Romans 1:1.
1. 1886 53.
It is important at all times to distinguish between that which is common to the whole family of God, and that which is the special relationship which any individual may hold to the family. It will be found that what we have in common is far more extensive than what any individual saint can possibly have as peculiar to himself. And this must be the case when we know that union with Christ is the portion of all that believe on Him, and that all the blessings flowing from this are not only the highest but also the common blessings of the church. Now we are very liable to fix our attention on that which distinguishes an individual member of the body of Christ, on account of some superadded gift from the ascended Jesus. We look on such an one as apart from the body, and on that account as removed far above our own sphere, so that we think him unable to sympathise with us, and ourselves unable to follow him. It is thus that we have insensibly been led to lower the value of apostolical example, and the tone of apostolical precept, little thinking that the change in the aspect of outward things could affect the essential distinction between the church and the world. In the case of the apostle Paul for example, we see so much strikingly singular, and the astonishing facts accompanying his conversion and ministry are of so extraordinary a character, that whilst we only contemplate him thus, we wonder but dare not imitate. And this is as it should be. For as an apostle, Paul has had none to follow him. In this his special relation to the church as the depositary by visions and revelations of the counsels of God and of the mind of Christ, and the communicator by preaching and writing of those things in which the Lord had appeared unto him, he stands singular and aloof from the body.
But there is another character in which he is presented to us, and that is as the servant of Jesus Christ, and when he mentions this in connection with his apostleship, he gives the title of servant precedence over that of apostle (Rom. 1:1). Now the servant was that character which he could only sustain by virtue of being not his own but bought with a price — it was a redemption character — one which belonged to the whole redeemed family as well as himself, and therefore essential not only to salvation but to glory. Truly as an apostle too he was redeemed, and sent forth as the apostle of that redemption, the power of which he knew in his own soul. But neither salvation, life, nor glory, was essential to apostleship, but they were to service. Apostleship was a gift over and above that which was common to all, and placed an individual in a distinct relation to others, but not so as to make the common and essential blessings of less value, but rather to enhance them. For although Paul might have been God's accredited organ of communication of all mysteries to the church, yet he himself would have lost his blessing and speciality of reward had he not used his apostleship as a servant.
And this is the Lord's own preventative against exaltation in any church office: if it be not used in service, the person loses his reward. "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." It is this which distinguishes authority exercised in the church from that which is exercised in the world. "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them, but it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your servant, even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." The world's officer has all the insignia of present power about him, and demands to be acknowledged, and is to be acknowledged, as having power — the source of his authority is visible, and the exercise of it manifest to the eye. On the other hand the source of authority in the church is invisible; it is from above, from the ascended Jesus, and its exercise is in real spiritual control and guidance; and the great object is that the person who is the channel by which it is exercised, should so lose his prominence, that Jesus and not the man himself should be exalted. And thus it is exercised in service to Him.
It was so in the case of the Lord Jesus Himself — "He took on Him the form of a servant." And although His own proper and native dignity as the eternal Son was constantly shining forth, even whilst He was sustaining the character He had assumed; yet He strictly maintained it, and sought to hide Himself, that the glory of Him who had sent Him might appear. He was "among them as one who served" — serving them for His sake Who had sent Him. We have the beautiful portrait of the Lord as the servant thus given to us. "Behold My Servant, Whom I uphold, Mine Elect in Whom My soul delighteth: I have put My Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street — a bruised reed shall He not break and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for His law." The way in which this is applied by the Holy Spirit to the Lord Jesus in Matt. 12, shows the parts of the servant character, which are truly valuable and of great price in the sight of God. He had restored the withered hand — "then the Pharisees went and held a counsel against Him — how they might destroy Him;" but when Jesus knew it, He withdrew Himself from thence — "He did not cry, nor lift, up, nor cause His voice to be heard" against them; nothing escaped Him of what man would term honest indignation, no railing word against their malice, "He did not strive." The patient Servant was upheld by the arm of Him Whose servant He was; and the Spirit which was upon Him, was another spirit from that of man, and led Him while serving others in blessing to show forth that He served not Himself, but that as the Servant He was only His Who sent Him, and reproach and malice did not make Him fail or discourage Him, because His object was only to do the work of Him that sent Him. But we follow Him a step farther in this patience of service: "as He withdrew great multitudes followed Him and He healed them all; and charged them that they should not make Him known, that it might be fulfilled," etc. etc. As the Servant He was not discouraged by opposition, neither was He elated by that which He had wrought; He tried to hide Himself that God might be glorified; and when He might have turned on the Pharisees with the multitudes He had healed, He would not allow any man to hear. His voice in the street, but charged them that they should not make Him known. Here is the real Servant, the One Who hides Himself, that He Whom He serves may appear — the One Who loses all self-interest in the interests of others.
