1 Corinthians 9:1-18
I suppose there are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of vocational possibilities. The job market is flooded with all kinds of opportunities. Some are noble jobs, jobs for the benefit of society. Some are detrimental to society. Not all positions with the highest salaries are noble and uplifting for mankind.
In past generations, the ministry was highly honored. Theology was called the queen of sciences. Men who sought the ministry were commended and respected.
With the serious downfall of prominent clergymen in recent decades, the ministry has come into disrepute. The office, however, is of the highest order. Just because some men have denigrated the ministry does not mean it is a bad office. The ministry deals with the soberest conditions and considerations in life.
Everyone ought to contemplate a personal relation to the Almighty God, by whose benevolence we all live. But the minister has been called to stand for God as His spokesman and as a mediator for his fellowmen. That puts him in an awesome position.
There should be some way to regain the high sense of THE VOCATION OF THE MAN OF GOD. The apostle Paul offers an explanation in I Corinthians 9:1-18:
1 Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?
2 If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.
3 Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,
4 Have we not power to eat and to drink?
5 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
6 Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?
7 Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
8 Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?
9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?
10 Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
11 If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
12 If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
13 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?
14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
15 But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.
16 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
17 For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
18 What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.
From Paul’s writings, I wish to set forth several serious CONSIDERATIONS as we contemplate The Vocation of the Man of God.
First, let us consider:
HIS PERSONAL CALLING
1 Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?
2 If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.
3 Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,
4 Have we not power to eat and to drink?
5 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
There is an intimacy with Jesus that the Man of God must have. When Paul said he saw Jesus, he most likely was referring to his Damascus road experience recorded in Acts 9. Paul was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians when Jesus appeared to him in a light brighter than the noonday sun. The light was so intense that Paul was blind for three days. But he said, “I saw the Lord.” That intimacy is essential in the personal call of the Man of God.
The Man of God must sense his call from God as very personal. I recall in my own experience as a farm lad of 14 when the Lord spoke to me in the hayloft. Nine years later the Lord, through my congregation, called me to the ministry.
It has been almost 60 years since the Lord called me to the ministry. Praise God! They have been rich years, years of intimacy with the Lord, years of important reality, as He has used me to minister to hundreds, even thousands, of people.
Then there is an evidence of service. Paul said, “You are the evidence of my ministry.” Paul ministered in the town of Corinth. He went there after he had left Athens, where he had spoken to the elite. He came to Corinth, spent some time there, and established the church. He said, “You are the evidence of my ministry.” Besides that, the apostle Paul ministered all across the Roman world of his day, not only in Corinth, but in many other areas, towns, and cities. The evidence is not in how many sermons were preached but how many sinners were saved! This is what the apostle Paul appealed to. “You are my evidence, you are my proof, that I have a call from the Lord.”
In Paul’s day, there were no “Preacher Mills,” or Bible schools, that turned out men who were supposed to be equipped and ready for the ministry. In Paul’s day, a man’s call to the ministry rested on a very personal relationship, an intimacy with Jesus. It was a calling to do or die!
The Vocation of the Man of God to be real must begin with His Personal Calling.