“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church… Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.” – Ephesians 4:11-13
When Paul wrote Ephesians 4, he wrote it in sections. For instance, when you read the first three chapters, he wrote about doctrine. Then in chapters 4-6, he switched gears and shows us as believers how to live out that doctrine as the church in our day-to-day lives.
So first, Paul explained the wealth that is available to those of us “in Christ.” He shows us how to walk in that wealth and how we can steward what God blesses us with and accomplish our God-given purpose.
Paul says in Ephesians 4:11-13, “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church… Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”
Now, what Paul explains is the “wealth” that is available to us. When you hear the word wealth, what do you think? Most people immediately think of money. And while money can be a part of wealth, that is not all there is to it. Wealth is an abundance of valuables. It is not just about money, but about all the things that make us “rich.”
When we are in Christ, we are all rich because we have access to the resources of Christ. Again, this is not always about money, though sometimes it can be. What God gives is an abundance of resources. And He does this so that we will have all we need to fulfill our God-given purpose.
What is your God-given purpose? Are you maximizing all that God has given you? Are you being a good steward with what you have? It might be time to take inventory of the blessings God has placed in your life and assess whether or not you are being a good steward of what He has given you.