“Stewards of the Mysteries of God”
THAT the ignorance referred to in the closing paragraphs of the previous chapter is most lamentable, every intelligent Christian must admit. If God has in our day made known things kept secret from the foundation of the world, it is surely to our interest and God’s glory to understand and value them. Isaiah could write the words which the apostle Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” (Isa. 64:4). But the apostle does not stop there, as do many Christians; he immediately adds: “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”
Clearly, then, there are precious truths which even so late as in Isaiah’s day were among the secret things, but which have now been added to things which are revealed, and which are for us and for our children. It is to these things he refers when he writes, “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1).
The Greek word μυστηριον (musterion), here used, which is simply Anglicized in our word “mysteries,” refers to secret things known only to the initiated. It is not that the things in themselves were mysteries and beyond finite comprehension, or even above the range of ordinary minds; but they could never be known at all unless revealed by another. So we speak of the Eleusinian mysteries: they were teachings not given to the multitude, but imparted to a select company of initiates. As used in the New Testament, the mysteries are those truths which in Old Testament days were kept in silence, but which are now the common property of all believers. They are not special truths for a special class, but every Christian is privileged to enter into the knowledge of these mysteries. More than that, no Christian can properly enter upon the responsibilities flowing from the relationship in which he stands toward God if he remains in ignorance of these same mysteries.
Christ’s ministers are to be stewards of the mysteries of God, not merely preachers of what people so often call “the simple gospel.” Out of their treasure they are to bring forth things new and old, if instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Nor are these things of an abstruse, impractical nature, but intensely otherwise; they are the very lines of truth which above all others tend to form the character and guide the ways of the Christian. Hence, if we accept the preferred reading of 1 Corinthians 2:1, it is to these very things that the apostle referred when he wrote, “I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you (not the testimony, but) the mystery of God.” And yet he immediately adds, “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” But “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,” will never be truly known, in the apostle’s sense, if the soul be content to go on in ignorance of the mysteries.
Rome, we know, has attempted to foist on the Church a lot of legendary traditions and sacramental observances as the mysteries, thus emulating the pagan cults, which had their inner secrets for the special few. But the Christian mysteries are for every child of God in this dispensation of grace. Nor are they of an occult and metaphysical nature, appealing only to the erudite and mystical: they are simple truths of tremendous importance, some of which, at least, have been utterly ignored by the vast majority of theologians, ancient and modern, and this to their shame and loss.
It has often been remarked that every teaching which the apostles preface with such an expression as, “I would not have you ignorant, brethren,” will be found to be a line of truth of which, after nearly twenty centuries of Christianity, the bulk of professing believers know little or nothing. It will be only necessary to refer to the passages to see how true the statement is.
In Romans 11:25, 26 Paul writes, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” Now, how seldom does one hear any reference to the fullness of the Gentiles or the salvation of Israel as a nation, in the pulpit instruction of the day? As a result, the Gentiles are wise in their own conceits, and boasting of the near conversion of the world, and the transference of Jewish promises to the Church of God.
Again, writing of the rapture of the saints at the second advent of our Lord, the same apostle says: “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13); and he proceeds to comfort them with teaching as to the raising of the dead, and simultaneous catching up of the living at the Lord’s return, which, it is not too much to say, not one Christian in ten knows anything of.
Peter writes of the manifestation of the Lord Jesus, and says: “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8); and with this he couples solemn and important truth as to the day of the Lord and the day of God; and probably not a saint in a hundred knows the difference between the two terms.
What have Christians to say to this? What can thousands say for thus failing to value and appropriate mysteries of such tremendous importance? Failing to enter into these things, the Church bas lost the sense of her pilgrim character; confusing teaching as to Israel and the nations with divine instruction regarding the Body of Christ. The heavenly calling has been lost sight of, and practically given up for an earthly one.
Unquestionably the onus of blame rests upon the guides who, professing to be Christ’s ministers, are anything but stewards of the mysteries of God. Stewards of science, of philosophy, of political economy, of literature, of historic lore, and of religious notions, many of them undoubtedly are; but it is quite another thing to be dispensers of the now-revealed secret things which for ages past were hid in God.
But all the blame does not rest upon the leaders of religious thought, as they are called. In Jeremiah’s day he could declare, “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so”: therefore he solemnly asks, “And what will ye do in the end thereof?” (Jer. 5:31.) The people love to have it so! This is most significant. Heretical teachers could not flourish for one day if the people did not wish for their ministry. And preachers of Old Testament truths, which they offer in place of New Testament mysteries, would not find it so easy to go on confusing the people of God if there was real exercise of conscience among those who are content to be styled “the laity,” and who seldom read their Bibles for themselves, and endeavor to rightly divide the word of truth.
Do not let me be misunderstood. I do not for an instant decry the expounding of the Old Testament. Far be the thought! I believe it is of the utmost importance that the soul be established in all that is there revealed, in order to his going on unto the perfection of the full Christian revelation. I believe in the importance of the kindergarten and the primary school, but I do not believe it is a sound principle of education to keep people going over the alphabet when age and intelligence fit them for the university, if but properly instructed.
The Old Testament is “the word of the beginning of Christ” (see margin of Heb. 6:1), which the apostle exhorts us to leave, that we may go on to full growth—that is, Christianity. It is not that he would have us forget the beginning, any more than the university student forgets the instruction of the primary school. He leaves it, but carries with him the knowledge received.
In the following chapter we purpose thus to leave the revealed things of the past dispensation, and go on to contemplate the mysteries of God which He has now made known for our edification and blessing.