Luke 12:47-48 “And that servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. (48) But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”
We have seen in the previous passage of scripture that the Lord chastens both His saints and His ministers when they transgress His commandments in this life, and the reason He does that is to correct their behaviour. There is a difference between the Lord’s saints and the Lord’s ministers in this area however, for the Lord always judges His ministers far more quickly and far more severely than His saints. The reason for that is obvious, for the Lord’s ministers are able to exert a far greater influence on the church than the saints can, and can therefore do far more damage to the church if their transgressions are not dealt with in a timely manner. The context of the above quoted passage of scripture deals specifically with the chastening that our Lord applies to His ministers, and as we can clearly see from this passage their chastening can be quite severe. In this passage our Lord is dealing specifically with the way His ministers’ respond to their calling, and He divides them into two groups. The first group He mentions are those who know they are called to minister the gospel but refuse to do so. And so in response to their disobedience they are beaten with many stripes in order to get them to see the error of their way and repent. The second group He mentions are those who, because of their inability to hear the leading of the Holy Spirit, do not realise that God has called them to the ministry and are therefore disobedient due to their ignorance. Nevertheless even though they do not even realise that they have been called to the ministry they are still beaten, although with fewer stripes than the ones who are knowingly rebellious. And so the fact that those who are ignorant are also beaten gives us a clear indication as to how important God views the ministry gifts, and those who therefore take their callings lightly do so at their peril.
1 Corinthians 9:16-17 “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! (17) For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the apostle Paul once again confirms the truth to us that those called to the ministry have no choice in the matter, for he stated that against his will he had received his stewardship. In other words God didn’t consult Paul when He called him. But Paul didn’t stop there; for he went on to say that he would experience woe if he didn’t preach the gospel. The reason Paul said that is twofold. The first reason is because he understood that he would incur the Lord’s chastening in this life if he chose to disobey his call. The second reason is because he understood that Jesus is the one who called him to the ministry, and that he would stand before the Lord Jesus on that day to give an account of his ministry. Paul knew that this was a very serious issue which had eternal ramifications, and he therefore took his ministry calling very seriously. And so we can clearly see from that which we have discussed in this section that the Lord’s ministers need to take their callings very seriously, for to whom much is given much will be required.
Michael E.B. Maher
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