know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Paul says he came to them bringing the message that God gave him. I think many of you have had the experience where you walk in to a restaurant and a waitress or a waiter has come up to you and has asked for your order. During the course of that meal probably the waitress or the waiter bent over backwards to render effective ser vice to you. In a sense, they are ministering to you; but in a great er sense, they are still servants of the one who owns the restaurant. They were employed by the owner to carry out a specific function. It was at the wish of the owner that the waiter or waitress provided the quality of service that would en courage you or your friends to re turn. The servant Paul has in mind is like that. Even in the Old Testa ment times a servant was never called a servant and set aside with no specific duties and no clearly designated master. A steward in a household had specific duties. In the body of Christ there are indi viduals called to teach, to fulfill the office of the pastor in assisting people in their knowledge and un derstanding of the Word of Cod. These people are uniquely servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, but be cause they are Christ's servants, at His command, they also become servants to the full body. In this unique two-fold relation ship, one must always keep in mind his master and those to whom the master wants him to minister. What are the specific duties that Paul mentions here for these ser vants? It is found in the second part of verse one, "stewards of the
mysteries of God." He is to be a steward and moreover, he is to be a faithful steward of the mysteries of God. I Corinthians 2 told us about these mysteries or special messages that were for the spir itual or mature Christian. Basically, they were mysteries to those who were not Christians or to those who were such poor Christians that they had not developed either the ability or the desire to understand the significant things of Christian living. With this powerful message of Christian living to proclaim, it would be unwise to lay that mes sage aside and to teach something else. It would be like a steward saying to his master, "You have given me this responsibility of watching over the household and fields, but I am not interested in that. I am interested in doing some thing else because I find that it makes me popular with the towns people." That steward would not be a faithful man, would he? Yet, I understand as I look into Scrip ture, that it is possible for a Chris tian steward to cater to the whims of people rather than to be faith ful to his charge. For instance, in II Timothy 4, Paul tells Timothy that there is go ing to come a time when people are going to be far more inter ested in that which is enticing or pleasing rather than that which is solid and sure. Paul counsels him, therefore, in II Timothy 4:2-4, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, re buke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves Page 7
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker