1 Corinthians 12:28 “And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.”
A question that is frequently asked; are the ministry gifts listed in order of seniority in scripture? In other words, because the apostle is listed first, does the apostle rule over the other ministry gifts and so on down the line? Many take the above quoted passage of scripture and teach that because the apostle is listed first they are therefore the most senior of the ministry gifts, and because the prophet is listed second, they are therefore second most senior, and so on. They back this teaching up by saying that in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul ranks the ministry gifts in order of seniority i.e. apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher (Ephesians 4:11). And so we see a doctrine of church government that has manifested in the church. On the surface this viewpoint looks correct. But when we look at the rest of New Testament scripture we find that this viewpoint is in fact unscriptural, because it does not rightly divide the word of truth on the subject.
Galatians 2:1-9 “Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. (2) And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain. … (6) But from those who seemed to be something--whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favouritism to no man--for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me. (7) But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (8) (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), (9) and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.”
So what about the order in which ministry gifts are listed in scripture? They are listed in order of importance, not in order of seniority. So what do I mean by that statement? You will recall that we have seen earlier, that the ministry gifts are given to the church for the equipping of the saints. As we study the various ministry gifts in this teaching, it will become very clear that the ministry gifts of apostle and prophet for example, are far more important and have a far greater impact on the entire body of Christ, than that of the pastor of a local church. Another example that we can look at is the gift of teacher compared to the gift of working of miracles. It is far more important to the church that she receives teaching rather than that she experiences miracles. Don’t misunderstand me, miracles are needed, but teaching is more needful in the church than miracles. Therefore there are ministry gifts that are more important than others. And so because for example, the ministry of the apostle is more important to the church than other ministry gifts, are the other ministry gifts meant to submit to the ministry gift of the apostle in some form of governmental hierarchy? The Holy Spirit answers that question for us in the above quoted passage of scripture. The context of this passage is that the Holy Spirit had revealed to Paul that he should go up to the apostles, Peter, James and John, to compare the gospel that he was preaching with what they were preaching. And so the purpose of the meeting was to compare the gospels that the two teams were preaching, to see if they were the same. As it turns out, Peter, James and John acknowledged that Paul knew more than they did, and could add nothing to his gospel message. At the time of this meeting, Paul stood in the office of prophet, while Peter, James and John were foundation apostles, and two of them (Peter and John) were apostles of the Lamb. But even though in theory, these apostles were “more senior” to Paul, at no stage did Paul go up to submit to their authority and ask their permission to carry on preaching the gospel as he had received it from the Lord. They met as equal ministers of the Lord.
Galatians 2:11 “Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed.”
The context of the above quoted passage of scripture is that a few years later Paul, who was now an apostle, openly confronted Peter because he was acting hypocritically. And so, in this example we have the “junior” apostle Paul, reprimanding the “senior” apostle Peter. Paul was not a maverick that rebelled against authority. All Paul was doing is letting us know that no one ministry gift exercises authority over another ministry gift. But rather that all ministry gifts are appointed by the Lord, and are accountable directly to Him. And so any ministry gift that is disobedient to the Lord and His doctrine can be brought to account no matter what office they stand in. There is nowhere in the new testament, where you will find one ministry gift lording it over another ministry gift.
2 Corinthians 11:5 “For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles.”
So what about the council that was held in Jerusalem, to determine whether the gentiles should keep the Law of Moses or not (Acts 15:6)? In that instance, a group of ministers came together to debate an issue of doctrine to determine what the will of the Lord was. We know that there were both apostles and prophets at that conference. The prophets mentioned by name, were Judas and Silas (Acts 15:32). In fact the two prophets mentioned, were the ones chosen by the conference, to go to the gentile churches and endorse the doctrine that had been taught by Paul and Barnabas. And so, here we have the “junior” ministry gifts of prophet, telling the church that the doctrine of the “senior” ministry gift of the apostle was correct. Among the apostles in that conference, were Paul, Barnabas, Peter and James. If you study scripture you will see that the “junior apostles”, Barnabas and Paul were proven to be correct, and Peter and James the two “senior apostles”, had to change their thinking. This instance is a classic example of how the different ministry gifts should in fact relate to each other. Not as “senior” gifts lording it over “junior” gifts (because there is actually no such thing), but rather all submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Don’t misunderstand me; honour is given to whom honour is due. And those who are younger in ministry need to listen the lessons learnt from those who have been in ministry for a long time. It is not scriptural however, for a “church government” to be put in place, where the apostle rules over the prophet, who in turn rules over the pastor and teacher, etc. The apostle Paul understood very clearly the concept that there is no seniority among ministry gifts, and he reinforced that view in the above quoted passage of scripture.
Michael E.B. Maher
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