1 Timothy 1:12

1 Timothy 1:12

Putting me into the ministry.

The summons to service

I. It was a sign of divine Grace. In God’s abounding grace he found himself not only forgiven, but summoned to service; “made a chosen vessel” to bear God’s treasure unto the Gentiles. He never ceased to be filled with wonder, that the Lord had “counted him faithful,” or esteemed him to be worthy of trust; and his highest ambition was to respond to this gracious confidence. For that is one of the best results of being trusted--it develops a sense of responsibility, and appeals to all that is noblest in the nature. Trust your child with some important message, or duty, and he will be more careful over it than over what is trivial. The apostle was put in trust of the gospel; in other words, he was commissioned to make known God’s way of salvation through Christ, and upon him largely rested the responsibility of winning men to God, and then combining them in Christian communities. A higher work could not be sought for than this, and no ambition is more sacred and divine than that which prompts one to pray for it. He speaks expressly of “the ministry”--“the service,” as the Revised Version has it--which might vary in form, but had as its essence the doing of something for Jesus Christ. And those who have any experience of this service feel that they need the superabounding grace of God to guide and sustain them in the work to which they have been Divinely called. The oil from the olive tree must flow to the golden candlestick, or the light will die out. The well must be fed from heaven, indirectly through many a hidden channel, or it will soon be exhausted. And of Christ Jesus we may say, “All my springs are in Thee.” In the law we find restraint, in the Christ we find inspiration.

II. But lest it should be thought that there was any natural innate worthiness of such a trust on Paul’s part, he goes on to show that this summons to service came to one who was utterly undeserving.

1. It was like Paul, and therefore another indication of the authenticity of this Epistle, to call prominent attention to what he had been before his conversion. Like David he could say, “My sin is ever before me.” The remembrance of past sin with Paul was not a source of sorrow only, but it was a source of thanksgiving. It was something like one of those wonderful clouds we see at sunset. At first it looms ominously on the horizon, as if the blackness of darkness were resting on the distant hill, but at last the sunlight streams forth, the edges of the cloud become dazzlingly bright, and soon the whole is suffused with purple, and crimson, and gold; the dark cloud is glorified, and we feel the evening would have lost half its beauty if the cloud had not been there. Paul’s description of his previous career is painted in colours black enough. Let the thought of that infinite love lead you to repentance, lest you be found at last not only to have disobeyed Divine law, but to have rejected Divine mercy.

2. It was not with a desire to lessen the enormity of his guilt that he adds, “I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.” Paul was a persecutor, not because he was indifferent to the claims of God, but because in his ignorance he thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus.

III. Finally, it is evident that Divine grace which gave the call and forgave the sinner, had as its signs in the heart of the convert--“faith and love.” “The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus”--that is, they found their sphere of action in Christ. It was not merely that the former persecutor was led to see the transcendent excellence of Jesus, but such faith in Him, such love towards Him were aroused in his heart, that the persecutor became the apostle, who said, “The love of Christ constraineth us.” (A. Rowland, LL. B.)

Ministers thankful for their office

I. Christ furnishes men for the ministry. This Paul more than intimates in the words of the text. And everywhere in the New Testament, ministers are represented as the servants and ambassadors of Christ, and as his peculiar, ascension gifts to the Church. Hence we may justly consider Christ as forming and qualifying, as well as authorizing, all His own ministers, in every age of the Church. Thus a good capacity, a good education, and a good heart, are the noble qualifications which Christ bestows upon those whom He raises up, and employs in the sacred work of the gospel ministry.

II. Reasons why the ministers of Christ are thankful for their office.

1. The ministerial office bears a favourable aspect upon a life of religion and vital piety. His duty carries him among lively Christians, among mourning saints and distressed sinners; where the beauties of religion, the worth of souls, and the presence of God, serve to solemnize his mind and to warm his heart with devout and heavenly affections. Besides all this, the peculiar difficulties which attend his office yield him a fair opportunity of improving his mind in some of the most amiable of the Christian graces.

2. The ministers of Christ are thankful for their office because it gives them peculiar advantages to enrich their minds with useful and Divine knowledge. A man might be as great a metaphysician as Locke, as great a philosopher as Newton, as great a naturalist as Solomon, and yet, in point of the noblest knowledge, fall far below the apostle Paul, who understood the deep things of Divine revelation, which alone can explain all the works and ways of the Supreme Being. His business therefore requires him to extend his researches to matters of a higher nature, and of more importance, than those which employ the attention of the sons of science; and so affords him a happy opportunity of feeding his mind with the same glorious truths which angels now desire to look into, and which all holy beings will for ever contemplate, with growing ardour and delight. And this is a good reason why he should be thankful for his office.

