The Purpose of Leadership Gifts Part 4

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Romans 1: 16

By Apostle Felix

The apostle Paul made this bold public declaration regarding his devotion to the gospel. The gospel was not one of the gospels that he preached. It was the only message that he preached. If Paul preached the gospel, why then was he so much persecuted and misunderstood, even by fellow believers. His message was unconventional. It went against the conventional message of the time.

The church started with the Jewish community that was grounded in Judaism. The church struggled to leave the Jewish traditions for the gospel. Instead, the church married the two, the traditions and the gospel, especially the church at Jerusalem.

For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Galatians 2: 12

The challenge the church faced was not only the persecution, but the infiltration of false brothers whose goal was to reintroduce traditions into the church. The responsibility of leadership gifts is to demystify such contentions in the church. Paul’s letters carried one purpose to explain the gospel in the light of the finished work of Christ. In so doing, he faced so much resistance from both, the pagan world and the false brothers.

I met with them privately and confidentially because false “brothers” had been secretly smuggled into the church meetings. They were sent to spy on the wonderful liberty and freedom that we have in Jesus the Anointed One. Their agenda was to bring us back into the legalistic bondage of religion. But you must know that we did not submit to their religious shackles not even for a moment, so that we might keep the gospel of grace unadulterated for you.
Galatians 2: 4, 5

It’s the responsibility of the five-fold ministry to defend the church from false brothers, that slither into the church to mislead believers. Deception presents itself as the real thing, but in essence is not. It may contain some fragments of truth while the rest is false. False brothers use what God has expired to feed believers with.