As to the other clauses there is less difficulty. Let him who is ordained a minister, he says,
execute his office in ministering; nor let him think, that he has been admitted into that degree for
himself, but for others; as though he had said, “Let him fulfill his office by ministering faithfully,
that he may answer to his name.” So also he immediately adds with regard to teachers; for by the
word teaching, he recommends sound edification, according to this import, — “Let him who excels
in teaching know that the end is, that the Church may be really instructed; and let him study this
one thing, that he may render the Church more informed by his teaching:” for a teacher is he who
forms and builds the Church by the word of truth. Let him also who excels in the gift of exhorting,
have this in view, to render his exhortation effectual.
But these offices have much affinity and even connection; not however that they were not
different. No one indeed could exhort, except by doctrine: yet he who teaches is not therefore
endued with the qualification to exhort. But no one prophesies or teaches or exhorts, without at the
same time ministering. But it is enough if we preserve that distinction which we find to be in God’s
gifts, and which we know to be adapted to produce order in the Church.^389
8.Or he who gives, let him do so in simplicity, etc. From the former clauses we have clearly
seen, that he teaches us here the legitimate use of God’s gifts. By the μεταδιδούντοις, the givers,
of whom he speaks here, he did not understand those who gave of their own property, but the
deacons, who presided in dispensing the public charities of the Church; and by the ἐλούντοις, those
who showed mercy, he meant the widows, and other ministers, who were appointed to take care of
the sick, according to the custom of the ancient Church: for there were two different offices, — to
provide necessaries for the poor, and to attend to their condition. But to the first he recommends
simplicity, so that without fraud or respect of persons they were faithfully to administer what was
entrusted to them. He required the services of the other party to be rendered with cheerfulness, lest
by their peevishness (which often happens) they marred the favor conferred by them. For as nothing
gives more solace to the sick or to any one otherwise distressed, than to see men cheerful and
prompt in assisting them; so to observe sadness in the countenance of those by whom assistance is
given, makes them to feel themselves despised.
Though he rightly calls those προϊστάμενους presidents, to whom was committed the government
of the Church, (and they were the elders, who presided over and ruled others and exercised
discipline;) yet what he says of these may be extended universally to all kinds of governors: for no
small solicitude is required from those who provide for the safety of all, and no small diligence is
(^389) Critics have found it difficult to distinguish between these offices. The word , ministry is taken sometimes in a restricted
sense, as meaning deaconship, an office appointed to manage the temporal affairs of the Church, Acts 6:1-3; 1 Timothy 3:8-13;
and sometimes in a general sense, as signifying the ministerial office, 2 Corinthians 6:3; Ephesians 3:7; Colossians 1:23. As the
“teacher” and “exhorter” are mentioned, some think that the deaconship is to be understood here, and that the Apostle first
mentioned the highest office, next to the apostleship — prophecy, and the lowest — the deaconship, and afterwards named the
intervening offices — those of teachers and exhorters.
But what are we to think of those mentioned in the following clauses? Stuart thinks that they were not public officers, but
private individuals, and he has sustained this opinion by some very cogent reasons. The form of the sentence is here changed;
and the Apostle, having mentioned the deaconship, cannot be supposed to have referred to the same again. The word that seems
to stand in the way of this view is what is commonly rendered “ruler,” or, “he who rules:” but μ , as our author shows,
means a helper, an assistant, (see Romans 16:2,) as well as a ruler; it means to stand over, either for the purpose of taking care
of, assisting, protecting others, or of presiding over, ruling, guiding them. Then , with promptness or diligence, will better
agree with the former than with the latter idea. The other two clauses correspond also more with this view than with the other.
It has been said, that if a distributor of alms had been intended, the word would have been and not μ . See Ephesians
4:28. The expression , means “with liberality, or liberally.” See 2 Corinthians 8:2; 2 Corinthians 9:11,13; James 1:5. — Ed.