Once we begin to advance the kingdom of God, how do we need to view ourselves? The apostle Paul had it down very well. He said, “Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of the faith among all the Gentiles, for His name’s sake” (Romans 1:4-5). Let us reflect on Paul’s view of ministry, which being in Scripture is ultimately God’s view.

First we must recognize that it is only through the work of Christ that we become ministers. We must understand that no matter how many people we lead to Christ, to maturity in the faith, to participate in good works, only Christ accomplishes it all. Withdrawal God from the ministry and we would have done nothing. There is nothing we can accomplished apart from Christ. When we evaluate our lives to determine if we did okay, by all means we should recognize the good we have done. However, when we evaluate our lives based on the honor we deserve. We should understand that we do not deserve honor, only Christ does.

Second, our goal is to bring everyone to “the obedience of the faith.” When we minister to people the end product is not that they pray a prayer of commitment to Christ. We want them to get there, but we want far more. We want to lead people beyond that to studying the Bible, understanding it and applying it to their lives. We want them to see the world biblically and put the principles of the Bible to practice. We want to see them have a solid relationship with Jesus Christ through prayer. We want to see them ministering to other people as well. We would love to see more and more people joint the kingdom of God and one by one see society turned towards Christ. We want to see less and less sin and more and more love and praise for the Lord. This should be our intention with everyone we meet.

Lastly, it is all to please the Lord. This must be our first priority. If it is not, then we may forsake complete obedience to the Lord. At times this may mean displeasing you or others, but we must submit. Any time the option is between the Lord and your financial well being chose the Lord. If it is between the Lord and your popularity, relationships, job, home, health, enjoyment, reputation, etc. please choose the Lord. We must. Not that the Lord frequently calls us to make these choices, but there will be moments of conflict between the Lord’s will and any of the above items. If we have made a firm commitment to do everything in life for the Lord first, then we will always make the right choice.

What would the world be like if there were more people with the same type of commitment as the apostle Paul? One man changed the church and the Roman Empire so much. What would it be like if 20, 50, or 100 people did so? I pray that we will see this kind of commitment today.