We have discussed already the nature of God’s word. God’s word contains many human elements, yet it nevertheless remains God’s word. It is not corrupted by the human elements. The word remains eternal, excellent, transcendent, divine, holy, and pure. We have also seen that the ministry of the word consists of the release of this human-impregnated word through human faculties such as the memory, understanding, thoughts, heart, spirit, and utterance. This is the reason that it is so important for a minister of the word to be proper before God when he preaches the word. If his condition is not proper, God’s word will be corrupted.
Let us consider Paul, who was very much used by the Lord in the New Testament. We will see the ways he served as a minister of God’s word.
Paul said, “I have finished the course” (2 Tim. 4:7). The word course in Greek refers to a journey. Paul’s course was based on an itinerary; it was marked in advance. God assigns a definite course for everyone. This course is marked and calculated in advance. It is marked not only as to its direction but also as to its distance. Paul obtained mercy from God and was able to run on his assigned course. He finished his course at the proper moment. When it was time for his departure from the world, he said, “I have finished the course.” I believe God placed this course before Paul on the day that he believed in the Lord.
We know that God begins His work on a person long before he is saved. Paul said the same to the Galatians: “But when it pleased God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me that I might announce Him as the gospel among the Gentiles, immediately I did not confer with flesh and blood” (Gal. 1:15-16). In the first part of this passage Paul said, “God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace.” This shows that Paul was set apart from his mother’s womb. Then he told us that he became a minister of God’s word. While he was yet in his mother’s womb, God set him apart, and his course was assigned. When he was saved, he embarked on this course. This shows that the preparation and initiation of a minister is determined by God when he is still in his mother’s womb.
Every experience we had before we were saved was under God’s sovereign arrangement. God gives us our distinctive characters, our temperaments, our inclinations, and our virtues. God prepares all of these things. No one goes through any experience by accident. Every experience is part of God’s sovereign arrangement. No person inherits a character trait by accident; everything is under God’s sovereign hand. He made provisions long ago for our natural abilities and experiences, and He has prepared us for our future commission. Paul was set apart from his mother’s womb. His course was set long ago by God. Even his profession before his conversion was set by God.
Peter was fishing when he was called. His lifetime work involved bringing men to the Lord (Matt. 4:18-20). The keys to the kingdom of the heavens were given to him; he was the one who opened the door (16:19). He opened the door at Pentecost, and he opened the door at the house of Cornelius. We should pay attention to the fact that it was the fisherman who brought in the men.
John was also a fisherman. But when he was called, he was not fishing; he was mending the nets (4:21-22). The Gospel of John was the last of the four Gospels to be written. In his Gospel he unveiled the matter of eternal life. If we only had the first three Gospels and if John had never mended what was lacking in these three, we would not know what eternal life is today. Moreover, John’s Epistles were written decades after Peter’s and Paul’s Epistles. By that time the Gnostics had brought in their philosophies. John turned men back to the matter of the eternal life. He showed us the condition and expression of a man who is born of God. In the early days of apostasy, we had a mender who mended the net with eternal life. John’s Revelation is the last of the sixty-six books of the Bible. Without this book, the Bible would not be complete; many things would not have a proper conclusion. John mended the net and completed the Bible with Revelation. This shows us John’s ministry—the ministry of mending.
Let us turn back to Paul. God had set a course for him. Even his profession was foreordained by God. He was a tentmaker; he was not a weaver. He sewed and stitched with fabric, and he made dwellings fit for traveling. His ministry came after the work of the Lord Jesus and the work of Peter. Paul’s ministry stands between Peter’s work and the work of the future kingdom. The kingdom has not yet come. In the meantime, men are being saved and are building up the church. Paul’s ministry was in the principle of tentmaking; he put material together and built it into a habitable dwelling. His work was not to produce the fabric—a kind of raw material. His work involved tents—which serve as habitable dwellings. Paul’s profession was something arranged by God.
A minister of God’s word is set apart from his mother’s womb. For this reason, no one should act foolishly before the Lord. Everyone should understand God’s sovereign arrangement in his environment. God’s sovereign hand is behind everything—his environment, his family, and his profession. God has no intention to annul these human elements; He has no intention to remove them. God does not want us to act unnaturally. He does not want us to be pretentious or legal in any way. He wants us to be like simple children. Yet at the same time, He wants to break our outer man. The Spirit of God can reconstitute all of our human elements. At the same time, our very self (not the human elements), which is made up of our natural “shell,” i.e., our natural life, together with our emotional and intellectual life, must be broken by Him. God has to break these things. The outward man must be broken and torn down. But this does not mean that God will set aside the human elements completely.
The biggest problem is that we do not know at which point this work begins and where it ends. We do not know how much of what we have in us is permitted to stay and how much is hated by God and in need of being broken. As soon as we function in our ministry, whoever has been taught by God will have an inner registration of a pure or a defiled service. This is not a simple pathway to take. Everyone has to submit to God’s discipline; everyone has to submit to the cross. The cross has removed everything that God condemns and hates, and it has broken down everything that needs to be broken down. A man must learn submission; he has to tell the Lord, “I have many problems within me. I do not know how to deal with them all. I ask for Your shining, for the killing of Your light. Deal with me according to Your light. Deal with me to such an extent that my human elements will not become a hindrance to Your work but a means to express Your work.” Paul’s entire life, from beginning to end, was under God’s hand. His salvation was a pattern to others (1 Tim. 1:16). First, God’s light subdued him; he fell before the Lord. This was a strong salvation. Immediately after he stood up, God’s word came to him, and it never stopped. He wrote most of the Epistles of the New Testament. God was pleased to release His word continually through Paul. He was indeed a great minister under God’s hand.