7 of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.
Having explained the mystery in verses two through six, Paul turned to his ministry of distributing the idea of the mystery to the Gentiles. Verse seven is transitional from the first six verses, dealing with communication of the mystery beginning with verse eight.
of which [the gospel] I became a minister
Paul became a minister of the dispensation of grace.
according to the gift of the grace of God
It was by a gift of “grace” that God gave Paul the privilege to minister to the church. “Grace” is a repeated concept (vv. 2, 7, 8).
1 Co 15:10, But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
given to me
God initiated Paul’s ministry of grace.
by the effective working of His power.
Paul did not make himself a minister; God made him a servant of the gospel (Ac 26:16). The idea of the church did not come from Paul’s ingenuity but from the hand of God. It is what God did.
PRINCIPLE:
All of us are in ministry because of the grace of God and not because of who or what we are.
APPLICATION:
God does not use us in His service because we are better than others. Neither is it because of our leadership, personality, or status in society. God appoints us to service. Any other system for service is a usurpation of God’s will. Many today arrogate to themselves the prerogative of ministering the gospel (Jer 23:21, 32).
Any ministry that we might have we must think of as a service. Those who lose their sense of servanthood lose effectiveness in ministry. Dependence on the Lord is at the heart of ministry (2 Co 12:9-10).
