rules of life. Establish him firmly in both respects; bring it about that all his active powers are in full development, so that every person, whatever task he meets, may be able and strong enough to perform it as he ought, to perfection. By the words “a perfect man” we must understand perfection, or the ultimate limit of the active life. This is defined as follows: in the mind, the ripening of sound understanding in all things—in the sphere of faith and beyond it, under its guidance; in the will, the establishment of good principles and the rooting of true Christian dispositions in the heart—humility, love, meekness, temperance, peaceableness, self-denial, and every other virtue; in the heart, the cultivation above all of a taste and sympathy for everything spiritual and truly Christian, bringing it to the point where it finds pleasure in nothing other than in the circle of things belonging to salvation and life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Beyond this, active perfection cannot go; yet it is not itself the ultimate limit.

Finally: upon you rests the work of ministry—to raise all through prayerful, sanctifying, and sacramental sacred rites into spiritual communion with God, so that God may be in all and all in God; and continue to perform this work of ministry worthily of God, until, having renounced everything and been fully purified by an active preparatory life, all may enter into the state of perfect repose in God and, having made of themselves a dwelling worthy of God, possess Him dwelling within them. This is the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Of Christ Jesus the Apostle says that in Him the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. And of Christians the Lord Himself says: whoever loves Me and keeps My commandments, him My Father will love, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him (Jn. 14:23). Such is the measure of stature that corresponds to the fullness of Christ. Active life in love according to the commandments prepares one for this. The communion with God itself is accomplished in the sacraments, through prayerful repose in God. The spirit of prayer is cultivated by the ecclesial rites; and it is in those same rites that the sacraments are performed. It is evident, then, how the performance of the work of ministry raises one to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And this is the summit of perfection to which Christianity raises one. Nothing higher can even be imagined. For if God is in someone, what more can that person desire? And this is what every Christian must keep as his goal, striving toward its attainment with all his might, sparing himself nothing. If the promise of the Lord is not false—if it has already been vindicated an untold number of times in Christians—is it not reasonable to press forward in accordance with it?