Now it is especially in this character that Jesus, the perfectly instructed and wise Servant, holds Himself up to our imitation. "The disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord: it is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household? Fear them not therefore." But there are two spheres of service, and although the same principles guide in both, yet the circumstances are so very different, as to give a different character to the service. The world and the church are the two places of service. The ministry of the Lord was chiefly confined to the former; for He came as the Servant of Jehovah to Israel — "He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him." Here was active service, such as man could recognise, and in which He sought to hide Himself, that God might be glorified. It was attended too with present results, and had its value in measure appreciated by man. But if we look to our Lord's service in the church, we find it characteristically presented in one beautiful incident, leading Him to take a lower place than ever He had taken in His service in and to the world. "When Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end; — Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God and went to God; He riseth from supper and laid aside His garments, and took a towel and girded Himself: after that He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. So after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call Me Master and Lord, and ye say well: for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his master; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye, if ye do them."
It is in following out this example, that we trace the servant in the apostle Paul. The sphere of his service was the church, and although the perfect servant is only to be found in the above example, yet the details of service are more shown by the apostle than by the Lord Himself. But first let us notice the great principle of serving in the church: in the Lord it was the conscious possession of all things — had anything been lacking to Himself, He could not have served; but nothing could be added to Him to Whom the Father had given all things. Again those whom He served had no claim upon Him for service — "Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?" showed the service to be perfectly free. The apostle too, knowing the fulness of Jesus as his own, stood in the consciousness of one who possessed all things, and at the same time as one who knowing himself not his own, but bought with a price, could say, "though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself the servant of all." In another place, it is true, he says, "I am debtor both to Greeks and barbarians; both to the wise and the unwise." Man could claim nothing of him, but as the Lord's servant, he felt all had a claim on him. Blessed service indeed which is based on liberty, and whereinsoever exercised is always to the Lord.
On the first calling of the apostle Paul, as a chosen vessel to bear the name of the Lord before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel, he was to be shown how great things he had to suffer for the name-sake of Jesus. The disciple was not to be above his Master, but everyone who is perfect is to be as his Master. And the more perfect the servant, so much more would there be conformity in humiliation, in weariness, and in every thing which was sorrowful to man as man, to the Master Himself. It is thus that the Master connects service with every thing contrary to that which the flesh would crave. He sat weary on the well, there was nothing around Him to relieve Him, but it was relief to the weariness to serve — My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work. And so He taught. "He that loveth his life shall lose it: and he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man will serve Me, let him follow Me." Truly humbling to the Master to be denied the common refreshment which His own bounty had given to man — and so the disciple followed His steps, and if he was used of the Lord to dispense the living water, it was "in weariness and painfulness, in hunger and thirst." It is in contrast with those who were getting into ministerial ease and honour (1 Cor. 4:1, 9), that he brings in his own personal sufferings, as marking the character of real service. So again we find after he has described the apostasy in its features of self-love and self-indulgence, he silently contrasts his own conduct as properly exhibiting the servant of the Lord. "But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured; but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Thus making his conduct a sample of that which would characterise faithfulness in any period throughout the dispensation. There might be many other general notices adduced as proving that service to the Lord must be in sorrow and suffering, and that the instructed servant would always be able to say, "that no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto."
But I would desire to notice a peculiar class of trials which do not so much outwardly appear, but which strikingly exhibit the servant of the Lord. They are marked by the apostle as "the afflictions of the gospel" — and while including outward trial, are by no means confined to it. It is as one having nearly arrived at the end of his course that the apostle mentions to Timothy — like-minded indeed with the apostle, but apparently failing in that endurance for the elect's sake which so marked Paul's service. "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God." It is probably "suffer evil with the gospel" — Jesus when personally present suffered evil — the gospel when preached drew out the same evil. — Paul the preacher, suffered for preaching it — and now he calls on Timothy to be a fellow-sufferer with the Lord, His gospel, and Himself. Many turned back and walked not with the Lord when they heard His hard sayings, and a grievous trial it was to the apostle to find all in Asia turned away from him, and himself imprisoned and unable to visit them. How likely then was the heart of the comparatively young soldier to faint, and to grow dispirited, not from the attacks of open enemies, but from the desertion, suspicion, and lukewarmness even of friends.
