It is a ministry of necessity that Christ calls for, that the world needs, that a revived Church supplies today. We need not ministers that may or that will, but ministers that must preach the gospel. We need members not that may or that will, but that must live the gospel.
I. The work. They preach the gospel. (1) Without opening his lips to preach, or putting his hand to missionary work, every one who bears Christ's name either helps or hinders the gospel by his spirit and his life. Thousands of opportunities are thrown away through thoughtlessness and a self-pleasing, worldly habit of mind. (2) Another department of ministry is word and work directly contributed to the kingdom of Christ. The methods and opportunities are manifold and various as the characters and circumstances of Christians. "She hath done what she could," is the standard of measurement.
II. The motive. It is worthy of remark that the Apostle confesses frankly that he was kept at his work as a slave is by the sound of the whip behind him. Look at some of the particular forces that press a human soul to diligence in the work of the Lord. (1) The love of Christ constraining it; (2) the new appetite of the new creature; (3) the need of a sinning, suffering world. The life that is placed under the play of these three kindred powers will be an active life. These three may well stir the stiffest out of all his fastenings to the earth, and send him off, like flaming fire or stormy winds, on errands of mercy at God's command and for man's good.
W. Arnot, The Anchor of the Soul,p. 182.
References: 1 Corinthians 9:17. F. D. Maurice, Sermons,vol. vi., p. 207. 1 Corinthians 9:22. E. Jenkins, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxiii., p. 280. 1 Corinthians 9:24. J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons,p. 81; F. W. Farrar, In the Days of thy Youth,p. 275; H. E. Manning, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. i., p. 145; T. Kelly, Pulpit Trees,p. 283.