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

⁷ Every one of us, however, has been entrusted with some charge, each in accordance with the extent of the gift of the Christ. ⁸ That is why it is said--'When he went up on high, he led his captives into captivity. And gave gifts to mankind.'

⁹ Now surely this 'going up' must imply that he had already gone down into the world beneath. ¹⁰ He who went down is the same as he who went up--up beyond the highest Heaven, that he might fill all things with his presence. ¹¹ And he it is who gave to the Church Apostles, Prophets, Missionaries, Pastors, and Teachers, ¹² To fit his People for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the Body of the Christ. ¹³ And this shall continue, until we all attain to that unity which is given by faith and by a fuller knowledge of the Son of God; until we reach the ideal man--the full standard of the perfection of the Christ. ¹⁴ Then we shall no longer be like infants, tossed backward and forward, blown about by every breath of human teaching, through the trickery and the craftiness of men, towards the snares of error; ¹⁵ But holding the truth in a spirit of love, we shall grow into complete union with him who is our Head--Christ himself. ¹⁶ For from him the whole Body, closely joined and knit together by the contact of every part with the source of its life, derives its power to grow, in proportion to the vigor of each individual part; and so is being built up in a spirit of love.