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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.)

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KJV: And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;

WEB: And I thank him who enabled me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he counted me faithful, appointing me to service;