How assiduously did the apostle seek to give to Timothy confidence in the same power, even a resurrection-Lord, which had sustained and carried him through. The shame of supporting a cause abandoned by so many and with its prime mover in prison was very great. Hard indeed to bear the scorn of being embarked in that which to man's eye was a tottering cause, and nothing but the consciousness in the soul of the apostle, that God was not looking for any sufficiency in him, but supplying to him all-sufficiency in all things, could have given him such a bounding spring as to make him rise above all apparent failure and disappointment. The confusion and disorder at Corinth, the turning to another gospel at Galatia, the danger of apostasy among the Hebrews, were all sources of trial, unheeded, unknown, and incapable of being felt by man as man, but wearing the mind, so as to make him very consciously to know, what it was to hate his life in this world. One thing too which tended to lead the servant in conformity with his Master, was that he stood alone. Timothy was like-minded, yet he could hardly sympathise with the apostle, who saw before his eyes, that his departure would indeed be the occasion for grievous wolves to enter in. All appeared to be sustained by the energy of the Spirit in this chosen vessel, and whilst he is exhorting Timothy to stedfastness, the repeated charge, "thou therefore endure hardness," "watch thou in all things, endure afflictions," "be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might," shows that he hesitated to expect that ability of Timothy to endure which had so characterised his own service in the church. It was the full consciousness that he did not go to the warfare at his own charges, that the Master Whom he served was no austere Master, that sustained the soul of the apostle. He might summarily and authoritatively have settled every question, but this would not have been to have served others for the Lord's sake.
The relation in which the apostle stood to the Corinthians appears to me to be especially that of the servant in suffering, the servant being perfected according to his Master. It is not persecution or outward hardship, but the laying himself out in grace to kindle the grace which was in them. The first seven chapters of the second Epistle are, in my judgment, the experience of the apostle as the servant of the church. No fainting, no discouragement, no striving, no lifting up, no quenching the smoking flax, no breaking the bruised reed, but a willingness even to suffer his own reputation for faithfulness and power to be questioned, so that he might serve them in the way they needed to be served. The first Epistle to the Corinthians sufficiently informs us of the grievous disorder of the church — a disorder I believe which would shock any of our communions — which have indeed by their regulations secured order, but it is order arising from outward regulations and not that which the apostle sought as the remedy, that which arises from the power of inward life and grace. If I were asked what there was, which could induce the apostle to act towards the church of Corinth, as he did, instead of proceeding to extreme measures in punishing their delinquencies at once, I would say there were three things specially noticeable in his conduct, which most clearly mark that his object was not mere outward decency, but life in the Spirit.
First: — The apostle was able to reckon largely on the full supply of grace in Jesus for a case so extreme. He had known that grace in his own extremity — he lived on it himself. It was this alone which prevented his sinking under the pressure of "the care of all the churches." Jesus was risen and over all. His own confidence was what he pointed out to Timothy, when he said, as encouraging him against many difficulties, "Remember Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, raised from the dead according to my gospel." In utter insufficiency in himself to meet a case so desperate as that of the Corinthian church, except it were in immediate severity of judgment, Paul was enabled to reckon largely on the sufficiency which was in Christ Jesus — he knew no limit to the resources of His grace.
Secondly: — The apostle did not judge after the seeing of his eyes or the hearing of his ears, grievous as were the reports that had reached him touching their disorders — but he judged of them as they were in Christ, and not according to their actual circumstances. He reckoned that there was life in them, although it was almost smothered, and the wisdom was to strengthen the things that were ready to die. The first nine verses of the first chapter of the first Epistle are most remarkable in this light. Had he gone on the ground of evidence, he might well have doubted if they were christians at all. But the Lord had told him that he had much people in that city. They were "the seal of his apostleship," for his word had come to them in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. The name of Jesus had been confessed by them; and although the flesh and the world appeared almost to have overwhelmed them, and disputation to have taken the place of faith, yet he would not suffer Satan to make him set aside their confession, or to disown his own labour, because of their present appearances. He takes them on the ground of being in Christ, and before a single word of apprehension escapes him, he so grounds them in the faith, that subsequent rebuke should not have the effect of unsettling but of establishing.
