I. Consider what is really meant by speaking of human work as a "ministry of God." The conception of a ministry of God underlies our whole system of thought and expression, cropping out again and again in forms, the meaning of which is half forgotten. But seldom, perhaps, we realise that it is, after all, the only conception which makes it worth while to act or to live. The belief that man's action is a ministry of God is the one to which we must come at last, because the only one which explains all the facts and answers all the needs of our complex life.
II. The advent of Christ in great humility is, indeed, the charter of God's infinite love; but it is also the charter of man's inalienable dignity. Think how the first great mystery of the Incarnation shows us the almost inconceivable truth that in the regeneration of mankind to spiritual life even God's almighty power needed the co-operation of humanity. Think how the revelation of the Son of man at every point showed that the working of the human will with the Divine was of the essence of the actual work of salvation. From the day of Pentecost to the present time is it not through human agency that He is pleased to work? The very call to propagate His gospel implies the truth that we can be that we must be ministers of Christ. Mere ministers, I know, bound simply to do His will and leave the issues to Him; but still truly His ministers, each with a real work to do, which by him only is to be done.
III. "Stewards of the mysteries of God." This is a title of dignity, not of humility. We have to make use of, in some sense to sway, mysterious powers of God. "It is required of stewards that a man be found faithful." It is to be faithful in perfect trustfulness, faithful in unswerving obedience, faithful in unselfish devotion, faithful in unsullied truth. God grant that we be found so faithful in the great day.
Bishop Barry, Christian World Pulpit,vol. ix., p. 49.
I. What is the meaning of the word "mystery" in the New Testament? It is used to describe not a fancy, not a contradiction, not an impossibility, but always a truth, yet a truth which has been or which is more or less hidden. A mystery is a truth, a fact. The word is never applied to anything else or less; never to a fancy, never to an impossibility, never to a recognised contradiction, never to any shadowy sort of unreality. But it is a partially hidden fact or truth. Truths are of two kinds, both of them truths, and, as such, equally certain; but they differ in that they are differently apprehended by us. There are some truths on which the mind's eye rests directly, just as the bodily eye rests on the sun in a cloudless sky; and there are other truths of the reality of which the mind is assured by seeing something else which satisfies it that they are there, just as the bodily eye sees the strong ray which pours forth in a stream of brilliancy from behind the cloud and reports to the understanding that if only the cloud were to be removed the sun would itself be seen. Now, mysteries in religion, as we commonly use the word, are of this description; we see enough to know that there is more which we do not see, and while in this state of existence we shall not directly see, we see the ray which implies the sun behind the cloud. And thus to look upon the apparent truth, which certainly implies truth that is not apparent, is to be in the presence of mystery.
II. Science does not exorcise mystery out of nature; it only removes its frontier, in most cases, a step farther back. Those who know most of nature are most impressed, not by the facts which they can explain and reason on, but by the facts which they cannot explain and which they know to lie beyond the range of explanation. And the mysterious creed of Christendom corresponds with nature. After all, we may dislike and resent mystery in our lower and captious, as distinct from better and thoughtful moods; but we know on reflection that it is the inevitable robe of a real revelation of the Infinite Being, and that if the great truths and ordinances of Christianity shade off as they do into regions where we cannot hope to follow them, this is only what was to be expected if Christianity is what it claims to be.
H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit,No. 1152.
I. What were the distinctive functions of the Christian ministry? To gain a satisfactory answer to this question we must in all honesty consult the New Testament itself as to the primitive idea of the ministry and the terms used to describe its office, and not allow ourselves to be entangled in the technical phraseology which a later theology, not always adhering to the primitive idea, but overlaying it by false analogies, and subsequently by ambitious assumptions of lordship over God's heritage, introduced. Approaching the question, then, in the first instance from the negative side, we may ascertain that the books of the New Testament distinctly abstain from employing for the new ministry of the Christian Church the language which had been used to describe the ministers of religion of the Mosaic system. Christian ministers are never in the New Testament called priests (ἱερεῖς) that is, if we are to adopt the definition given by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "persons taken from among men, ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that they may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins." The term ἱερεῖς, or sacrificial offerer, is repeatedly employed of the heathen priests and of the Jewish priests, but never of Christian officers. Wherever the idea of priesthood in its sense of ἱεράτεια is recognised as having place in the Christian Church, it is applied to all Christian people and not to the authorised officers specially. Jesus Christ has made them all kings and priests to God and His Father. All form a spiritual priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ these spiritual sacrifices are prayers, praises, thanksgivings, or on another side they are "ourselves, our souls and bodies," the rational not material offering, and the whole congregation of Christian people have a full right, as well as a bounden duty, to offer these.
II. The determination of the negative side of the Scriptural doctrine of the ministry enables us to proceed with advantage to the positive side. And there we find ourselves almost embarrassed by the multitude of terms which are used as descriptive of ministerial functions. They who are in a position of authority over their brethren are called messengers, ambassadors, shepherds, teachers, preachers of the word, rulers, overseers, ministers, stewards. Each term represents some varying aspect of the Christian officers, and suggests to them corresponding duties. The central idea of the Christian ministry appears to be the proclamation of the word of the gospel with all its vivifying and manifold applications to the intellects and hearts and consciences of men rather than an administration of an external ceremonial and ritual. It is a high spiritual and moral mission from Christ with which the ordained officers of the Church are charged. To keep alive the belief of one supreme God, the Maker and Upholder and Final Cause of the universe, amidst the sensualism and materialism of a complex civilisation, to evoke the sentiments of love and trust and worship towards Him, to hold up Jesus Christ His only Son as the fullest revelation in human form of the Almighty Father, to unfold the mysteries of His incarnation, the abiding results of His life and ministry and passion and resurrection, to bid men imitate, so far as in their frailty they can, the matchless ideal of goodness and justice and purity and charity exhibited in Him, to proclaim the brotherhood of all men in Him the world's Redeemer, to point men to Him as the Deliverer from sin and the Consoler of suffering, to help their brethren to live the Christian life by example and precept and doctrine, this is the glorious function of the Christian ministry.
W. Ince, Oxford and Cambridge Journal,Jan. 31st, 1878.
References: 1 Corinthians 4:1. J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House,2nd series, vol. i., p 238; G. Moberly, Plain Sermons at Brighstone,p. 123; A. Barry, Christian World Pulpit,vol. ix., p. 49; H. P. Liddon, Ibid.,vol. xxvi., p. 385; Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 150. 1 Corinthians 4:1; 1 Corinthians 4:2. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 80; vol. v., pp. 271, 272; PlainSermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. i., p. 303. 1 Corinthians 4:1-6. F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Corinthians,p. 54. 1 Corinthians 4:2. C. Garrett, Loving Counsels,p. 1.