Previously:  I ❤ Translators ... Saints ... Weirdos ,,, Saints ꓤ Us

Ephesians chapter 4 verse 7:
“But grace was given
to each one of us
according to the measure of Christ's gift….
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

12 to equip the saints
for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ,
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

14 so that we may no longer be
children,
tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,
by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love,
we are to grow up
in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,
when each part is working properly,
makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
English Standard Version.  Check other translations.

 Previously we decoded “saints”: Saints are us! So what does, “to equip the saints” mean? There are 63 English translations for Ephesians 4:12 now at BibleGateway.com.  I count four ways they translate “equip”, with four pictures these translations bring to my malleable mind:

• “to equip” or “for equipping” the saints. Is there a big box store selling Bibles and knee pads?
  
• “to prepare” or “for training” the saints. On the hill, do we find The Saints Academy?
• “for the repairing” of the saints. Is there a warranty on a saint? Is there a service center? 
• “for perfecting” the saints, to give the saints “all things necessary”. Whoa, perfecting?

Recall that “saints” are part of a word family, the hagios clan. There are 233 New Testament verses featuring members of that family: Holy Spirit, holy city, holy man, holy angels, holy child, holy name, holy prophets, holy covenant, holy writings, holy kiss, and more. Though numerous, these contexts all consistently focus on the notion of the “holy”. "Holy" describes something or someone dedicated to God, or something or someone that God declared to be set apart for him. Thus God has declared us holy; not by our merit, but by Christ's. God had to tell Moses he was standing on holy ground. I don't mind when someone treats me like dirt. Through Christ you and I are holy dirt.

By contrast, the New Testament word family for “equip” consists of just this one verse, Ephesians 4:12. The source word, katartismon, has no brothers or sisters. But katartismon has cousins: the katartizo family and katartisis family.  These verses give contexts for translating the relatives of “equip”.

Translation results among the relatives of “equip”:

• prepare • bring forth  • mend, repair, or prepare (fishing nets)
• finish (work) • prepare (for destruction!)
• unite (in same frame of mind) • mature
• restore (someone benched for wrongdoing)
• supply, complete (what is lacking)
• prepare, provide (a body) • create (the universe!)

Ahha! “Repairing” the saints probably came from James and John mending their nets. Peeking outside the New Testament (according to Thayer, Kittel, & BDAG), other Greek writings of the time add perspectives for katartismon: setting bones; furnishing a house; arming soldiers; artistry; competency; professionalism. Perhaps Paul saw this wide range of interpretation. He goes on to identify what happens when we successfully equip:

• An outcome of equipping: We saints do the work of service. (Two footnotes: (1) Some translations say “work of ministry”. Most people I know view “ministry” as a religious profession or a government job. The source word here, diakonias, does cover the profession of preaching (Acts 6:4). Yet diakonias also refers to general service: to giving supplies, finances, or help to those in need (2 Corinthians chapter 9). (2) Some translations add a comma after "saints" in verse 12, making ministry a function of the evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Omitting the comma as other translations do makes ministry a function of all the saints. The source texts have no punctuation at all in this whole passage. )
  
• An outcome of equipping: We strengthen the community of believers, that is, the body of Christ.
  
• An outcome of equipping: We grow in trusting God and in what we know about God.
  
• Outcome: We mature, such that people notice we resemble Christ.
• Outcome: We are no longer babies, suckers for a scam. (The Ephesians had a serious scam infestation.)
• Outcome: We speak the truth—in love.
• Outcome: Again, we have a flattering family resemblance to the son of God.
  
• Outcome: As individuals we give and receive personal growth and love.
• Outcome: As an assembly we grow in holiness and perhaps in numbers.

When we have these nine or so virtues, then congratulations! We will be equipped saints! We will be prepared, repaired, and perfected saints. These verses don’t completely reveal a process or a program. For that, what we have here is people. Just people, not programs. The first-century churches had apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors/shepherds, and teachers. These people were saints and they served saints. All the saints served God, one another, and the community. Ha. If these saints, even the apostles, were 100% perfect, then the New Testament would be much shorter! Their mediocrity or occasional slips are a plus for us! While the apostles and company had missionary and first-responder roles in equipping the saints, let us not forget verse 7: “to each one is given a gift”. Each saint has a role in the growth of saints.

