Malachi 2:6-7 - Homiletics

The qualifications and objects of Christian ministers.

Aaron and the original priests of the house of Levi are here held up as a pattern to their degenerate descendants. Reference is made to the higher departments of the priest's work, for teaching is a nobler work than sacrificing, even according to a divinely appointed and typical ritual. Allusions to this work of teaching by priests or Levites may be found in Le 10:11; Deuteronomy 33:10 ; 2 Chronicles 15:8 ; 2 Chronicles 17:8 , 2 Chronicles 17:9 ; Nehemiah 8:9 ; Micah 311, etc. This work, being common to Jewish priests and Christian ministers, makes the application we have given to the words quite legitimate. We are reminded of the following qualifications and aims essential for a minister of Christ.

I. A MESSAGE FROM GOD . "He is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." We are sent to the world by our Divine Master with definite instructions. There is a "glorious gospel of the blessed God committed to our trust." That gospel embodies the doctrines of "the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints" If we have no definite gospel to preach, for which we are willing to contend, to suffer, and if needs be to die, we had better hold our peace, for we are not "messengers of the Lord of hosts." "Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing thou hast no tidings ready?" ( 2 Samuel 18:22 ); "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied" ( Jeremiah 23:21 ). A self-styled ambassador, with no instructions from his monarch, would be an object hardly less pitiable and contemptible than a speaker arrogating the position of Christ's minister, but quite uncertain as to what to speak in Christ's Name. The burden of our message is not, "Thus I think; " but, "Thus saith the Lord ;" "Hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches." Christ bids us to teach men "to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." When men gather around us they should be able to say, "Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God." We are thus reminded of the need of:

1 . Careful study of the Law of God, like Ezra ( Ezra 7:6 , Ezra 7:10 ), Daniel ( Daniel 9:2 ), Timothy ( 1 Timothy 4:13 ). We must be scribes "instructed unto the kingdom of heaven," lest we should misread and misunderstand our message.

2 . Of close communion with God; for errors that arise from sources that are spiritual may be more dangerous than those that are merely intellectual (see John 3:20 ; John 5:44 ; John 7:17 ; John 8:43 ; John 12:42 , John 12:43 ; Hebrews 3:12 ).

II. FIDELITY IN DELIVERING IT . We learn this from:

1 . The unalterable claims of truth (verse 6). All truth has the authority of a law. We must be prepared to teach others and to learn for ourselves that rather than deny God by a lie in business or any sphere of life, it would be better to be burned alive. A martyr's spirit is essential to a minister's character. If this is true of us, we may urge the same on our hearers, for there are no two standards of morality, one for the clergy the other for the laity. All are required to love the Lord their God with all their heart, and therefore never to "hold down the truth in unrighteousness" ( Romans 1:18 ). The urgent duty of fidelity on the part of Christ's ministers is seen further because of:

2 . Our responsibility as "stewards of the mysteries of God." So far as those "mysteries," first revealed to the world by inspired apostles, are understood by us, we are stewards of them. And "it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful" ( 1 Corinthians 4:1 , 1 Corinthians 4:2 ). We are to "keep knowledge" for those who at any time may "seek the law" at our mouths. If others teach "another gospel" which may be more popular and acceptable, we are to decline popularity, "not as pleasing men, but God which trieth the heart." "For if I pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ" (see Jeremiah 23:28 , Jeremiah 23:29 ; 2 Corinthians 2:17 ; 2 Corinthians 4:1-18 :l, 2; Galatians 1:10 ; 1 Thessalonians 2:4 ).

