Together in Christ #14

We saw yesterday, in the opening verses of Ephesians 4, that God has called on us as followers of Christ, to accept and maintain this beautiful masterpiece - this bringing together of His people from all kinds of backgrounds. Once again, Paul focuses our attention on where Christ is now:

8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 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, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 

What is Christ doing up at the right hand of the Father? We have seen that He is interceding on our behalf, and that He is our Head, our sources of strength, our authority. Paul says, He is also sending gifts to us, like the bridegroom would send His betrothed to remind her to be patient, that He indeed was coming back for her.  The gifts He had already given were the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, to help us carry out this calling to serve, to strengthen, to stay unified, and to stop being so easily distracted from spiritual things.  There is a spiritual battle going on: the enemy wants to bump the table and dump the beautiful puzzle into a mess of pieces; he wants to make us head in all sorts of different directions; he has a plan to disrupt God's plan in any way possible. By God's grace, we have all His gifts in order to say "no."