But, thirdly, there was the personal bearing of the apostle himself towards this church. He might have come with the rod, and doubtless his immediate presence would have stopped many abuses, and silenced many a prating preacher. He was fully conscious of the power that he had "to revenge all disobedience," and "to use sharpness according to the power which the Lord had given him to edification and not to destruction." Now had his object been to establish his claim to authority, this would have been the readiest way. But he was fully conscious of his authority, and the question with him was to use it unto edification. To have produced acquiescence to his commandments by his immediate presence was not his object. His delight was to see obedience flowing from grace, as he saw in the Philippians, who not only "obeyed in his presence, but much more in his absence," and to witness order produced by inward life and not outward restrictions. This was the object of his first Epistle: he took the place of the patient servant, neither fainting nor being discouraged, and waited patiently to see its result. He had the rod at his command, but he did not strive, nor lift up. He said indeed, "Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come unto you; but I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will: and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up but the power, for the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. What will ye? shall I come to you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?"
2. 1886 73.
Now in the Second Epistle we find that the apostle's patience had been turned against himself by some, as if he was afraid to come and had boasted of an authority which he did not possess; yea, he is even held up to reproach as a vain and fickle man, whose word was not to be depended on. But this does not move him: he endures all things for the elect's sake, and preferred their restoration to the vindication of his own character; even as the perfect patient Servant, when He was reviled, reviled not again, but committed His cause to Him Who was near to justify Him. Nothing but the consciousness of being in the place of the servant, entirely forgetting himself, that he might serve others for the Lord's sake, could have carried him through circumstances so trying. Ingratitude from those to whom he had been a father, personal reproach heaped on him by those who were accredited as teachers in the church, whisperings as to his honesty and integrity, all these trials, so hard to man, moved him not from his purpose of being their servant, as the servant of the Lord unto blessing. The mind which was in Christ Jesus was in him; and it appears to me that the Second Epistle to the Corinthians is the exhibition of that mind in the spirit and conduct of the apostle. It holds a very singular place among the writings of the apostle: there were questions to be answered and error to be corrected in the First Epistle, but in this all the blessed truth is brought out incidentally as exhibiting the reason of his own conduct. We have the experience of man under law given us by the apostle in Romans 7. He speaks in the Galatians as one identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. He gives us his own estimate of all fleshly advantages in the Philippians. But here we have all the painful experience of the servant of the Lord in outward hardship and inward trial. But the spring of it all, the hidden spring of his unfailing energy in service, was the knowledge of, and communion with, the mind of Christ; which in result caused him always to triumph in Christ. With the exception of the eighth and ninth chapters, all this Epistle is of a personal character; in the first seven chapters he speaks both in the person of Timothy, as well as in his own person; in the last chapters he was compelled, although it were folly, to speak of himself. He who had taught to rejoice in tribulation now rejoices in it. He begins this Epistle as one who had triumphed — "blessed be God." All his trials in service had only served to lead him to know God, as he could not have known Him otherwise, "as the Father of mercies, and God of all consolation." It was in this school he acquired the ability to comfort others; so that the personal afflictions or personal comfort of the apostle worked unto the same end, even their profit, for he was their servant for Jesus' sake.
The manner in which the apostle met the charge of fickleness against himself, shows forth the dexterity of divine wisdom. Be it so — I am fickle, but He Whom I preach is not so; in Him is stability — in Him is yea — in Him is amen. The servant would exalt his Master, even apparently at his own expense. For there was no stability in the servant himself, except that which he had in common with them all, even that stability which God Himself hath given them, by establishing them in Christ. He draws them away from looking to him, by turning them to those blessings which they had in common with him as believers in Christ. He thus makes them, as it were, judges themselves, putting them in the place of exercising righteous judgment. Had he succeeded in most satisfactorily answering the charge, it would have done nothing to establish their souls. This was his object: as one who knew that when the soul itself is unestablished in grace, it can only judge after the seeing of the eye, or hearing of the ear. But when he had thus set them in blessed security, the common security of the church, and had shown to them that the privileges which they had in common with the apostle, were the highest that either he or they could have; then he could solemnly tell them, that it was no fickleness on his part that had prevented his carrying his intention into effect; but that to spare them he had not come to Corinth. Surely the servant of the Lord must not faint or be discouraged under misconception or misrepresentation: even evil report is a means of approving ourselves as ministers of Christ; even as deceivers, we are yet true. There is no self-seeking in the servant's place, but the using of every occasion to turn it to the Master's account.
