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

⁷ Now to each one of us grace has been given proportionate to the measure of the Messiah's gift. ⁸ That is why God says, "When he went up to the highest place, he led captives into captivity and gave gifts to people."

⁹ Now what does this "he went up" mean except that he also had gone down into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰ The one who went down is the same one who went up above all the heavens so that all things would be fulfilled. ¹¹ And it is he who gifted some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, and still others to be pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints, to do the work of ministry, and to build up the body of the Messiah ¹³ until all of us are united in the faith and in the full knowledge of God's Son, and until we attain mature adulthood and the full standard of development in the Messiah. ¹⁴ Then we will no longer be little children, tossed like waves and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, or by clever strategies that would lead us astray. ¹⁵ Instead, by speaking the truth in love, we will grow up completely and become one with the head, that is, one with the Messiah, ¹⁶ in whom the whole body is united and held together by every ligament with which it is supplied. As each individual part does its job, the body builds itself up in love.