Miracles/signs confirmed the messenger and the message (Ex. 4:8-9; Mk. 16:20; Heb. 2:14). The gifts had several purposes. You read passages like Mk. 16:20; Heb. 2:4, and there was the purpose these gifts had when they went out preaching. When these people went out preaching and had gifts, they were able to confirm the word that they were preaching by those gifts that they had from God.
In Eph. 4:12, another purpose is not just for those gifts to have a purpose for those who are out of Christ, but the gifts even had a purpose who were in Christ..”for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”. In the first century, Christians (saints) were equipped for the work of the ministry by these gifts. They were edified..built up in the body of Christ by these gifts. Notice the first word is in v13. What does the word “till” mean? If someone said “I’m going to love you till you run out of chocolate chip cookies” what does that mean? The word till is an adverb of time. It indicates these gifts (He [Jesus] gave gifts in v8), and he [Paul] lists some of the gifts in v11. In v12 he lists some of the purposes these gifts. Then you get to v13 and what do we have? We’ve got a timeframe. He says the purposes to do these things in verse 12, while in verse 13, the passing of these gifts is going to come.
“Till we all come to the unity of the faith” the faith is talking about the completed gospel system…
”and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” — These words are very similar to 1 Corinthians 13.
In chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians you see some similar words. In verse 28, God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.
Are those similar to what we’ve read over in Eph. 4?
1 Cor. 12:29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?
When you get to chapter 13:8..he says love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
Why would knowledge vanish away? He says, for we know “in part” and we prophecy “in part”. Ephesians 4..”till we all come to the unity” —“of the knowledge of the Son of God”
Paul says in 1 Cor. 13:9 “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part”, but Paul says in Eph. 4 there would come a time where we would all come to a unity of the knowledge of God.
1 Cor. 13:10 — But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
Ephesians 4:13– Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man
To a perfect man…how do we become complete? We cannot become complete in v13 without the unity of the faith. We cannot become complete, a perfect man without the unity and the knowledge of God, but when I have the unity of the faith..when I have the unity of the knowledge of God, what can I become? I can become complete.
What does that contrast? See Ephesians 4 verse 14. When we are able to come to this unity and have the completed revelation from God in our hands—the New Testament— that (from v14) we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting…
In 1 Cor. 13, look at verse 11. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Wonder what kind of man he’s talking about there? It’s the perfect man. Go back to Ephesians 4 and notice the similarities between all of these passages…what is being discussed here? What’s being discussed are these spiritual gifts that the church and those early Christian’s had because they did not have the New Testament. They had them so that they could confirm the word that was being spoken. When the New Testament was completed and someone could hold it in their hands and be able to have every word of God inspired in their hands, what’s the purpose of having the spiritual gifts anymore? Do we need the word confirmed anymore? No. The spiritual gifts had a purpose and when the purpose was fulfilled they ceased. And that’s why the first word of verse 13 is “till”. These things will exist “till” we all arrive at the unity of the faith. And when the faith is unified, when the knowledge of the Son of God is all brought into one, here we have it in the New Testament. We will no longer be children tossed to and fro.
There’s a need for everyone to come to the unity for the faith, to have the word of God, and once you have the word of God, Paul says then we’re no longer like children tossed to and fro. We’ve got the word of God here, and so I don’t have to wonder if someone is telling me the truth or if so and so is telling me the truth—I can know. And then I can know verse 15…I can use this word and I can go out and I can be “speaking the truth in love” so that I “may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.”
Some believe that Paul is teaching that there would come a time when all religious faiths who acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ will be united. However, Paul did not say: “Till we all come to the unity of faith.” He said: “Till we all come to the unity of the faith…” “The faith” is the system of faith which produces faith in man (Rom. 1:17; 10:17). It is the completed revelation of the New Testament. The gospel system. We see this use of “the faith” in many places in the New Testament (Acts 6:7; Jude 3). Thus, spiritual gifts were to continue until the New Testament, the faith, was revealed in its entirety. This word would be able to protect the church from the deceivers who abounded in the first century. No more would the church be “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lay in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4:14). Instead, they could speak the truth in love and grow up as a strong body to accomplish the work of God (Eph. 4:15-16).
It is important to recognize that Paul lists two different categories of gifts in Ephesians 4. Some roles existed only to reveal and confirm—apostles, prophets, and Spirit-empowered workers who either delivered God’s word or proved it with miraculous gifts (Mk. 16:20; Eph. 3:5; Acts 2, 10:33-34, 11:14, 27-28). Others were non-miraculous teaching offices—evangelists, pastors, and teachers—whose work is based on instruction from already-given revelation. When Paul says these gifts would last “till we all come to the unity of the faith” (Eph. 4:13), the “till” applies to the revelatory gifts, because they existed to deliver and confirm the revelation that would create that unity. Once the faith was fully revealed, the revelatory gifts had served their purpose and therefore ceased. But the teaching roles did not depend on miraculous revelation; they work from the completed Word. Thus they naturally continue after the unity of the faith is reached, because their job is not to reveal the faith, but to teach the faith that has been revealed. Paul places both categories side by side, but their duration is not the same: revelation ceased, instruction continues. Ephesians 4 lists both types together, but only the miraculous, revelatory gifts ended at “the unity of the faith,” while the teaching roles continue for the ongoing edification of the church.