He next gives the reason why he had written instead of personally coming to them; it was to prove his love for them and interest in them. He knew their value as saints. He estimated them as seeing them in Christ and not according to their actual standing, and disorderly walk: nothing but their recognition of their real standing would have been real reformation. His immediate presence might have produced that which was outward, but he sought to touch the inward spring. And here we find in the conduct of the servant that which would be judged blameworthy by those who merely looked on the outward appearance and sought not the mind of Christ. The servant knew the preciousness of the saints to the Lord, and knew also how much the glory of His name was implicated in their walk, and more than this his own energy depended on it; so that when he had before him the two services of preaching to the world or ministering to weak and disorderly saints, we find the servant of the Lord led into that which might even have been deemed, by those who judged not in the Spirit, to be idleness. "When I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went from thence to Macedonia." What a lesson are we taught here! The active diligent pains-taking servant, whom no hardship could move, no danger could hinder, has no heart or ability for the preaching of the gospel, because of his anxious care for distant disorderly saints. How did the apostle feel himself to be of the body! How little is this known in our days! Who among the servants of the Lord is tracing his own dispiritedness for the work to its right cause, — the divided state of the body of Christ?
Again, it must be repeated, he might have set all right by his own immediate presence at Corinth, he might have exposed all their errors and declared infallibly the truth of God; but this would not have ministered life to them, nor gladness and strength to his own soul. But how blessedly his ways in Christ resulted, he subsequently states. "I am filled with comfort, I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation. For when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears: nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you." It was this coming of Titus which made him so exult, and connects his triumphant language with his apparent failure in the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the second chapter. For immediately on having mentioned his going from Troas into Macedonia, he says, "Now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ." He is not here speaking of any success in preaching in Macedonia, nor indeed of preaching at all, but that the way of Christ in which he had walked was the way of triumph. It was the way of self-renunciation, the way "in which the flesh had no rest." To have power and yet not to exercise power, — to be able to vindicate most satisfactorily an aspersed character, and yet to endure the contradiction of sinners against oneself, here is no rest in the flesh — here is the mind and way of Christ — here is the path of glory and virtue leading to certain triumph, conscious triumph even here. Now whilst it is most fully allowed that this is applicable to the preaching of the gospel, and that in this to the faithful servant there is constant triumph, since the testimony always prospers in that whereunto God has sent it, whether they hear and whether they reject it, yet I do assuredly believe that the whole context shows the mind of the Spirit to be the triumph which always follows walking in Christ.
There are two ways of testimony unto Christ; the one is by preaching, which may be done through strife or vain glory, and this hinders not the blessing of God to souls, because Christ is to be magnified; but the other way is that of His living power manifested in service. And it is to this the apostle adverts, when he says, "and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place, for we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved and in them that perish: to the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life." The elect Servant of Jehovah was, in the eyes of man, one in whom there was no form nor comeliness; one in whom they saw no beauty that they should desire Him. Yet He was ever a sweet savour unto God. If man despised Him, it only proved the justice of God's judgment as to man; and where there was faith, there "wisdom was justified of her children." The apostles, and real servants of the Lord, were "the foolish, the weak, the base, the despised things of the world." Yet as such, they always triumphed even as their Master, to whom it was said as the despised of men, "therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong." And it is thus the apostle looks from himself to his Master. "For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him (with Him, margin), but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you." His very triumph in Christ was his own personal humiliation in the eyes of men; he knew that, just in proportion as Paul was hidden, Christ would be made to appear. And painful as the needed discipline was, he could say, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."
