"If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good min-
ister of Jesus Christ . . . "
Wow--just *what* instruction will make a man "a good minister of Jesus Christ"? The words that preceded: the warning that heretics would come along and preach a "gospel" of self-deprivation; that (rather) "every creature of of God is [actually] good," (v. 4a); and that churchmen are to be thankful for *everything* good that God gives them, and that they are to "sanctify" those things, by prayer (vv. 4b-5).
Why does that teaching make a minister a "good" servant of Christ? Because it points people to the One (Jesus) who is all-good. Also it directs sinners *away* from all false religions, and their specious claims of salvation (based on works, law, or self).
[Puritan quote of the day: "A true Christian grows in beauty. Grace is the best complexion of the soul. It is, at the first planting, like Rachel: fair to look upon, but, the more it lives, the more it sends forth its rays of beauty." --Thomas Watson, in, "The Art of Divine Con-
tentment"]
