Too many laborers are ruining the harvest
7 min read
The harvest that Jesus speaks of here is the gathering of people to bring them to faith in him. This harvest is Jesus' harvest. Jesus sent out his disciples as workers of his harvest.
Too many self-appointed laborers
In the days of Jesus, the harvest was truly plentiful, and the laborers were very few. Today, we have a different problem. There are so many self-appointed laborers that they are trampling over the Lord's harvest and ruining it.
Self-appointed laborers are those that are not truly called, discipled, and sent by Jesus. Instead, they decide to become preachers for the worldly benefits, such as a nice salary, a sense of power and authority, and endless attention.
Because they are not truly disciples of Jesus, self-appointed laborers end up hindering the Lord's harvest. They hinder the harvest with their false teachings and their lifestyle that is not submitted to Jesus.
People end up walking away from the message of the Bible when they come face-to-face with the selfish ambition and greed demonstrated by self-appointed laborers.
Rather than praying for more laborers to go forth into the harvest today, we need to pray that the self-appointed laborers stop ruining the harvest. The best thing they can do for the harvest is to leave and to go sit at the feet of Jesus. They still have a lot to learn from Jesus.
The ministry situation today
The ministry situation today in organized religion is very different from Bible times. Today, ministry is often associated to position, influence, title, status, special privileges, and the most desired of all, financial compensation.
Today's ministry situation can be traced back to the middle of the second century, where a division was created between religious "ministers" and "regular people". Less than 100 years after the last apostle died, the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9) was replaced by a clergy/laity division that continues to this day.
Today, we continue to make the same mistake. We think that ministers are special and should be honored more than lay people. Permitting ministers to receive special treatment has caused people who crave this special treatment to be attracted to the ministry. They are there, not because God called them to be there, but because they felt an attraction to the special treatment.
Ministry in the early church
The ministry situation in the Early Church of the first century was very different. In those days, answering the call to ministry was to accept suffering, and even death. Jesus, the suffering servant, taught his followers that the disciple is not above his master (Luke 6:40). If they persecuted and killed their master, they would do the same to anyone who followed him.
Therefore, those who chose to follow Jesus made sure to count the cost (Luke 14:28-29). It would most likely cost them their life. They did not go into ministry for selfish reasons or to benefit from special treatment. The only special treatment they would get was persecution and death.
The ministry of Archippus
Archippus had to be encouraged to fulfill the ministry God had given him. This is because ministry was not something that anyone would dare pursue on their own. In the Early Church, people did not pursue ministry. Ministry pursued them. There was no power hierarchy in ministry. Ministry offered no financial benefits and promised nothing in terms of fame and privilege.
Archippus did not self-appoint himself into ministry. Archippus was not trying to create his own ministry or start his own church. Archippus had received a ministry from the Lord but he had not yet fulfilled it.
Archippus was equipped and called by the Lord to do something, but he remained stagnant about it. He most likely needed to be encouraged to fulfill his ministry calling.
It usually the ones with nothing to say that are the ones that we hear preaching. They are the ones who can't wait for a platform to speak. On the other hand, those who genuinely have something good to share from the Lord often have to be encouraged to share it.
The ministry of Timothy
Timothy also had to be encouraged by apostle Paul to exercise the gift he received from God. Timothy needed to be more proactive about serving the Body of Christ as a faithful servant. It was not humility that held Timothy back from serving, it was fear.
Archippus was just like Timothy. Archippus knew that he had received a ministry from the Lord but he was reluctant to move forward with it. Archippus and Timothy would have probably preferred to remain behind the scenes and to live life in the shadows. However, Paul would not allow them to continue to ignore the calling of God without a word of reminder and encouragement.
The apostle Paul could not fulfill the ministry of Archippus. It was Archippus who had to do it. Paul did not tell Archippus or Timothy how to fulfill the ministry they had received. That was between them and God. Paul's goal was simply to motivate them to take their gifts and ministries seriously.
Ministry in the Early Church was hard and they needed all the encouragement possible to fulfill it. In comparison, organized religion makes ministry seem "easy" today. As a result, it attracts many charlatans because it doesn't cost them their life to do it.
Remember my chains
Apostle Paul's final exhortation to Archippus is, "Remember my chains."
Paul wants Archippus to remember Paul's chains. In an effort to fulfill his own ministry, Paul often found himself in prison, bound in chains. Paul didn't want Archippus to quit his ministry when it got hard. Archippus needed to remember that even Paul had it hard.
We don't hear any priests and pastors today that are encouraging others with a phrase such as "Remember my chains."
Ministry in the Early Church was all about self-denial. Meanwhile, ministry today is all about self-indulgence. Many of today's preachers became preachers for the attention, the power, the money, the fashion, the cars, the private jets, and the mansions.
Archippus is mentioned only one more time in the Bible. A few years later, when writing to Philemon, Paul greeted "Archippus our fellow soldier" (Philemon 2). To be called a fellow soldier of Paul's, it means that Archippus followed Paul's exhortation and fulfilled the ministry that God had called him to.
We don't need clergy
We don't need clergy. There shouldn't be any specially ordained ministers. Under the new covenant, we are all called to be ministers (2 Corinthians 3:6).
If every person who follows Jesus would take hold of the ministry that they received from him, we would no longer need so-called "professional" clergymen. We would no longer need individuals who make a religious career out of ministry with fancy titles such as "Senior Pastor", "Bishop", "Reverend", "Pope", "Pontiff", etc.
When we are unwilling to fulfill the ministry we received from the Lord, it creates a void in the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:5). As a result, clergymen show up, eager to try filling this void by imposing their religious hierarchies and religious systems.
We, the so-called "laity", must no longer be content with remaining the laity. Laity does not mean lazy. We should not be satisfied with passively sitting in the pews while we depend on someone else to pray and read the Bible for us. It's this very passive behavior from laity that empowered many dishonest preachers to take hold of the pulpit for all the wrong reasons.