EXTRACTS
Let us but see the responsibility of the minister of God, and we cannot fail to see that any remissness in him must entail, or give occasion for, greater evil in the people to whom he is called to minister. A minister of God is one appointed by God to impart His mind, by a gift specially conferred on him by the Holy Spirit. It is distinctly given and knowingly possessed, but capable of being cultivated and increased by study of the word and prayer. It is not the line of the gift we are considering here, but the simple fact that one is endowed with Christ’s gift by the Holy Spirit, and hence takes his place among God’s people as His minister. To a true conscience, no appointment could be more solemn or responsible; but when we see the effect one’s faithfulness, or the reverse, has on the people of God, one may well tremble, if not supported by the cheering assurance that our competence is of God. The gifts have been given for the perfecting of the saints; and hence if the gifted one, the one called to be God’s minister, in anywise misrepresents God in teaching or preaching, he necessarily damages and hinders saints. They are straitened and checked by him, and he has not approved himself as the minister of God. His conduct and course should be of such a character that he could say that they were without excuse as far as he ministerially was concerned. Is it not plain that if God’s minister does anything in word or deed to contravene the mind of God, of which he is the minister, he must therein hinder the saints? Does he not indicate in himself the real measure of the power of the truth of which he is the minister? If the minister can allow this or that of the world in his surroundings, it is vain for him to expect that the saints will accept the truth he ministers as able to effect more, or that really there is more in it; for it is remarkable how defective walk in a minister will lead to qualification of the truth in its very enunciation; and hence there is not a rightly dividing the word of truth.
Nothing has tended to lower the standard of Christianity so much as the little practical effect that the truth has had on the ministers of it. Nothing does the awakened conscience more eagerly look for, or more intently examine, than the effect of the truth on the one who ministers it. It is remarkable how everything a minister of God does will be criticised, and how conscience will be either convicted by his conduct or emboldened to do what it might otherwise fear to do.
Who could read the credentials of a minister of God in 2 Corinthians 4 and not fear, while he accepted and assumed the duty of such a highly privileged, and at the same time self-denying calling? Or who, while humbly bowing to Christ’s favour in putting him into the ministry, does not feel the obligation which rests on him, and the importance of the word to Timothy?
“Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them”; (though working at a trade, as he did—see 2 Thessalonians 3) “that thy profiting may appear to all ... for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee”.
J. B. Stoney (Vol. 9, pp.120–122)
Observe, they are exhorted with purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. A distracted heart is the bane of a Christian. When my heart is filled with Christ, I have no heart or eye for the trash of the world. If Christ is dwelling in your heart by faith, it will not be the question, What harm is there in this or that? rather, Am I doing this for Christ? Can Christ go along with me in this? If you are in communion with Him, you will readily detect what is not of Him. Do not let the world come in, and distract your thoughts. I speak especially to you young ones; we, who are older, have had more experience of what the world is, we know more what it is worth, but it all lies shining before you, endeavouring to attract you. What else does it fill its shop windows for? Its smiles are all deceitful, still it is smiling upon you. It makes many promises it cannot fulfil—still it promises. The fact is, your hearts are too big for the world, it cannot fill them; they are too little for Christ, for He fills heaven; yet will He fill you to overflowing.
J. N. Darby (‘Collected Writings’ Vol. 34, p.396)
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