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“Engaging in the Holy Work of the Good News”The Watchtower—1981 | January 1
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“The undeserved kindness [was] given to me from God for me to be a public servant of Christ Jesus to the nations, engaging in the holy work of the good news.”—Rom. 15:15, 16.
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“Engaging in the Holy Work of the Good News”The Watchtower—1981 | January 1
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In Romans 15:16 he called himself “a public servant of Christ Jesus to the nations.” What did that ‘service’ entail? He added that he was “engaging in the holy work of the good news of God, in order that the offering, namely, these nations, might prove to be acceptable.” What does that mean?
7 At Romans 15:16 we have the only use in the Bible of a Greek verb (hierourgounta) that means ‘to work or engage in a sacred thing.’a Thus Paul was saying that he was actively engaged in the holy or sacred work of preaching the good news of God, the Christian message, to people of the nations. Those who accepted the message and became Christians were like an offering made to God, an offering that Jehovah approved of and blessed with his spirit.—Rom. 1:1, 16.
8. How did Paul carry out this work among Jews?
8 How did Paul and others do this “holy work of the good news of God,” preaching the Christian message? The “good news” could save lives, so they would want to reach as many persons as possible. At times Paul, himself a Jew, was able to address Jews assembled in synagogues. (Acts 13:14-42; 14:1; 18:4) But could he and other Christians reach the majority of the “nations,” the non-Jews?
9. What methods could early Christians use to aid non-Jews?
9 Christians could speak to persons in public places, such as the marketplace. (Acts 17:17-22) Yet it is unlikely that doing just that would reach virtually all persons. What about going to the homes of persons, as Jesus’ disciples did when he sent them out to preach in various cities? (Matt. 10:5-13; Luke 9:2-6) The early Christians used this method, too, as they enthusiastically ‘engaged in the holy work’ of spreading Christianity to all peoples.
10. What evidence is there that house-to-house witnessing was done to locate and help unbelievers?
10 We can see this from comments Paul made to men who had become elders in the Ephesian congregation. Speaking about his past preaching, when he had introduced Christianity to them, Paul said: “I did not neglect to preach to you about those things which were good for your souls, and I taught in the streets and from house to house, thus testifying both to the Jews and to the Arameans [or, Gentiles] about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.” (Acts 20:20, 21, translated from Syriac by George M. Lamsa)b Clearly, Paul was here speaking of his efforts to preach to these men when they were yet unbelievers, persons needing to repent and put faith in Jesus. Paul went to the homes of such unbelievers. He had no reason to feel hesitant about such preaching to strangers, for he was doing a “holy work” that God approved of and would bless.
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