Those of us who are ministers of the Gospel have great responsibilities laid upon us. We are called to watch for souls as those that must give account. In view of this we have need of divine grace and help in order that we may be faithful in the discharge of these responsibilities. While it would be profitable to consider what duties belong to the ministerial calling, we thought that for the present it might not be out of place to remind ourselves of some of our needs as ministers of the Gospel and also of some of the dangers which we are to avoid.
First of all we need wisdom. It was for wisdom that Solomon asked when the Lord allowed him to choose whatever he would desire. “Give therefore Thy servant,” he said, “an understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and bad.” Solomon’s choice pleased the Lord. We, on our part, have need of wisdom, for wisdom is profitable to direct. We need the wisdom that is from above which is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” If we are to communicate the knowledge of divine things to others we need enlightenment in the knowledge of the truth.
We are to avoid, on the other hand, reliance on our own carnal wisdom. There is nothing more fitted to help us in this than learning that our own wisdom is foolishness. We should be learning this by precept and we will be learning it by experience also. The more we are made aware of our own ignorance the more we will realise our need of being made wise through the wisdom that is from above.
Second, we need grace and strength daily for the tasks and burdens that fall on us — and these are not few or light and are not likely to become fewer but more, nor lighter but heavier. The danger to be avoided here is doing the work of the Lord in our own strength. We are ready to be self-sufficient, relying upon our own strength to do tasks and bear burdens for which our own strength is insufficient.
The answer to this is dependence upon divine grace and strength and help. But what will make us dependent? It is this — a realisation such as the apostle had when he said, Who is sufficient for these things? What encouragement have we to be dependent? We have the invitation in God’s Word to come boldly to the throne of grace in order that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Again we are invited to cast our burden on the Lord and he shall sustain us. We cannot be too dependent on the Lord. The Apostle had to say, When I am weak, then am I strong. We are to learn more and more that our sufficiency is of God — that it is “not by might nor by power but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.”
Third, we need to grow in all the graces of the Spirit. The danger we are to avoid here is that of forgetting the needs of our own soul — “They made me the keeper of the vineyards but my own vineyard have I not kept.” This is a real danger — being so occupied looking after the souls of others that we neglect our own soul. Love to souls is a mark of the true pastor but we need to love our own soul first if we are to be of use to others. It is when we love our own soul that we will have real love to souls and be of use to others. Our own soul must be precious to us if the souls of others are to be precious to us. All the graces of the Spirit are to be cultivated. For this we need and must seek the blessing of the Holy Spirit so that these graces may be stirred up in us. Nothing will so tend to the cultivation of these graces as living fellowship and communion with God through the Lord Jesus Christ by the blessing of His Spirit. Through that communion we will put on the Lord Jesus Christ more and more and be changed into His likeness.
We would mention particularly our need of faith and hope and love. Faith leads us immediately to Christ who is the object of faith. Faith enables us to see the things that are unseen and eternal. Faith leads on to hope. For if we believe then all our expectation is in Christ. Through Christ we have hope of eternal life and are made heirs of everlasting glory. Faith and hope lead on to love. “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
I would mention also meekness and humility. These are to be largely cultivated in order to greater usefulness. Meekness is a wonderful grace To be delivered from our own spirit is a great thing. Ye know not what spirit ye are off, said the Saviour to His disciples. While we are to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, we are not to be contentious. So we need to put on meekness. “The servant of the
Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” (2 Tim. 2:24, 25). And we are to put on humility, that is, lowliness of heart and mind. We are by nature proud and self-seeking. We are ready to seek great things for ourselves. Baruch was told: “Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.” (Jer. 45:5). Even the disciples were found disputing which of them should be the greatest. But you may say, surely it is right to seek that the Lord would abundantly bless our labours and make us eminent in His service. It is true that it is right to seek the Lord’s abundant blessing on our labours — but not for our own glory. Whom the Lord is to use mightily in His service, He will first make them very low in their own eyes. And the more He will truly use us, the lower we will become in our own eyes and say, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake.” (Psalm 115:1).
We are not to dictate to the Lord how He is to use us in His service. We have our own ideas of what usefulness is in His service. But our thoughts in this may be very far from His thoughts. Those who had served Christ most in this world had to say at last, “Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and clothed Thee? Or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee?” (Matt. 25:37-39). They thought that they had done nothing for Him, nor rendered any service worthy of reward, yet it was these who were rewarded. We are to be like the angels who rejoice in doing God’s will whatever the task which is allotted to them. Think, for instance, of an angel sent to earth to bring a teardrop from the eye of a penitent sinner to heaven beginning to complain that it was too small a task for him. How rebuked he would be on his entry to heaven when, on sight of the tear, all the sons of God sang for joy — “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” — and when he discovered that the tear was to be preserved in God’s bottle forever. But no, the angels do not complain, but delight in the very least service. What we are ready to count as little tasks will have great rewards in heaven.
Another outstanding grace is holiness. “As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15, 16). “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord,” the
Apostle exhorts the Hebrews. If these exhortations are applicable to the ordinary Christian, how much more to ministers of the Gospel. As Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne has said: “A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.”
Last of all I would mention our great need of devotedness to Christ and to His service. We are not to be Sabbath day ministers but ministers every day of the week. We must endeavour to fulfil our ministry in such a way that at the end of the day we will receive our Master’s “Well done, good and faithful servant.” If it is said to believers, Ye are not your own, how much more so is it true of those called to the ministry of the Gospel. We must expect to meet with opposition from men and from devils in fulfilling our calling. We are to remember that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,” as Paul tells the Ephesians. At the same time we are to remember that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,” as he told the Corinthians. We must therefore take unto us the whole armour of God. Prayer is a powerful weapon against the kingdom of darkness and so is the sword of the Spirit. We are not to return reviling for reviling — and if we are true ministers of Christ we will not escape reviling (see Matthew 10:25) — but we are to follow the example of Christ “who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.” (1 Peter 2:23). Though we were assured that bonds and afflictions awaited us in the service of Christ, may we be so devoted to that service as to say with the Apostle Paul: “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24).