In speaking of the Corinthians themselves, as his best letter of recommendation, he is led to contrast the ministration of the New Testament with that of the Old, and their different glories. Moses as the servant of the one exhibited the glory of the Old or of the letter, in its repulsiveness and obscurity; but Paul as the servant of the other was to exhibit its attractive glory, not only in testimony but in service likewise. Each ministration had the effect of assimilating its servant to its own character. And whilst the apostle states it as the common portion of all to have communion with that glory (2 Cor. 3:18), he himself and his fellow-labourers through the knowledge of it were prevented from fainting. "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have obtained mercy, we faint not." There was indeed enough to make him faint: all human energies must have given way under the pressure; but the character of the ministry, "life and righteousness," and "we have obtained mercy," caused him not to faint. Official authority might have punished, but then the servant would have been lost sight of in the apostle; and although it put him in so low a place, yet he could thus minister that which their case required. How gracious indeed is it to know that, low and degraded as saints may be, the ministration of the New Testament can reach to them and raise them up! But then it must be by the manifestation of the truth, setting man aside to show that the only sufficiency is in God. The exercise even of apostolic authority might have tended to obscure the lustre of the glory of that grace; but when such a ministry was commended by the conduct of those who were themselves exhibiting the glory of it, it could only be the direct power of Satan that could cause it to be hidden. That the character of service is here intended to be brought out, is, I think, sufficiently clear from the connection in 2 Cor. 4:5, "for we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."
Now what follows is all characterising service, in its abasement of the flesh. God's glory must be put in an earthen vessel, that it may be manifested as His and not the vessel's which bears it. The chosen vessel must suffer for the name it bears. Is it the ministration of life? How shall it be manifested? By seeing death as to man stamped on him who ministers it. It was life in Jesus, as being only in Him, that they had to preach and minister; therefore it was with them, "always bearing about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, etc. It is most clear from the words, "so then death worketh in us, but life in you," that the apostle is here speaking of that which is death to man as man, — everything that would tend to exalt him in the estimation of others, the power of command arising from superior intellect, the influence of birth, the advantages of education — on all of them death was written. And the servant of the Lord had to know the deep trial of foregoing all these advantages, that life might work in others. What a practical comment was the experience of the apostle in service on the word of the Lord, "a man must hate his life in this world!" It was the deep entering in of the soul into the power of the resurrection, which made him practically acquainted with death as man. He had the same spirit of faith as He had Whom he served. Faith could say, "I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted. I said in mine haste, all men are liars." Yea, truly all men are liars — are vanity; and therefore it was faith in a resurrection-God which sustained the apostle in his daily dying. But whilst thus he was lifted above death, he could look at all his sufferings as being in service to the church, "for all things are for your sakes;" and therefore here was another ground of not fainting. The outer man might perish, but the inner man was renewed day by day by the power of unseen things.
The same leading thought runs through the fifth chapter and into the sixth, as is plainly stated: "giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God." The fifth chapter is connected with the preaching by the word "for we know." The expression, "we know," is dogmatic with the apostle for that knowledge which is peculiar to a christian, and seems generally to be applied to practical knowledge. It is the portion of the believer alone to be able to judge all things as from above. "We know that the law is spiritual" — this we could not know unless we were spiritual. "We know that, if our earthly tabernacle were dissolved, we have," etc. This we could not know unless our soul had entered into resurrection as its portion. It was therefore not a vague, but a very distinct, apprehension of the resurrection of the body, which made the apostle patient under all hardships, groaning from without and within in earnest desire of deliverance.
There was another thing also which entered into the question of service, and that was the solemn apprehension of the light in which every thing would be judged, when the veil was drawn aside and Christ should appear. His service all had respect to that day, and therefore was not to be judged of by human prudence, but by the Spirit which alone could know the terror of the Lord. He anticipated the judgment, and had been made manifest to God, and also he trusted to their consciences. This was the use in service which the apostle made of the solemn truth that all of us have to be manifested before the Bema of Christ. But, farther, the light of the resurrection-day had such a powerful effect on the soul of the apostle, that he would often appear to be acting extravagantly or inconsistently; but still he could say, "Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause; for the love of Christ constraineth us." He laboured as one who had already died, and therefore in a manner beyond the range of human thought. He knew no man after the flesh, and would not himself be manifested after the flesh. Every thing was new to him, and he laboured as it were in a new creation.
1886 89 Beyond all this there was another most powerful principle at work in the soul of the apostle, and that was the so linking himself with God in His service, that he was not discouraged amidst the greatest trials. "And all things are of God." It was God Who first reconciled him to Himself by Jesus Christ, and then gave to him the ministry of reconciliation. It was the ministry of reconciliation; and the minister of it was not to invest himself with the repulsiveness of God in judgment, but with the attractiveness of God in grace. He would put himself in the way of the patient grace of God, even according as God was exhibited in Christ. It was the incarnation which brought out all the bright effulgence of the divine character — "full of grace and truth." It was thus He exhibited Himself in the world; but the world knew Him not. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. But He is no longer exhibiting Himself personally in the world in this manner to the eyes of men. Man has rejected this manifestation of God, however he may try to hide from himself his shame (as the Jews did theirs of having killed the prophets by building their sepulchres), by celebrating the day of the incarnation. But God, though not personally thus present, is manifested in the same grace now; and where is He to be so seen? In the ministry of reconciliation — "and hath put in* us the ministry of reconciliation." It is in this ministry we see God yet in the world; not judging, not ordering it, but ministering to its wretchedness in the only way which would meet man's extreme necessity; that is, by the testimony to the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
[* themenos en emin is clearly answering to en en christo.]
