Ephesians 4:7-16 - Gifted Leaders Bring The Church To Maturity

⁷ But the grace was given to each of us, according to the measure of the gift of the Christ. ⁸ Therefore he says, Having ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.

⁹ And what is the ascended, except that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is also the same man who ascended high above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things. ¹¹ And indeed he gave the apostles, and the prophets, and the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers ¹² for the perfecting of the sanctified, for the work of ministry, for edification of the body of the Christ. ¹³ Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to a standard of stature of the fullness of the Christ. ¹⁴ So that we may no longer be childish, tossed about and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in craftiness with the methodology of error. ¹⁵ But being truthful in love, we may cause all things to grow for him who is the head--the Christ-- ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined together and united together through every connection of the supply, according to the working of each one part within a standard, makes the growth of the body for the construction of itself by love.