5我们读以弗所书时,必须进入保罗的负担和感觉。保罗的期望是要每一位信徒都成为使徒。这意思是说,保罗期望每一位圣徒都能和他一样。保罗不仅是使徒,也是申言者、传福音者、牧人和教师。然而,我们许多人可能把十一节所说这些有恩赐的人,分成四个不同的类别:使徒、申言者、传福音者、牧人和教师。但保罗这位蒙神呼召之人的榜样,却样样都是。保罗当然是申言者。在他的书信里,他说出一些很大的豫言,就如在林前十五章及帖撒罗尼迦前后书中所见者。保罗也是传福音者。有谁是比他还大的传福音者?他无论到那里都传福音。不仅如此,保罗也是牧人和教师。他日夜照顾众召会和众圣徒。最后,谁能否认保罗是教师?倘若保罗不是教师,在新约里就没有人是教师了。因此,保罗是使徒、申言者、传福音者、牧人和教师。在以弗所三至四章里,保罗的负担和目的是要指出,每一位圣徒在这些方面都该和他一样。三至四章是保罗嘱咐我们行事为人要与神呼召相配的一部分。假如我们的行事为人要与神的呼召相配,我们就必须像使徒保罗一样。我们要有相配的行事为人,所当注意的就不该只是谦卑、恩慈、仁爱等这些事,而该注意作使徒、申言者、传福音者、牧人和教师这些重要的事。我们若不是这样的人,我们的行事为人就没有与神的呼召相配。在这两章里,保罗乃是一个榜样:不是得胜基督徒的榜样,甚至也不是充满生命之信徒的榜样,乃是那些作使徒、申言者、传福音者、牧人和教师之人的榜样。
5As we read this book of Ephesians, we need to get into Paul’s burden and feeling. Paul’s expectation was that every believer would be an apostle. This means that Paul expected every saint to be the same as he was. Paul was not only an apostle; he was also a prophet, an evangelist, and a shepherd and teacher. Many of us, however, may classify the gifted ones mentioned in verse 11 into four distinct categories: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. But Paul, the pattern of God’scall ed one, was all of these. Paul certainly was a prophet. In his Epistles he uttered some great prophecies, such as those found in 1 Corinthians 15 and in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Paul was also an evangelist. Who was a greater evangelist than he was? He preached the gospel wherever he went. Furthermore, Paul was a shepherd and a teacher. Day and night, he cared for all the churches and all the saints. Finally, who can deny that Paul was a teacher? If Paul was not a teacher, then no one in the New Testament was a teacher. Therefore, Paul was an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, and a shepherd and teacher. His burden and intention in chapters three and four was to point out that every saint should be the same as he was in these respects. Chapters three and four are part of Paul’s charge concerning a walk worthy of God’s calling. If we would have a walk worthy of God’scall ing, we need to be like the Apostle Paul. To have a worthy walk, we should devote our attention not only to such things as humility, kindness, and love, but to the important matter of being apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. If we are not such persons, then we do not have a walk worthy of God’scall ing. In these chapters Paul is an example, not of a victorious Christian nor even of a believer who is full of life, but of one who is an apostle, prophet, evangelist, and shepherd and teacher.