To each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. (Ephesians 4:7 NIV)
If you’re a parent or work with children, you know you don’t tell them everything. A three-year-old doesn’t need to know how to pay the mortgage. You share what is appropriate for their age and maturity. They aren’t ready for adult responsibilities, so you don’t place the weight of the adult world on them.
As I mentioned yesterday, God asked me a simple but powerful question about a particular article: Why do you need to know? After thinking about it, I realized—I didn’t.
As adults, it can feel like we’re carrying the weight of the world. But in reality, we are only responsible for the part God has entrusted to us—our marriages, parenting or grandparenting, roles in the church, our work, and our communities. If something is truly our responsibility, we will answer to God for how we handled it. But if it isn’t, we can trust that he has given it to someone else—and that he will give us grace for what is ours to carry.
In Ephesians 4:11–12, Paul reminds us that God gives different roles and gifts to different people—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—so that the whole body of Christ can be built up. No one person is meant to do everything. Instead, each of us is given grace to do what God has called us to do. When each member follows the Head of the Church, Jesus, the whole body then is built up and perfected.
All our direction and ministries will flow from Christ and lead us deeper into him, the anointed Head of his body, the church. For his “body” has been formed in his image and is closely joined together and constantly connected as one. And every member has been given divine gifts to contribute to the growth of all; and as these gifts operate effectively throughout the whole body, we are built up and made perfect in love. (Ephesians 4:15-16 TPT)
I was reminded of this recently by a story of a pilot rescued after being shot down over Iran. His survival depended not only on his own training and faith, but also on many others working together in a coordinated effort. Each person fulfilled their role, and together they brought him home. When knowledge is applied rightly, it leads to unity and success.
Proverbs 3:5-6 encourages us to “Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions. With all your heart rely on him to guide you, and he will lead you in every decision you make.” (TPT). As we individuals trust in God, we can work together for Kingdom purposes. As we trust God individually, we can work together for his purposes.
In Ephesians 4:3–6, Paul calls us to live in unity—one body, one Spirit, one faith, one Father—God working through us all.
Be faithful to guard the sweet harmony of the Holy Spirit among you in the bonds of peace, being one body and one spirit, as you were all called into the same glorious hope of divine destiny. For the Lord God is one, and so are we, for we share in one faith, one baptism, and one Father. And he is the perfect Father who leads us all, works through us all, and lives in us all! (Ephesians 4:3-6 TPT)
The truth is, we don’t have to know everything. We simply need to seek God, trust him to give us what we need, and faithfully do the part he has given us.
God,
Help us to be people who seek you, trust you, obey you, and faithfully do what you have called each of us as individuals to do. Help us remember that you see the big picture of how our part fits into your greater whole, and help us to live in unity with others in your Church. We ask this in Jesus’s name, AMEN.
[Jesus] has appointed some with grace to be apostles, and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists, and some with grace to be pastors, and some with grace to be teachers. And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ. These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God, and finally we become one into a perfect man with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ.
And then our immaturity will end! And we will not be easily shaken by trouble, nor led astray by novel teachings or by the false doctrines of deceivers who teach clever lies. But instead we will remain strong and always sincere in our love as we express the truth. All our direction and ministries will flow from Christ and lead us deeper into him, the anointed Head of his body, the church. For his “body” has been formed in his image and is closely joined together and constantly connected as one. And every member has been given divine gifts to contribute to the growth of all; and as these gifts operate effectively throughout the whole body, we are built up and made perfect in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16 TPT)