Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you, to fulfil the Word of God. Colossians 1:25
The new prime minister has a major task ahead of him as he prepares to launch his administration: he must build a cabinet of ministers to run each of the various government departments. Those ministers take on substantial responsibility. They also take on substantial prestige and recognition, in essence becoming the top dog in their departments. These positions are highly sought after among the various MPs who have been elected. Not to take anything away from the two dozen or so men and women who will become ministers, this use of the term ‘minister’ runs counter to the actual meaning of the word. A minister is a servant, in some usages in the Bible it actually means a slave. It was not necessarily a title to be proud of or to flaunt in public. To be made a minister was, in many cases, to be put down into the menial role of an underling. Paul is certainly not bragging in our text as he discusses how God has made of him a minister to the Lord’s people. He speaks of who he is serving, when he is serving, and what he is serving.
In the previous verse, Paul speaks of the body of Christ, which is the church, or Assembly. This is who he is serving. In our text, he speaks of the ministry ‘which is given to me for you’. Serving the Lord’s people was considered by Paul to be a great privilege and honour, as we should consider it as well. As an apostle, Paul’s work was much different from ours. But the purpose is the same: to tend to the spiritual and physical needs of the Lord’s people in whatever way the Lord leads us to do. We won’t all go on missionary journeys or write epistles to Assemblies or debate with kings, but we all have service that we can and should render faithfully.
The expression ‘according to the dispensation of God’ indicates to us when Paul should serve, as it indicates to us when we should serve. At his conversion, Paul asked a critical question: Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? This question – which is missing from all of the modern-language versions of the Bible – shows that Paul is ready and willing to do whatever his Lord asks him to do. He was ready at that moment to take directions from the Lord, and he remained ready throughout the rest of his life to take directions from the Lord. He served a good number of years, until he was executed by Nero. He sets a pattern for us, in that our desire to serve our Lord should begin at our conversion, and continue throughout our lives until we are called Home to Glory.
Finally, what is Paul serving? He is serving to fulfil the Word of God. That should be our purpose too. Everything that Paul did in his ministry was not only at God’s leading but was in accordance with God’s Word. That would be a good pattern for our lives of service, to be led of the Spirit and to be guided by the Word. An interesting comment made at the funeral for our late brother Albert Hull is that he liked to work outside the box but inside the Book. While we cannot expect blessing on anything we do that is contrary to the Word of God, we can expect commendation for all that we do that is according to the Scriptures.
God has made us His ministers. And He has given us directions for that ministry. -Jim MacIntosh