which will make obedience easy and delightful to yourselves. Habituate yourselves then to realize the thought, that it is Christ whom you serve, or in whose place you stand whilst others are serving you. So shall your whole deportment become exquisitely pure, and holy, and refined ; and you will " adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things."]
Col. iv. 12. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, ahvays labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
LOVE is the essence of the Christian religion. The heathens themselves noticed the fervour of the love which subsisted among the first Christians. Ministers in particular feel a distinguished regard for those to whom they have been signally useful a. Epaphras is set forth as a most eminent pattern of affection and zeal.
I. The office he sustained —
Epaphras was perhaps the same with Epaphroditus. He was of Colosse, and perhaps the founder of the Church established there ; he sustained the most ho- nourable of all offices, being " a servant of Christ." This office every Christian may be said to bear, but ministers bear it in a higher and more exalted sense : They are,
1. His stewards —
[A steward has the care and management of the family committed to him : so Christ's ministers have the mysteries of the Gospel committed to themb. They are to dispense these mysteries to menc: hence we are taught to consider them expressly in this viewd.]
2. His messengers —
[They are ambassadors from the court of heaven e: they deliver to men his messages of grace and mercy : they nego- ciate, as it were, a peace between God and man.]
a 1 Thess. ii. 7, 8. b 2 Cor. iv. 7. c Luke xii. 42.
d 1 Cor. iv. 1. e 2 Cor. v. 19, 20.
2190.] CHARACTER OF A CHRISTIAN MINISTER. 2tu
3. His representatives —
[They stand in his steadf; the word they speak is not theirs, but hisg. The reception or rejection of them will be deemed a reception or rejection of Christ himself11.]
4. His glory —
[They are the instruments whereby he is known and glorified : hence they are expressly called " the glory of Christ1."]
In this office he acted worthy of the trust reposed in him.
II. The love he manifested —
Love will invariably manifest itself in acts of kind- ness towards those who are the objects of it. A minister's love will shew itself most towards the souls of men ; but none can do good to souls unless God himself vouchsafe his blessingk : hence Epaphras made application to God in prayer.
He did this fervently — [It is said of Jacob that he " wrestled" with God all night in prayer1. Thus did Epaphras on behalf of the Christians at Colosse m. How desirable is it that every minister should be so occupied !]
He did it constantly —
[He was not satisfied with preaching to them, or praying with them: he remembered them "always" in his secret prayers before Godn; nor did his absence from them diminish his concern for their welfare. This was the most unequivocal testimony of his affection that he could possibly give them0.]
Nor could he rest satisfied, while his people had a sin to be forgiven, or a want to be supplied.
III. The end he aimed at —
He desired that his Christian friends might be Israelites indeed ; no doubt he had exerted himself much and often to make them so. He sought the same blessed end in all his prayers for them :
* 2 Cor. v. 20. e 1 Thess. ii. 13. h 1 Thess. iv. 8.
1 2 Cor. viii. 23. k 1 Cor. iii. 7.
I Compare Gen. xxxii. 24, 28. with Hos. xii. 4. m This is implied in the term ayoji'i^o^ievog.
II 1 Thess. iii. 10. with Isai. lxii. 7.