Ephesians 6:20

Ephesians 6:20

I. The ministers of Christ are more or less ambassadors in bonds; that is to say, they have not merely to contend with difficulties, but the difficulties they contend with are not fair ones. They do not get an equal hearing. But whatever difficulties from without beset the ambassador of Christ, he knows full well that the greatest of his difficulties are within: that his own tongue falters when it should speak plainly; that his own standard of holiness varies even in his thoughts, much more in practice; that long habits of self-indulgence paralyse him when he would exhort others to self-denial; that faults of temper mar his work and lose him the confidence of others; that in these and many other ways he loads himself with difficulty, rivets his own chains. These difficulties, he feels, are unfair ones in the way of his Master's cause. He is an ambassador in bonds.

II. The work, we know, changes as we advance in life. Like ambassadors, we are sent to different courts, recalled from one, despatched to another. But are we not all without exception, from the first years of sense and intelligence, distinctly and without a metaphor, sent out as ambassadors of Christ in the midst of an adverse world? The difficulties are great; the difficulties are such as may even rouse indignation in us. But there is risk in all noble attempts. The difficulty may be just overcome, the bar be only just surmounted; but that is as good for our purpose as though walls fell down before us, or as if we floated proudly into harbour with a hundred fathoms of blue water underneath the keel. Though in bonds, His ambassadors you are. Speak, then, in your Master's name; remember that the word of God is not bound.

Archbishop Benson, Boy Life,p. 236.

Reference: W. J. Woods, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xix., p. 402.