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Paul cherished the saints in the humanity of Jesus and nourished them in the divinity of Christ with all the truths of God's eternal economy, displaying in his living the word of the Lord Jesus that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:18-38; 1 Thes. 2:1-12).
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Paul was a pattern to the elders in Ephesus, a pattern of what the elders should be to the church (Acts 20:27-38):
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He served the Lord as a slave with all humility and tears and trials (v. 19).
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He shepherded the saints by teaching them publicly and from house to house, declaring to them all the counsel of God, all of God's eternal economy (vv. 20, 26-27).
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He was burdened for the elders to see the precious love of God for the church and the preciousness, the exceeding worth, of the church in the eyes of God so that they would treasure the church as God did; he admonished the elders to "take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He obtained through His own blood" (v. 28).
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He warned the elders concerning the destroyers of the divine building—those who are wolves, not sparing the flock, and those who speak perverted things to draw away the disciples after them (vv. 29-30).
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He contacted each one of the saints, telling the elders to remember that "for three years, night and day, I did not cease admonishing each one with tears" (v. 31).
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Because Paul saw that the unique goal of God's calling is the building up of the Body of Christ and that Christ builds up the Body by the Body, he was a pattern to the elders in Ephesus of functioning to perfect all the saints "unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ," so that all the saints would grow in life and would function in life according to their measure of life to be a supply of life to cause "the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love" (Eph. 4:11-16).
Morning Nourishment
Acts 20:31 Therefore watch, remembering that for three years, night and day, I did not cease admonishing each one with tears.Eph. 4:16 Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.
[In Acts 20:28 His own blood indicates] the precious love of God for the church and the preciousness, the exceeding worth, of the church in the eyes of God. Here the apostle did not touch the divine life and nature of the church as in Ephesians 5:23-32, but the value of the church as a treasure to God, a treasure which He acquired with His own precious blood. Paul expected that the elders as overseers would treasure the church as God did.
Both the Holy Spirit and God's own blood are divine provisions for the church that He treasures. The Holy Spirit is God Himself, and God's own blood denotes God's work. God's redemptive work acquired the church; now God Himself, the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), cares for the church through the overseers. (Acts 20:28, footnote 5)
Today's Reading
According to Ephesians, the unique goal of God's calling is the building up of the Body of Christ. In Matthew 16 the Lord Jesus said that He would build His church. The book of Acts and the Epistles reveal that the church is built up not by the Lord directly, but through the members of the Body. Christ builds the Body by the Body. God has called us for the fulfillment of this goal.Ephesians 3:2 speaks of the stewardship of the grace of God, and 4:12, of the building up of the Body of Christ....The stewardship of the grace of God is not limited to Paul and the other apostles. Do not think that Paul was such a steward and that you are not. Paul's intention here is to impress the saints with the fact that they all have received the stewardship of the grace of God for the building up of the Body of Christ. According to 4:12, the building up of the Body is not the work of the apostles alone; it is the responsibility of all the saints...[who] are perfected unto the work of ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ. The Greek word rendered "unto" in this verse also means "for the purpose of," "with a view to," or "resulting in." The perfecting of the saints results in the work of ministry, which in turn results in the building up of the Body of Christ. The Body is not built up directly by the apostles and the other leading ones; it is built up directly by the saints.
Verse 12 speaks of the saints, and verse 16 mentions "each one part." According to verse 16, the Body causes the growth of itself unto the building up of itself in love. In order for this to take place in a practical way, all the saints need to be perfected by the apostles and the other leading ones....Paul expected every saint to be the same as he was.
Paul was not only an apostle; he was also a prophet, an evangelist, and a shepherd and teacher. Many of us, however, may classify the gifted ones mentioned in verse 11 into four distinct categories: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. But Paul, the pattern of God's called one, was all of these. Paul certainly was a prophet. In his Epistles he uttered some great prophecies, such as those found in 1 Corinthians 15 and in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Paul was also an evangelist. Who was a greater evangelist than he was? He preached the gospel wherever he went. Furthermore, Paul was a shepherd and a teacher. Day and night, he cared for all the churches and all the saints. Finally, who can deny that Paul was a teacher?...Therefore, Paul was an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, and a shepherd and teacher. His burden and intention in chapters 3 and 4 were to point out that every saint should be the same as he was in these respects. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 329-331)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, "Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John," ch. 13; Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 39, 41-42