INTRO: We are studying Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Some time ago we went through the seven churches of Asia as given in Revelation 2-3. Ephesus was the first church mentioned. It was the first church on the road that led to the others. In the previous message I mentioned someone's outline of seven pictures of the church at Ephesus, how it began in around AD 52 and was dead by AD 200. Like people, churches are born, they are young and vibrant and then they reach a peak and begin to die, and so it happened with this church as well. In the time we are looking at the church is being nurtured and it is growing. And in chapter 4 Paul is challenging them first to unity. In 1:1-6 he calls them to unity and in 7-16 he will show what has been provided for unity.
It is important to remember that the first subject in this practical section of the letter is church unity. It is likely that there were some problems regarding this in the church at Ephesus. In verses 1-6 we have the call to unity. In verses 7-16 we have God's provision for unity. In this second section we have first God's means of unity. God provided gifts and gifted people for this. We find this in verses 7-10 like this:
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