3. A greater reason is, that it opens before him the largest sphere of usefulness. It belongs to his office to strengthen the cords of civil society, by condemning vice, by inculcating virtue, and by enforcing the righteous laws of man from the Word of God and the motives of eternity. And it is a part of his duty to attend to the rising hopes of his flock, and instil into their young and tender minds the first principles of virtue and wisdom; which lay the broadest foundation for peace and harmony among families, among societies and larger communities. But his widest sphere of usefulness lies in that Divine authority with which he is invested, to bear the messages of God to men, and teach them those great and important truths by which they may become wise to salvation. By virtue of this authority Paul become so extensively useful in the first age of Christianity.

4. Their work is of such a nature as to carry its own present and future reward with it. The ministers of Christ receive no inconsiderable reward as they go along, before their labours and their lives are ended.

III. reflections:

1. The office of the ministry is the most desirable office in the world. “This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.”

2. The ministerial office needs no foreign aid to recommend itself to those who are qualified for it. Some are ready to apprehend that the ministry would soon become vacant if it should once unhappily lose the protection and support of the civil power.

3. The ministerial office is no burden to the people. One, who calls himself a moral philosopher, undertakes to prove in the face of stubborn fact, that the people of Israel were utterly unable to support their expensive priesthood. And many, at this day, seem to have the same opinion concerning the ministers of Christ.

4. The ministers of the gospel ought to give themselves wholly to the duties of their office.

5. The ministers of the gospel should cheerfully submit to that state of self denial, in which the nature of their office requires them to live.

6. Christ has laid His ministers under the most endearing obligations to be faithful in their office.

7. It is a privilege to hear, as well as to preach the gospel. It is a privilege of the Gentiles to hear Paul, as well as a privilege of Paul to preach to the Gentiles. (N. Emmons, D. D.)

The attractions of the Christian ministry

It was a wise proverb that the king of Israel quoted to a boastful Syrian invader, when he said, “Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.” Our text is not the boastful exultation of an untried soldier, but rather the calm, joyful expression of the gratitude of a veteran. He had faced the angry eyes of those who at Damascus regarded him as a heretic, because he had seen more light than they. The estimate which a man of such experiences puts upon his vocation, after a trial covering about thirty years, is worthy of careful consideration. Paul was thankful for the privilege of these thirty years in the ministry of God’s dear Son. Let us consider some of the attractions of the Christian ministry. It is not forgotten that earnest, scholarly and religious men are needed in all the ministries of human life. We may, perhaps, best set forth our theme by an examination of the grounds of our satisfaction and joy in the ministry of Jesus Christ.

I. The characteristics of the gospel. Paul had zeal and joy in his work because he knew he was presenting a religion which is the outcome of--

1. A Divine revelation. God has spoken. Paul went forth, not with a Bible, but with the Word of God.

2. A system of Divine power: not a philosophy, a guess, a theory to be entertained; but a life, a present working of a Divine energy in the soul.

3. The remedial character of the gospel gives zeal and joy to those who preach it.

4. The historic connections of Christianity have given and now give impulse to zeal and joy to those who are set for its defence. This thing was not done in a corner. Christianity is no beggar in the world of thought, asking for recognition, but a system rooted firmly in the soil of human history, and bearing fruits of which its adherents need never speak with hesitation.

5. Its power to satisfy the wants of the human soul.

II. The attractions of the work itself.

1. Our contact with good men. In religious and charitable work, much of our time is spent in contact and converse with the excellent of the earth.

2. The affectionate regard in which we are held by our people.

3. The opportunity afforded for the growth of character.

4. The opportunities afforded in the ministry for the cultivation of scholarship.

III. The crown set before us. The work of the Christian ministry is not completed on earth. Allow me to conclude with a few words of fraternal exhortation as to the claims of this work and the kind of men that are required in it. And need I say that, first of all, men are wanted of an unworldly spirit. The spirit that was in Agassiz when he said, “I have no time to make money,” is that needed in the ministry of reconciliation. Again, the ministry needed calls for men of good common sense, and a good stock of it. Finally, the times demand in the Christian ministry men of solid learning. (T. F. Burnham.)