Ephesians 4:12

Ephesians 4:12

I. The work of the ministry is a work for all believers, and a work for none but believers. The command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature is a command given to all the disciples of Jesus Christ, and the exhortation to teach and admonish one another is intended for all Christian people everywhere. If a Church choose, with a view to order and edification, to select one of its brethren to be its president and, in some especial manner, its pastor and its teacher, that does not by any means debar other brethren from engaging, and engaging largely, in this work of the ministry.

II. Our life as Christian workers is a life of work. There has been such a development of Christian agency and work, and of the various operations of a moral and religious sort in which Christian ministers are expected to take part, and almost must take part; and a pastor, if faithful and up to his work, must be full of work. It is a life of work, "the workof the ministry."

III. "The work of the ministry."That is to say, it is a work of service. We are servants in a twofold sense. We are the servants of Christ, and we are the servants of Christ's people. The former position, of course, is readily recognised; but let us not be so proud and so wilful as to refuse to recognise the latter. The Church does not exist for the ministry, but the ministry for the Church. The work of the ministry is suggestive of much toil and of much patient waiting. It is also a work of very solemn and awful responsibility. There is no other work which is weighted with such responsibility. But while we are deeply and solemnly impressed with the responsibility, do not let us be dismayed or run away from the work, but rather let us ask God to give us more diligence and faithfulness and courage, that, like Paul, we may be able to witness that we are free from the blood of all men. It is very pleasing to see the results of this spiritual labour and to see those to whom the word has been preached living, by God's grace, in the enjoyment of the light and peace of the truth of the Gospel. Disappointments there are, certainly, and bitter and terrible they are. There is, nevertheless, not a work in all this world which can compare with this in the greatness and permanence and glory of the reward.

H. Stowell Brown, Penny Pulpit,New Series, No. 761.

References: Ephesians 4:12. H. S. Brown, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 266; Fraser, Ibid.,vol. xxviii., p. 25.Ephesians 4:13. G. Butler, Sermons in Cheltenham College,p. 243; A. Stanton, Church of England Pulpit,vol. v., p. 65; C. Short, Ibid.,vol. xi., p. 305; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 308; Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 289.