Christ is now personally away; but on His behalf "we entreat, as though God did beseech by us." God had stretched out His hands all the day long by His Son, to a disobedient and gainsaying people; but after this was rejected, it was by the means of others on the ground of more marvellous grace. "We pray in Christ's stead be reconciled to God. For He hath made Him sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
But it was not only as in testimony to the grace of God, there was Jesus Himself in the living exhibition of it. If the testimony was to the abounding grace of God in the cross, there were the apostles as crucified men, the off-scouring of all things, giving power to the testimony by conformity to that humiliation of Jesus which they preached. This, I believe to be the meaning of 2 Cor. 6:1, not working together with God, as is supplied in our translation, but as working together with their own testimony — in consistency with it — that whilst their mouth expressed the truth, they might themselves be found walking in it. And then, well could they ask the Corinthians not to receive the grace of God in vain. There it was still in its fullest exhibition, able to meet all their wants, and to raise them up out of their sunken condition. It was still the season of acceptance: he puts them in mind of that, lest when they were awakened to a sense of their real state, they should be overwhelmed by the discovery of its evil. Their ease did not go beyond the reach of the ministry of reconciliation, and there was God exhibited. He feared to hinder this most blessed ministry: his own coming to Corinth with the rod might have hindered it, and therefore his conduct was regulated not by what man might judge fit and proper, but by ascertainment of the mind of Christ. "Giving no offence in anything that the ministry (the ministry of reconciliation) be not blamed, but in all things approving ourselves as ministers of God — in much patience … by long-suffering … by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true … as dying and behold we live."
I do most assuredly believe the leading thought in these chapters to be the character of the service, corresponding to that of the grace ministered. It is not the laying before the church the dispensations of God as in the epistle to the Romans, or unfolding to it its own rich portion as in the Ephesians and Colossians. It is not argumentative as the epistle to the Galatians, but it is the working of that grace and truth in the soul of the apostle himself in service, of which he was the chosen witness. As he says, "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." A great deal more to the same purpose might be noticed from the tenth chapter to the end, but I forbear to go further in this interesting subject except it be to present one trait of the servant most prominently set forth in the last chapter. It was a hard taunt indeed to be asked at Corinth, for a proof of Christ speaking in him, when they themselves were the mighty proof of it. But then, as it had been with the Master Himself to be in the eyes of men a worm and no man, so was the servant content to be. "For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you." It was resurrection-power in which the apostle was strong, and every thing that could make man appear glorious and powerful, was taken from him in order to manifest that his power was from above, not from man. But outwardly weak as he was, the fact of their believing was the proof of his power, for he it was who had ministered Christ to them. If they had proof of being Christians, then had they proof of Christ speaking in him. This was the proof which satisfied the soul of the apostle; but if they sought others he had them ready, but he wished not to be put to the test. The best proof to him would be that "they did not evil" which might call forth severity; and he had rather by their well doing, still continue under the imputation of having put forth pretensions which were not made good, than make them good in their punishment.
Here is the servant hiding himself entirely that only He Whom he served might appear. Could the flesh do this? assuredly not. It was service in the Spirit in the gospel of the Son, and therefore the pattern of all real service. And although as to outward hardship, we do not find the same trials now as in those days, yet, in all which arises from the church itself, the case is so sorrowful, that nothing but the deepest self-renunciation and self-abasement will at all enable us to serve in it, or lift us up above the painful pressure of present circumstances.
It is now high time to awake from ministerial ease. The Lord and the time are calling for energetic service. But it must be in endurance. — "I therefore endure all things for the elect's sake." With uncompromising faithfulness, no weapon must he used that is carnal — only those which are mighty through God. Well may the servant say, "Who is sufficient for these things?" But it is not unprovided for. The Lord will still bless faithful service; and however little it may be crowned with present success, no labour in the Lord ever is in vain.