What is a Christian missionary?

It is hard to define a missionary. Perhaps the best definition to be found is this: a missionary is one who leaves a country where there are many Christians to make the gospel known in a land where there are few or none. Some "missionaries" that we know hardly come under this heading, but it is a question whether they should be called "missionaries," and not simply evangelists overseas.

A true missionary is an evangelist in the most real sense of the word. He goes to those in darkness to bring them the light. He makes Christ known to those who are in ignorance of Him. Whatever else he does, whether medical or educational work is secondary to this.

Perhaps one of the snares of the mission field is not putting first things first. It is often necessary in the work of the Lord among heathen tribes to reduce their language to writing, and teach the natives to read, so that they may read the Word of God. If the supreme idea in teaching them to read is not to make them “wise to salvation,” then the missionary has sunk to the level of being a mere civilising agent. The same can be said of medical missionaries. If their beneficent and admirable work has not the supreme urge of reaching souls through bodies, even as our Lord healed diseases and sicknesses and demoniacal, possessions, then the medical missionary has lost his real meaning in the mission field. Our Lord said, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He did not say that He came to heal diseases, though He healed them more than any.

What was the testimony of the Apostle all through his career? We are told that he preached “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 21). This he did not only publicly, but he went from house to house with this message. If this marked all Christian workers what a revival there would be of gospel interest, it is faithfulness to the fundamental message of the Gospel that the Lord looks for. Modernism and Ritualism do not breed missionaries, nor produce money to carry on the work of the Lord, in a way that firm belief in the Scriptures, and in the fundamentals of the gospel do. We believe this is a VITAL matter. It ought to be of the deepest concern to each one. And further the line of success in the mission field is just the same line that will bring success in the home field, in indoor and open-air work, in Sunday Schools, in Bible classes, in visiting hospitals and from house to house. Let us see to it that the message is one that God can bless.

An evangelist is one who possesses a bona fide gift from Christ, the Head of the Church. If a man does not have this gift he is not an evangelist, though able to speak ever so fluently. We believe there is one feature which invariably characterizes a true evangelist — an intense love for souls and a thirsting for their salvation so Christ may be magnified. The glory of Christ must ever be the ruling object with every workman, whatever be his gift. We believe the evangelist ought to look for results and confidently expect them, just as the farmer looks for the fruit of his labor. He may have to exercise “long patience,” but he should fully count on God for results. An evangelist is, of necessity, more or less a traveler. The world is his sphere, but the Lord will ever guide those who simply wait on Him, having no will of their own, no personal aim or object.

Evangelists, as their names would suggest, are heralds of the glad tidings, preachers of the gospel of the grace of God, who awaken the careless and win souls to Christ. It is not every one who is an evangelist, though all should have the love of souls, and be ready to point the sinner to Christ. But men who are evangelists by gift have a true passion for souls, true longing and travailing in birth for them; they are instructed how to present the gospel, how to gather in the souls, to distinguish true anxiety from false, and reality from mere profession. It is their joy to bring sinners to Christ, to see those who were in the world brought into the Church. The evangelist is a man of prayer, for he realizes that the work is all of God, and that "methods" are but of little worth. He is a man of faith, who counts on the living God. He is a student of Scripture, that he may present only the truth to souls. He is a man of courage, not fearing to go even where "bonds and imprisonment" may await him, that he may carry the glorious gospel of the blessed God to the perishing. He is a man of energy, instant in season, out of season. He is a man of perseverance, not discouraged if he fails to see immediate fruit from his labor. Lastly, he is a man of humility, glorying in another, saying from the heart, "Not I, but the grace of God which was with me."

"Evangelists, as their names would suggest, are heralds of the glad tidings, preachers of the Gospel of the grace of God, who awaken the careless and win souls to Christ. It is not everyone who is an evangelist, though all should have the love of souls, and be ready to point the sinner to Christ. But men who are evangelists by gift have a true passion for souls, true longing and travailing in birth for them; they are instructed how to present the Gospel, how to gather in the souls, to distinguish true anxiety from false and reality from mere profession. It is their joy to bring sinners to Christ, to see those who were in the world brought into the Church.

One other gift remains to be noticed — that of the evangelist (Eph. 4:11). It comes after "prophets," but we have reserved it because of its character. As the name imports, the work of an evangelist is to preach the gospel; and hence the object of his ministry is not the Church, but the world. Our Lord Himself describes the responsibility of the evangelist when He commands His apostles, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). To confine him therefore in his service to a single congregation, or even a single town or city, would be to ignore the object of the gift. Hence Paul, speaking of himself in this character, says, "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also" (Rom. 1:14-15).

The evangelist preaches the good news of God; he proclaims the gift of life eternal and remission of sins to all such as believe in Jesus. The pastor and teacher, publicly and privately, tells the whole counsel of God to the faithful; that they may be built up in the truth and filled with the knowledge of His will, so as to walk worthily of the Lord and to please Him in all respects.

Evangelists carry the gospel of the grace of God to the world to bring people to the Lord Jesus. Yet it is evident here that evangelists are not to leave the newly-converted without further help, for all these gifts have in view the proper functioning of every member of the body of Christ in help one to another. The true evangelist never sends a new-born babe in Christ back into spiritual darkness, but sees to it that the new believer is built up and strengthened in the Word of God.

Every Christian should aim to be a winner of others to faith in the Saviour. Each may have his hook and line, baited with the gospel message, the hook kept sharp by prayer. An evangelist, however, does more than this. He fishes with a net. He is divinely qualified, commissioned and sent to open men's eyes, and to turn them from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins (Acts 26:18). Let us heartily thank God for all such. Let us help them by our prayers and in every possible way.

And then there was another side: "But your missionary and ministrant for my need." I have followed Bishop Moule in thus translating. The Greek work is apostolon (our word apostle), and originally meant simply "a messenger, one sent on a mission." (Abbott-Smith), and is so used in John 13:16, and perhaps 2 Cor. 8:23. But Luke 6:13 gives to The Twelve a special significance that was extended to only a very few, and evidently not intended by Paul in this instance: and yet Epaphroditus was more than just a messenger. He was, verily, "one sent on a mission," and a very sacred mission: and it is hoped that the word missionary (from a Latin word to send) will convey something of this sacredness.