Our Competency Comes From Christ Alone

2Co 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15 For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?

Or as the KJV says, “who is sufficient for these things?”

Who, in and of themselves, or even with a team of coaches and cheerleaders behind them, is sufficient to represent Christ to elect and non-elect in such a way that they actually experience the presence and the essence of the living Christ so that they feel either encouraged or condemned?

I am not sufficient. The elders are not sufficient. And we are not deluded by some mirage of hierarchy that would suggest that anyone living on this planet is sufficient, hence we are driven to look to Christ and his sufficiency in order to think we might accomplish anything for him in ministry.

Jesus said, “…apart from ME you can do nothing.” John 15:5

Jesus is our sufficiency in ministry, not a more energetic elder’s team, a more functional building, a better ministry plan, more compatible ministry partners or a thousand other excuses we might make to justify stepping back from ministry when feeling our insufficiency rather than simply throwing ourselves on the mercy of Christ and begging, “Use me! Fill me! Provide for me! Give me the words and use them to change and comfort your people and to warn those who do not seem to care.”

The church, you, do ministry not because we are sufficient, but because He is. Any other reason would be vanity.

2Co 3:5 It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. 6 He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant.