Devotion — Ephesians 4:11–16
"Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and
teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be
built up." (Eph. 4:11–12)
Think about where you will be tomorrow: the workplace, the kitchen, the classroom, the
hospital room, the neighbor's front porch. Paul's words in Ephesians 4 speak directly into
those places. Not as a new demand, but as a declaration: Christ is actively building his
Church. What a gift that he chooses to work through you in exactly those places to do so!
He prepares you for these opportunities through a specific gift. "Christ himself gave...
pastors and teachers," not to carry all the ministry themselves, but to equip his people.
The Greek word Paul uses is katartismos. The ancient world heard it in the hands of a
physician setting a broken bone, or a fisherman mending a torn net (the same word
appears in Matthew 4:21). It means to restore, to mend, to return to a right standing before
God through the grace and mercy of Christ for you, making you fit for service in his
Kingdom of grace too. Paul uses this same word in a similar way in Galatians 6, restoring
someone caught in sin, gently, carefully, returning them to wholeness. Katartismos is
always pastoral, always ongoing, always a returning to Christ's forgiveness.
This is what happens when the Word is preached and the Spirit creates faith. When water
is poured and a name is joined to the name of God. When bread and wine are placed in
broken hands with the words for you. When absolution is declared, "I forgive you all your
sins in the name of Jesus." That is not a formality. It is an external, spoken word. The bone
being set. Katartismos, happening right there.
Notice where Paul says this leads. Restoration does not end with restored people. It
results in restored people serving others, in their vocations, their families, their
neighborhoods. I need to say something further about this that is important for you to hear
and hear clearly: the weight of the Church's work belongs to Christ. What Paul describes
in verse 16 is Spirit-empowered activity (energeia), the same word he uses in Ephesians 1
for the power that raised Christ from the dead. That power is not human effort or organized
activity. It is Christ's own energy, working through people he has set. Your participation in
his work is not pressure. It is privilege, the joy of sharing in what he is already doing.
That work is often quiet. The parent who prays with a child at bedtime. The coworker who
speaks a word of comfort after a loss. The member who offers encouragement to fellow
worshipers with their presence, echoing the promises of God into the ears and minds of
their brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul's vision of the "building up" in verse 13 is not
primarily numerical growth. It is unity in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, a
congregation being drawn, together, more deeply into Christ and his truth.
Something honest needs to be said about our conversations as WELS congregations in
Waukesha. This is something we all experience to some degree. We are tempted to
protect what we know rather than trust the Builder. To hold tightly to patterns and personal
preferences rather than rest in Christ's promises. The disciples themselves knew this fear,
and Christ met it not with a strategy but with his presence and his Word. In us, that same
tendency runs deep. Paul would name it plainly: a failure to trust that Christ is actually
building, that this Church belongs to him, not to us.
Wherever that exists, confess it. Together.
Then hear this: Christ has already borne that sin. The fear, the grasping, the distrust, it was
carried to the cross. You are not his people straining under the weight of your failures. You
are his people living under the declaration of your forgiveness, spoken to you here and now
as an external word: absolution. By Christ’s command and authority, I forgive you all your
sins. This is the bone being set, again. Not a call to try harder. A gift, freely given.
Free, because the sin is forgiven, to receive without anxiety. To serve without striving. To
trust that even your most ordinary, hidden act of faithfulness is a genuine work of service
that Christ is already using.
As we consider what God is building here in Waukesha, carry this sentence with you:
Christ restoring his people through Word and Sacrament, for the ministry he has called
them to do (katartismos).
When you wonder whether you are doing enough, let that question drive you not inward to
self-measurement, but back to where Christ meets you: his Word, his Sacraments, his
spoken absolution. There the bone is set again. There you are made fit, not by your effort,
but by his.
What energizing freedom this news provides. You are not here as people who must get
everything right or the Church will fail. You are here as people already restored. Out of that
joy, what a privilege to consider opportunities for formally serving together, freely sharing
with the world through Word and Sacraments, the forgiving, restoring, renewing grace
Christ freely shares with us!
"Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and
teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be
built up." (Eph. 4:11–12)
Think about where you will be tomorrow: the workplace, the kitchen, the classroom, the
hospital room, the neighbor's front porch. Paul's words in Ephesians 4 speak directly into
those places. Not as a new demand, but as a declaration: Christ is actively building his
Church. What a gift that he chooses to work through you in exactly those places to do so!
He prepares you for these opportunities through a specific gift. "Christ himself gave...
pastors and teachers," not to carry all the ministry themselves, but to equip his people.
The Greek word Paul uses is katartismos. The ancient world heard it in the hands of a
physician setting a broken bone, or a fisherman mending a torn net (the same word
appears in Matthew 4:21). It means to restore, to mend, to return to a right standing before
God through the grace and mercy of Christ for you, making you fit for service in his
Kingdom of grace too. Paul uses this same word in a similar way in Galatians 6, restoring
someone caught in sin, gently, carefully, returning them to wholeness. Katartismos is
always pastoral, always ongoing, always a returning to Christ's forgiveness.
This is what happens when the Word is preached and the Spirit creates faith. When water
is poured and a name is joined to the name of God. When bread and wine are placed in
broken hands with the words for you. When absolution is declared, "I forgive you all your
sins in the name of Jesus." That is not a formality. It is an external, spoken word. The bone
being set. Katartismos, happening right there.
Notice where Paul says this leads. Restoration does not end with restored people. It
results in restored people serving others, in their vocations, their families, their
neighborhoods. I need to say something further about this that is important for you to hear
and hear clearly: the weight of the Church's work belongs to Christ. What Paul describes
in verse 16 is Spirit-empowered activity (energeia), the same word he uses in Ephesians 1
for the power that raised Christ from the dead. That power is not human effort or organized
activity. It is Christ's own energy, working through people he has set. Your participation in
his work is not pressure. It is privilege, the joy of sharing in what he is already doing.
That work is often quiet. The parent who prays with a child at bedtime. The coworker who
speaks a word of comfort after a loss. The member who offers encouragement to fellow
worshipers with their presence, echoing the promises of God into the ears and minds of
their brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul's vision of the "building up" in verse 13 is not
primarily numerical growth. It is unity in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, a
congregation being drawn, together, more deeply into Christ and his truth.
Something honest needs to be said about our conversations as WELS congregations in
Waukesha. This is something we all experience to some degree. We are tempted to
protect what we know rather than trust the Builder. To hold tightly to patterns and personal
preferences rather than rest in Christ's promises. The disciples themselves knew this fear,
and Christ met it not with a strategy but with his presence and his Word. In us, that same
tendency runs deep. Paul would name it plainly: a failure to trust that Christ is actually
building, that this Church belongs to him, not to us.
Wherever that exists, confess it. Together.
Then hear this: Christ has already borne that sin. The fear, the grasping, the distrust, it was
carried to the cross. You are not his people straining under the weight of your failures. You
are his people living under the declaration of your forgiveness, spoken to you here and now
as an external word: absolution. By Christ’s command and authority, I forgive you all your
sins. This is the bone being set, again. Not a call to try harder. A gift, freely given.
Free, because the sin is forgiven, to receive without anxiety. To serve without striving. To
trust that even your most ordinary, hidden act of faithfulness is a genuine work of service
that Christ is already using.
As we consider what God is building here in Waukesha, carry this sentence with you:
Christ restoring his people through Word and Sacrament, for the ministry he has called
them to do (katartismos).
When you wonder whether you are doing enough, let that question drive you not inward to
self-measurement, but back to where Christ meets you: his Word, his Sacraments, his
spoken absolution. There the bone is set again. There you are made fit, not by your effort,
but by his.
What energizing freedom this news provides. You are not here as people who must get
everything right or the Church will fail. You are here as people already restored. Out of that
joy, what a privilege to consider opportunities for formally serving together, freely sharing
with the world through Word and Sacraments, the forgiving, restoring, renewing grace
Christ freely shares with us!