Those Pesky Commas!

"Picky, picky, picky! What difference does it make, anyway? Are you from the Grammar Police?" - some people say, when you point out a misuse of the comma. But as the picture shows, leaving out a comma where it should be, or inserting a comma where it shouldn't be, can completely change the meaning of a sentence. A prime example of inserting commas where they shouldn't be is found in Eph. 4:11-12 -

“He gave some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints, to do the work of ministering, to the building up of the Body of Christ."

What does this Scripture text say to you? It seems to list eight spiritual offices or tasks:

1. apostles, 2. prophets, 3. evangelists, 4. pastors, 5. teachers, 6. equip the saints, 7. do the work of ministering, 8. build up the Body of Christ.

This is the way the King James Version had the punctuation, which gives you the impression that apostles (bishops), prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers should equip the saints, do the work of ministering, and build up the Body of Christ. But is it what the Apostle Paul really meant when he composed these words?

Most newer translations omit those last two commas, as we show here. It completely changes the meaning, so we understand that the apostles (bishops), prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are to equip the saints to do the work of ministering to build up the Body of Christ. The Church leadership offices aren't supposed to do all the work; instead, they are supposed to equip or train the saints (that's the rest of us in the congregation) to do diakonia-ministry!

What is diakonia-ministry? The Greek word diakonia simply means service, serving others, helping out. "Minister" sounds like an important title, such as "Prime Minister" or "Minister of Defense" or "Reverend." Today when we hear the word "Minister" we probably think of someone in a suit and tie, or a black robe and a clerical collar, someone who doesn't want to get his hands dirty. But in Greek a diakon (deacon) is just a servant, a slave, someone to do the dirty work.

These days we want to hire someone and pay barely over minimum wage to prepare and serve food, mow the lawn, shovel snow, take care of sick and disabled people, etc. But Eph. 4:11-12 tells us that all the saints (that's us!) are supposed to be serving food to the poor, caring for the sick, doing whatever it takes to maintain and build up the Body of Christ.

We know this is what the Apostle Paul meant, because just a few verses later he urged that "we may grow up in all things into Him Who is the head, Christ; from Whom all the Body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the Body increase to the building up of itself in love." (verses 15-16).

Each individual member of the Church, each and every one of us, are to build up the Church, the Body of Christ, through what every joint, ligament, sinew and muscle supplies. And how to we do this? We allow ourselves to be trained and equipped to do hands-on ministry. We don't think so highly of ourselves that "we're too busy, or too highly-paid, to do some job that's below our station in life."

Instead, we submit to the leadership of the bishop, the pastor, the teacher, etc. so that we learn how to do diakonia-ministry. This is how the Early Church grew by leaps and bounds: it mobilized every member to do his or her share toward building up the Body of Christ!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 12 Sep. 2015 and 26 Jan. 2019.)