The secret of heart to heart ministry
February 6, 2022
Commentary
There are three prevailing myths concerning the ministry:
1. Professionalism – Ministry requires money & education.
2. Intellectualism – Ministry is primarily the imparting of knowledge.
3. Ritualism – Ministry only happens on Sunday Morning
Real ministry shows compassion that flows from one heart to another. It is true that the deepest theology ever written flows from Paul’s pen, but his writings changed the world because they first touched the human heart. This passage shows the secret of his heart-to-heart ministry:
1. A grateful heart (v. 8). “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all …”
2. A praying heart (vv. 9-10). “Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.”
3. A longing heart (vv. 11-13). “For I long to see you …”
4. An indebted heart (v. 14). “I am a debtor …”
5. An eager heart (v. 15). “I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.”
Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel because he knew that it came from God (v. 16). He was taking to sinful Rome the one message that had the power to change men’s lives. He had seen this Gospel work in other wicked cities, such as Corinth and Ephesus, and he knew that it would also work in Rome. The world does not need better education, more social reform, or new ideas in religion. It needs the gospel that can make drunken men sober, crooked men straight, and sensual women pure.
Application
Only two things will last forever - the Word of God and people. What am I doing this week that will last forever? I want to have more compassion for people today than I had yesterday.
Romans 1:8– 17 (NET)
8 First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, is my witness that I continually remember you 10 and I always ask in my prayers, if perhaps now at last I may succeed in visiting you according to the will of God. 11 For I long to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, 12 that is, that we may be mutually comforted by one another’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often intended to come to you (and was prevented until now), so that I may have some fruit even among you, just as I already have among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 Thus I am eager also to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.”