3 . Our relation to the souls of our hearers. Their object should be to seek God's law from our lips that they may do it, and ours to turn them from iniquity. Our one object should be to declare the whole counsel of God so clearly, faithfully, and affectionately, that, whether men will hear or forbear, we shall be free from the blood of all Elihu's words are an excellent motto for a preacher ( Job 33:3 ). The words, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue," suggest solemn thoughts as to fidelity on the part of preachers. What need of care, both in public and private, .in dealing with "seeking" souls, to point them direct to Christ, and not to any ceremonies or sacraments ( Acts 20:20 , Acts 20:21 ; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ), lest at some critical point in their spiritual history our lips should tail to impart the "knowledge," "the law," the message from the Lord of hosts which they need, and they should be directed along a wrong track rather than in "the way everlasting." The sin of unfaithfulness is exposed in verses 8, 9. Ministers may be "partial in the Law," e.g. winking at follies and sins fashionable among the rich, while severely condemning the sins of the poor, etc. But fidelity needs to be combined with discrimination. "For as all men cannot dive and fetch precious stones from the deep, but he that is cunning and hath the art of it; so not all, but the wise can either teach or conceive the deep mysteries. First, children must be taught letters, then syllables, after words, then construction, and after all the matter."

III. A LIFE IN HARMONY WITH IT . "He walked with me in peace and equity." These words remind us of the essential elements of a truly consistent Christian life. There must be righteousness with God, bringing after it peace with God. This righteousness is twofold.

1 . A justification, which makes us " accepted in the Beloved," and gives peace with God ( Romans 5:1 ; Ephesians 1:6 ).

2 . A right state of heart, a conscious integrity of purpose, which ensures our being " accepted of him," well pleasing to him, and which brings with it a still deeper and purer peace ( Isaiah 48:18 ; Romans 14:17 , Romans 14:18 ). God desires that we should live in his perfect peace and favour in order that we "might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life." Such peace and equity toward God will ensure the same blessings in relation to our fellow men. This consistency of conduct is especially needed in the ministers of Christ. They must maintain this character in their homes ( 1 Timothy 3:2-5 ), in the Church ( 1 Peter 5:3 ), and in the world ( 1 Timothy 3:7 ). The guilt and shame of inconsistent lives is exposed in verses 8, 9, and is illustrated by the history of Eli's sons; 1 Samuel 2:30 being fulfilled in them, and in these priests ("I have made you contemptible." They had said in their hearts, "The table of the Lord is contemptible;" so God would requite them "measure for measure"), and in all unfaithful ministers; who will be despised by the people they seek to conciliate and please.

IV. ZEAL FOR THE RECEPTION OF IT . By faithfully discharging the duties of his calling, Levi, i.e. the priesthood, "did turn many away from iniquity." In doing so he did nothing more than what the standing and vocation of the priest required. The knowledge communicated to the mind was to be imparted by the lips. Without zeal for the reception of the message, and love that seeks the salvation of souls by means of it, the knowledge and "the tongues" of preachers profit nothing. The charge given to Paul ( Acts 26:18 ) and to Timothy ( 2 Timothy 4:5 ) applies to every "good minister of Jesus Christ." We are appointed as witnesses for God; as labourers together with God; as ambassadors to promote reconciliation with God. We are ministers of the good tidings of Christ; soldiers of Christ (to overcome men's" evil "by Christ's" good"). We are lights ("the lamp that burneth and shineth," John 5:35 ) to light men to Jesus Christ. We are fishers of men, that we may secure them for Christ; under-shepherds of souls, that we may keep them; watchmen, that we may warn them. Mediately we may be said to be saviours of souls ( James 5:19 , James 5:20 ). So earnest should we be to secure this end, that our hearers should be able to say of us, as a plain woman did of Robert McCheyne of Dundee, "He seemed as though he were almost dyin' to have you converted." Such a ministry will secure its object ( 1 Timothy 4:12-16 ). A painful contrast is suggested between this ideal of the ministry and our attainments in attempting to reach it. We should learn humility and be melted into penitence. For God holds us responsible for what we might have been and might have done after all that he has done for us—a truth we are reminded of by God's appeal in Isaiah 5:4 . But the lofty standard held out before us may also stimulate us to "forget the things that are behind," etc; and to make the aims of the Christ-like Apostle Paul our own ( 1 Corinthians 9:16-22 ; Colossians 1:28 , Colossians 1:29 ).