If we want how-to lessons on how to serve, how to increase in faith and knowledge, how to mature, how to speak truth in love, and more, we have records of how these saints did it: The New Testament.

Equipping the Saints

It was possible to go from zero to hero for one fellow, but his shepherd was Jesus. Ditto for this guy. Skill with your saintly vehicle benefits from coaching from other saints. The Bible records that missionary saints like Paul and Barnabas received help from one another and from the other saints:  encouragement, money, hospitality, companionship, even correction.

How ought the church do equipping? Is there a process, action plan, curriculum, catechism, program, or teacher’s guide? I assert that direction for equipping the saints is hidden in plain sight. It’s the Bible. Right: Some assembly required.

Do you find the Bible puzzling? Enlist a holy hitchhiker like this guy did. Tip: The Bible is long. Parts are for you now, parts are for other situations. Starting in Genesis is ok. Exodus has drama and directives. Then jump way forward and read Luke several times.  Luke’s sequel, Acts, made me a Christian.

Leaning on holy people is essential. Pondering God's holiness helps. We also cannot neglect the prompting of God’s Holy Spirit. Just as Moses walked unknowingly on holy ground, just as Jesus walked and talked with two people without their immediate recognition, the Holy Spirit's direction is present even if we don’t recognize it. The higher view of GPS (God’s Powerful Spirit) will become preferred to following hunches and feelings, you know, like babies on the stormy ocean.

One aspect of equipping is learning in doing. You’ll succeed at some attempts but mess up so much. Other saints can help you get up and stumble on. 

I enjoy fresh saints and canned saints. By canned saints I mean written or spoken advice I store for times of need and for continuing education.

Another key concept is that saints differ in gifts.  That’s stated in Ephesians chapter 4. Check also Romans 12 and the more controversial 1 Corinthians 12. How do you discover spiritual gifts? Consider my experience in an older article, Which Muppet are You? Another Biblical approach to discovering and developing your spiritual gift is in Kevin McConaghy’s super-duper list, The “One Anothers” of Scripture. A book by Gene A. Getz, Building Up One Another, comments on these equipping nuggets. Not enough? I was privileged to hear one of the last sermons of Ray Stedman, so I claim him as one of my equippers. He wrote a book, Body Life, freely available here. Body Life documents the equipping and growth of Peninsula Bible Church in a very hostile environment.

Apostle Paul gives the following encouragement to his protégé Timothy and to us:

“Keep using the gift God gave you …
let it grow, as a small flame grows into a fire.
God did not give us a spirit that makes us afraid
but a spirit of power and love and self-control.”
(2 Timothy chapter 1)

As previously demonstrated, start with an online Bible that contains the word “saints”. A majority of them do! Search for “saints”. You should find around 60 verses in the New Testament. Then comes journalist work.  Where are the saints? What are they doing? How did they become saints? Who are these saints? 
 
The conclusions: When Luke, Peter, and especially Paul were writing, saints were definitely in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Colossae, Philippi, and Jerusalem—apparently everywhere. The saints also were in trouble, they were in jail, they needed money, and they needed prayer. They needed to keep out of the wild lives they previously had lived. They got the titles “saints” and “holy people” (hagios in Greek) not by being valedictorians, not by being exceptionally good, but by God calling them.

So it is I conclude that saints are the people usually known as Christians.

Saints are not necessarily super-Christians. Saints do not necessarily wear shiny Frisbee™ hats. Saints are not necessarily dead or martyrs. Saints don't necessarily walk on water, though I have seen that.

Contemporary saints are us. We Christians are saints.

This has terrifying implications for my life and yours.  I want to address those at another time, but it suffices to again cite an encouragement from Peter in his first letter:

As obedient children, do not be conformed
to the passions of your former ignorance, but as
he who called you is holy [hagion],
you also be holy [hagioi] in all your conduct.
...
But you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation [hagios ethnos],
a people for his own possession,
that you may proclaim
the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God's people.
Once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.

