The way in which the New Testament presents Ministry is truly-wonderful.
God is the Great Minister, surveying His creatures in their various orders and degrees of relationship to Himself, with corresponding blessings. Thus, He serves out to all the rain and sunshine, giving fruitful seasons; and to the Church, higher and richer blessings, as we know, for they stand in another degree of relationship to Him.
The LORD was the great personal manifested Minister; in every passage of His life being the servant, knowing the while how entirely all this was answering the mind and the way of God, and that it could therefore only issue in His own final joy and glory, as we read in Phil. 2, and Heb. 12:22Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2).
THE HOLY GHOST is now the great hidden and efficient Minister, constantly tending the Church, and serving forth to each saint the things of the Father and of Christ, sustaining him by His presence, and in all conflicts and sorrows, even by His own groanings (Rom. 8). And thus we get a marvelous display of ministry in God: whether in the Father, as surrendering the Beloved; the Lord, in personal suffering and trial; or the Holy Ghost, in the constancy of His presence in a place that thus draws forth the groan and intercession.
But we get ministry in the Church too—ministry that results at once from communion and peace with this blessed God; and which, therefore, shows this communion with Him, or is the necessary outflowing of it.
It may have various forms; but it is divine ministry, of that quality which we have seen in God, in the Father, the Lord, and the Spirit-ministry which serves others at a cost or sacrifice. Thus, the apostle speaks of the teacher, the exhorter, the giver, the ruler, and so on; but shows them each, in the exercise of his ministry, acting with respect to them as debtors to others, and not in honor of themselves. Each is to profit all, the whole growing together by virtue of each (Rom. 12:11I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1).; 1 Cor. 12.; Eph. 41I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, (Ephesians 4:1)).
Peter also shows that the ministry is to have two distinct qualities; 1st, according to the grace received from God, and not beyond that measure; 2nd, according to the need of others, and therefore, as a steward not below that measure (1 Peter 4:10,1110As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10‑11)).
But second Corinthians is the chief place where ministry is discussed. The apostle presents his own there, and shows it indeed to be one unbroken course of self-sacrifice and labor for others. For the nearer we get to Christ, the brighter this ministry shines; and an apostle like Paul stood the nearest to Him.
There we see in him sympathy with every infirmity of the saints. Who was offended without his burning? The care of the churches came upon him daily; if he were afflicted or comforted, it was still for them— “All things were for your sake.” He says death worked in him that life might work in them. Whether he were beside himself or sober, he could still account for it on self-sacrificing principles. He followed his Lord so closely, that while he says of Him, “He became poor that we might become rich,” he says of himself, “as poor, yet making many rich.” He was ready to spend and be spent for them, and that too in the spirit of entire self-surrender; “though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.” He wanted them to do no evil, though he should be himself as a reprobate; and he was glad when he was weak and they were strong. A blessed display of divine grace and ministry this.
This epistle shows is ministry in the person of an apostle, as the Gospel of Mark shows it to us in the person of the Son himself, the one being behind, but still in the track of the other.
But let us get more distant than an apostle; yea, as distant as we can among the ranks of the saints. We are bound to look for ministry of the same quality, if not of the same quantity or strength.
Every saint has some office to fill in the great ministry of reconciliation; and thus, in a sense, is an ambassador for Christ, or representative of God in grace, in some measure as Christ was in fullness. This is taught, as I judge, 2 Cor. 5:17-2117Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:17‑21). If I wash but a saint’s foot, it is still a part of the great ministry of reconciliation, for it is so far a reflection of the grace of God—a taking my place in the great embassage of the ambassador’s suite, which has come down from God to this world of sinners.
Every man in Christ is thus to know all things in a new way—to see himself in the reconciliation, and go forth from that ministry according to it to others.
And thus we have ministry down from God in the highest, to the weakest and most distant companion in the blessed ranks of the redeemed.
But I would not omit that we have it in the intermediate hosts also. For His angels are all ministering Spirits, and those of them who stand nearest to God, like the apostles to Christ, are perhaps the most abounding in ministries, as Gabriel. And it may be that Satan would not take his place in this great system of ministry or divine benevolence; he stood in pride rather than in service, and thus fell into condemnation (1 Tim. 6); he abode not in the truth, refused to take part in the economy of grace and truth, which, as we thus see, occupies the service or ministry of God himself with the Lord and the Spirit, the hosts of angels above, and all orders and estates of men in the Church or on earth. And when the glory is revealed, and the heavens and the earth are filled according to God, ministering will still go on, and the less will still be blessed of the better; for the Heavens shall hear the earth, and the river shall flow from the Throne through the City, and the leaves of the tree in the heavenly Jerusalem be for the healing of the earthly nations. For ministry, while it calls for self-sacrifice, expresses also intrinsic glory and strength, and thus the less is always blessed of the betters – MS. of J. G. B.