The Acts of the Apostles (1911) — PDF Scan 333

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THE MESSAGE HEEDED 327 desired to impress upon believers the solemn responsibility of the gospel ministry. Faithfulness in preaching the word, united with a pure, consistent life, can alone make the efforts of ministers acceptable to God and profitable to souls. Ministers of our day, burdened with a sense of the greatness of the work, may well exclaim with the apostle, '^Who is sufficient for these things?'^ There were those who had charged Paul with self-commendation in writing his former letter. The apostle now referred to this by asking the members of the church if they thus judged his motives. ^^Do we begin again to commend ourselves?" he inquired; ' ' or need we, as some others, epistles of commenda- . tion to you, or letters of commendation from you?" Believers moving to a new place often carried with them letters of commendation froni the church with which they had formerly been united; but the leading workers, the founders of these churches, had no need of such commendation. The Corinthian believers, who had been led from the worship of idols to the faith of the gospel, were themselves all the recommendation that Paul needed. Their reception of the truth, and the reformation wrought in their lives, bore eloquent testimony to the faithfulness of his labors, and to his authority to counsel, reprove, and exhort as a minister of Christ. Paul regarded the Corinthian brethren as his testimonial. ''Ye are our epistle," he said, "written in our hearts, known and read of all men: forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but