Jesus prayed sometimes alone and sometimes with his team. In the New Testament, normal growth into actual holy lives requires that mixture of time with God and time interacting with believers. Moreover, a repeated idea in the New Testament is that Christians are a community of specialists: people with different gifts helping one another live and grow, quite as various body organs cooperate.  Of the several NT chapters dealing with body life, Ephesians chapter 4 is what I have been studying recently: “…And he [Christ] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints [that’s us] for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, … so when each part is working properly, the body grows as it builds itself up in love.”

Before continuing how equipping can work, I have name-calling to finish.  We call ourselves Christians. That term shows up only three times in the Bible! First is Acts 11:26: “in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” Check out the “almost Christian” in Acts 26, and the suffering Christians in 1 Peter 4.
 
There are many more Biblical words for Christians.  “More-Biblical” matters to some people when it’s convenient. We now know “saints” is one term for Christian, and it is used 60 times. Did you spot “disciple” above? Disciple translates a common Greek word mathētēs, meaning dedicated student or avid follower, a devotee, more than a fan. There were disciples of John the Baptist. There were disciples of the Pharisees. Outside the Bible you could find disciples of the Stoics—I have been accused of being one. You could cheerlead for the Epicureans. I count a whopping 233 Bible references to disciples of Christ.
 
I bet you can think of yet more Bible words that can substitute for “Christian”.  Here’s what comes to my mind. Ready?
 
"Believer" (pisteuontes) occurs in the sense of “Christian” at least 14 times in the New Testament, for example, Acts 5:14: "And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women". Some believers were Pharisees, a practice that continues today.
 
"Brothers" of course can refer to siblings or best friends. English New Testaments use "Brothers" (adelphos) around 124 times for Christians. Some translations use "brothers and sisters".

"The Church" (ekklēsia in various forms) is strongly associated with a group of Christians or their meeting place. Church appears in this sense around 106 times in the New Testament. Ekklēsia is used also for the Hebrews journeying to the promised land. It is used outside the Bible as a term for any assembly, any group of people, or a place where a group meets. In Acts 19:32, ekklēsia is not translated "church", for it is used of a riotous mob of pagans. Youth groups, pre-schoolers, if the shoe fits…. Preachers sometimes observe that ekklēsia breaks down to base words meaning “out” and “called”. Scholars caution that after 1,400 years of use even before Christ, Greek-speaking people cared about root words just like we care that the English word “humor” derives from “bodily fluid”. Interestingly, the choice of the English word "church" for an assembly of Christians involved some politics. For the Bible that eventually bore his name, King James specified:

“3. The Old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept, viz. the word Church
not to be translated Congregation &c.”

This choice appeased some who wanted King James and Anglican leaders to remain owners of church real estate, authorities over church people, and defenders of the faith.

The Bible has several more words for “Christians”.

• Are you among "Followers of The Way"?
  
• Are you one of the "Friends"?
• Oh my, are you among the "Nazarenes"?
• We are voting this year. Are you among "The Elect"? Eklektos references Christians 19 times.
• Are you “beloved”? In some translations it comes out as merely “friends”. This term (Greek source agapētoi) is used sometimes for specific individuals. It is used in plural about 29 times for Christians as a group. John particularly likes to call his readers “beloved”. In the south-central US pronounce this as one syllable "bluhvd" or two syllables "all-yall".
  
• Some metaphors for Christians include “children of God” (around 16 times),.
  
• “Servants of God” (around 10 times) “servants of Christ” (around 4 times), “coworkers” or "fellow workers" (not to be confused with “cow-orkers”) (around 13 times) also identify Christians.
  
• “Sheep” tends to refer to people in general, but is sometimes used of Christians only. Ditto for "lambs".
• Once we are called “clay pots”, emphasizing our fragile service. I’ve resolved to collect more such metaphors for us. They're encouraging and humbling. The Hebrew Bible—especially the Psalms—has lots of word pictures of God’s people.
  
• 1 Peter 2:9-11 lavishes several descriptions on God's people. It is worth repeating:

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, so that you may declare the glorious deeds of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul."

After all that name-calling, I feel better wearing the label, “saint”.