Description of a Faithful Minister of Christ
1 We then, as
workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of
God in vain.
2 (For he
saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I
succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of
salvation.)
3 Giving no
offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:
4 But in all
things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in
afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
5 In stripes,
in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings,
in fastings;
6 By pureness,
by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love
unfeigned,
7 By the word
of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand
and on the left,
8 By honor and
dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;
9 As unknown,
and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not
killed;
10 As
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having
nothing, and yet possessing all things.
He begins with the urgency of the
message: "Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of
salvation." The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night; the
word of God comes with authority and urgency and must be acted upon as the
angels do in heaven; immediately and swiftly without looking back.
May God raise up
such again in our day; men who will care more about the urgency of the message
than their own reputation and position of power and wealth.
