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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” Here are five orders in the church, representing five separate and distinct gifts of the Spirit. This; in a sense, is a special form of m inistry in th e body of Christ. And to what purpose have these five orders been placed in the church? We will allow th e Holy Ghost to answer. “F o r the perfecting of the saints, (note the incorrect use of th e comma hero) for th e work of th e m inistry, for th e edifying of th e body of Christ.” « Now from the fau lty punctuation of th is verse we would conclude th a t th e work of these five orders— th a t of th e apos tles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers— was threefold, as follows: 1. The perfecting of th e saints. 2. The work of the m inistry, and 3. The edifying of th e body of Christ. But such is. not the case. Here is one of the erro rs into which Rome has led the church, namely, an undue emphasis or overdrawn distinction between the so- called clergy and laity. And the mis placement of th è comma unfortunately supports th is error. We need not inform the stud en t of th e Word th a t the punctuation marks of the Bible were not placed th ere by inspiration, and the comma th a t ap pears afte r the word “sain ts” of verse twelve, and to which atten tion is called by a parenthetical note in the penning of th a t verse, should be om itted. Now we are not establishing a new or der in the body of Christ, bu t simply calling atten tion to an order of things which He has already established. We have been accustomed too long to con fine the work of th e m inistry to pastors, evangelists and teachers in th e church of Christ. It is all a m istake. And while not all are pastors (only “ some” ); and while not all are evan gelists (only “some” ) ; and while not all (only “some” ) are teachers, yet all are m inisters, (o r “servants” ) and the
church is waking up more and more to th e realization of the need of th e work of m inistry among those whom we have been pleased to call the laity. We are accustomed to read something like th is at the top of the bulletin boards of many of our churches: “CHURCH OF THE ATONEMENT Rev. John Smith. D. D,, M inister” The. Lord pity th a t church if th e Rev. John Smith, D. D. is th e only m inister in it. We are all m inisters, or at least, should be. “As every man h ath re ceived th e gift, even so let him m in ister.” But let us come back again to the m atter of Bible punctuation. A misuse of these gramm atical points of lan guage is bound to play havoc w ith the sense of meaning of the Word of God. We remember some years ago a pastor of ours who attem pted to preach a ser mon on “ R egeneration” from Matthew 19:2jS. And he read it thu s: “Ye which have followed me in th e regeneration,” (comm a). He should have read it as it appears in most of th e versions— “Ye which have followed Me, (comma) in the regeneration when th e Son of Man shall sit in th e throne of His glory,” etc. The text speaks of re generation all righ t enough, b u t not the regeneration of th e individual, but th a t of th e earth. Another case is Luke 23:43. The placing of the com ma afte r “today,” instead of before it-, as it should be, has led many a soul into a dangerous system of error. So if we om it the comma in question which appears afte r th e word “ sain ts” in Ephesians 4:12 (and it should be om it te d ), we will discover a th ing of which th e church has too long been ignorant, namely, th a t th e Lord has given to His church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers “ for th e perfecting of th e saints for the work of th e min istry .” Or as the Revised Version has it, “For the perfecting of th e saints unto the work of th e m inistry.” In LINGER ! LOOK !
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