Part I, The Man: (A) The Minister in Holy Scripture

St. Paul points out in one single chapter (Col. 1) that the ministry is related at once to Christ (v. 7); to the Gospel (v. 23); and to the Church (v. 25). To Christ as the Source, to the Gospel as the Message, and to the Church as the Sphere. All considerations of the Christian ministry must take account of these three aspects, and in the various parts of Holy Scripture where the ministry is dealt with, it will be seen that this threefold relationship in one or other of its phases is kept in view. For our present immediate purpose, the study of the Ministry in Scripture, it will be convenient to dwell mainly on the first and second of these aspects, leaving the third, the relationship to the Church, to be considered in connexion with the Prayer Book, the particular ministry associated with the Church of England. This method of treatment will have the advantage of enabling us to concentrate on the more definitely spiritual and personal aspects of ministry first of all, before taking the ecclesiastical and necessarily more controversial aspects.

The Biblical idea of the ministry may be considered in a number cf ways. We will now look at it as suggested for us by the Old Testament Prophet, by the New Testament Apostle, by the personal experiences of St. Paul, and by the counsels he gave to one of his younger ministerial brethren.