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Handout #42 |
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Ministry at the end of the first century |
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| Remind
yourself of the text in Handout #6. Clement is recalling to the
Corinthians the origin of ministries in the church in order to reproach
them for having dismissed their own ministers without reason. The
vocabulary does not yet seem to be fixed: Clement uses presbyter and
episcopoi at random.
Now, the gospel was given to the apostles for us by the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus the Christ was sent from God. That is to say, Christ received his commission from God, and the apostles theirs from Christ. The order of these two events was in accordance with the will of God. So thereafter, when the apostles had been given their instructions, and all their doubts had been set at rest by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, they set out in the full assurance of the Holy Spirit to proclaim the coming of God's kingdom. And as they went through the territories and townships preaching, they appointed their first converts - after testing them by the Spirit - to be bishops and deacons for the believers of the future. Similarly, our apostles knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be dissensions over the title of bishop. In their full foreknowledge of this, therefore they proceeded to appoint the ministers I spoke of and they went onto add an instruction that if these should fall asleep, other accredited persons should succeed them in their office. In view of this, we cannot think it right for these men now to be ejected from their ministry when, after being commissioned by the apostles with the full consent of the church, they have since been serving Christ's flock in a humble, peaceable and disinterested way, and earning everybody's approval over so long a period of time. How happy those presbyters must be who have directly passed away, with a lifetime of faithfulness behind them; they at least need fear no eviction from the security they are now enjoying. Clement of Rome, To the Corinthians 42.44. |
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