Paul said, “Let a man so account of us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Here moreover it is required of stewards that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). These words address the apostles, although there is a sense in which all Christians are God’s ministers and stewards.
The apostles were ministers of Christ. They had been taught of Him for three years and His final charge to them was “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature …” (Mark 16:15). The gospel they preached was the news of the redemptive blood Jesus shed in His death, prospectively for all sinners. Then, His glorious resurrection, which they also preached, is the source for our own hope, for He promised that He would some day raise His faithful ones from the dead and bolstered their assurance of resurrection by raising Himself from the dead. The apostles were stewards of God’s mysteries, who revealed those mysteries to the apostles. And, because they were stewards, it behooved them to be faithful that they reveal those mysteries and that they reveal everything the Spirit had shown them.
The faithfulness of the apostles in revealing those mysteries is asserted by them multiple times. Paul assured the Ephesian elders that he had “not shrank from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:28). Peter wrote that “His divine power hath granted unto us all things which pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3) and that he would “be ready always to put you in remembrance of those things” (2 Peter 1:12).
Assurance that the apostles were faithful as God’s stewards in revealing the mysteries is seen in two significant truths. First, the message from God to man agreed with what each of the other apostles wrote or spoke, and the marvel of that truth is that God’s revelation was given independently to each apostle. The twelve had been instructed by Jesus, the Holy Spirit had reminded them of what they had been taught as well as gave them other revelation needful for the saints. Their teaching agreed perfectly. Second, the message which Paul spoke was the same as the twelve, yet he had not been instructed when they were, nor was he instructed by any of them. He wrote, “For I make known to you, brethren as touching the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12). The apostles were mindful of the stewardship they had to faithfully preach, whatever the price was they had to pay. When Peter and John were charged not to preach in the name of Jesus, they responded, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to harken unto you rather than unto God, judge ye: for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20). Paul wrote, “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me; for woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16).
The second truth which showed the apostles’ faithfulness in delivering God’s truth is the weight which lay upon them of their stewardship to preach the gospel “to speak and hold not their peace” and whether “in season” or “out of season” to persist in that preaching. That truth is the price they were willing to pay to fulfill that charge, and which they did pay with their lives. What greater assurance could they have given to mankind that the message they preached came directly from God, and that they had completely and faithfully revealed God’s will, just as God had charged them?
Jim McDonald