No man is fit to be a pastor who cannot also teach, and the teacher needs the knowledge which pastoral experience gives. 4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. English Standard Version (ESV), Upgrade to Bible Gateway Plus, and access. Create or log in to your Bible Gateway account. Want more information about Bible Gateway Plus? Properly, as apostles, or to be apostles. Upgrade to Bible Gateway Plus, and access the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible notes. Learn more. Amen. he. he. Ephesians 3:21; Ephesians 4:11–16. 11 And (A)he gave the (B)apostles, the prophets, the (C)evangelists, the (D)shepherds[a] and teachers,[b]. Salem Media Group. And he gave some, apostles - He gave some to be apostles. Christ's ministers are gifts to His people. Preachers and expounders under the immediate influence of the Spirit, and thus distinguished from teachers. are all teachers? And he gave some apostles,.... That is, he gave them gifts by which they were qualified to be apostles; who were such as were immediately called by Christ, and had their doctrine from him, and their commission to preach it; and were peculiarly and infallibly guided by the Spirit of God, and had a power to work miracles for the confirmation of their doctrine; and had authority to go everywhere and preach the Gospel, and plant churches, and were not confined to anyone particular place or church; this was the first and chief office in the church, and of an extraordinary kind, and is now ceased; and though the apostles were before Christ's ascension, yet they had not received till then the fulness of the Spirit, and his extraordinary gifts to fit them for their office; nor did they enter upon the discharge of it in its large extent till that time; for they were not only to bear witness of Christ in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, but in the uttermost parts of the earth: and some prophets; by whom are meant, not private members of churches, who may all prophesy or teach in a private way; nor ordinary ministers of the word; but extraordinary ones, who had a peculiar gift of interpreting the Scriptures, the prophecies of the Old Testament, and of foretelling things to come; such were Agabus and others in the church of Antioch, Acts 11:27. and some evangelists; by whom are designed, not so much the writers of the Gospels, as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, some of which were also apostles; as preachers of the Gospel, and who yet were distinct from the ordinary ministers of it; they were below the apostles, and yet above pastors and teachers; they were the companions of the apostles, and assistants to them, and subserved them in their work; such were Philip, Luke, Titus, Timothy, and others; these were not fixed and stated ministers in anyone place, as the following officers be, but were sent here and there as the apostles thought fit: and some pastors and teachers, or doctors; these may be thought to differ, but not so much on account of the place where they perform their work, the one in the church, the other in the school; nor on account of the different subject of their ministry, the one attending to practical, the other to doctrinal points; but whereas the pastors are the shepherds of the flock, the overseers of it, and the same with the bishops and elders, and the teachers may be the gifted brethren in the church, assistants to the pastors, bare ministers of the word; so the difference lies here, that the one has the oversight, and care, and charge of the church, and the other not; the one can administer all ordinances, the other not; the one is fixed and tied to some certain church, the other not: though I rather think they intend one and the same office, and that the word "teachers" is only explanative of the figurative word "pastors" or shepherds; and the rather because if the apostle had designed distinct officers, he would have used the same form of speaking as before; and have expressed himself thus, "and some pastors, and some teachers"; whereas he does not make such a distribution here as there; though the Syriac version reads this clause distributively as the others; and among the Jews there were the singular men or wise men, and the disciples of the wise men, who were their companions and assistants; and it is asked, "who is a singular man? The two belong together. and who is a disciple? of
All rights reserved. Creating an account allows you to access more features and content such as: Reading the Bible is rewarding, and these plans make it easy! The omission of the article from teachers seems to indicate that pastors and teachers are included under one class. Step 1 - Create an account or log in to start your free trial. Copyright © 2020, Bible Study Tools. For a full illustration of this verse, the reader is requested to refer to the notes on 1 Corinthians 12:6-10; (note), 1 Corinthians 12:28-30; (note); and to the concluding observations at the end of that chapter. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every … And teachers - see the notes on Romans 12:7. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use our convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, John Etheridge Translation of the Peshitta, James Murdock Translation of the Peshitta, Commentary Critical and Explanatory - Unabridged, Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible, Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures.