Faithfulness is the one thing God requires of his servants and the one thing God honors in his servants. The Apostle Paul was an example to us all in this matter of faithfulness. And the Holy Spirit uses him to show us what is involved in a faithful ministry.
1. EVERY FAITHFUL PASTOR LOOKS UPON HIS MINISTRY AS A GIFT OF GOD'S MERCY ENTRUSTED TO HIM (v. 1). He is a steward into whose hands God has trusted the affairs of his kingdom. What a privilege! What a responsibility!
2. FAITHFUL SERVANTS NEVER QUIT. "We faint not." The servant may be moved from one field of service to another by the will of God, but God's servants never quit their Master's service.
3. FAITHFUL GOSPEL PREACHERS ARE CANDID, UNPRETENTIOUS, HONEST MEN (v. 2). They are open and above board, both in the way they live and in the way they preach. Their lives commend their message to their hearers.
4. FAITHFUL PREACHERS KNOW THAT SALVATION IS ENTIRELY OF THE LORD (v. 3-4), that all men by nature are dead, spiritually blind, and ignorant, and that man's natural blindness is compounded by satan's delusions. We know that salvation comes only by the supernatural, life-giving revelation of God in Christ.
5. EVERY FAITHFUL GOSPEL PREACHER IN THE WORLD HAS THE SAME MESSAGE (v. 5). "We preach Jesus," our Savior, "Christ," God's Anointed One, "the Lord," our sovereign Monarch. And we are "your servants," not servants under your rule, but servants devoted to your souls, for Christ's sake.
6. FAITHFUL PREACHERS PREACH FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE (v. 6). They declare what they have seen, heard, felt, and know for themselves.
7. AND EVERY FAITHFUL GOSPEL PREACHER KNOWS HIS OWN PERSONAL INSUFFICIENCY FOR THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY (v. 7). Our sufficiency is of God. If we are useful, it is the Lord's doing!