For there stood by me this night the angel of
God
One of the ministering, spirits that stand before God, and who
was sent by him to the apostle; and appeared to him, either in a
vision by a dream, or rather when he was awake, and stood by him,
as he was praying for deliverance from the storm; for it is most
likely that the apostle should be engaged at such a time as this:
whose I am, and whom I serve:
meaning not the angel, but God, whose the angel was; and his the
apostle was, by electing, redeeming, and calling grace; God the
Father had chosen him in his Son unto salvation; and Christ had
redeemed him by his blood; and the Holy Spirit had called him by
his grace; and he was not only the Lord's in common, as all other
saints are, but he was his apostle and minister, and served him
in the ministration of the Gospel of Christ, as well as from a
principle of grace, obeyed the law of God, and was subject to the
ordinances of Christ; in all which he served with great pleasure
and cheerfulness, diligence, constancy, and faithfulness; from
right principles, and with right views, being constrained by
love, and influenced by the consideration of the relation he
stood in to God. And all this was not peculiar to the apostle,
but common to all the saints, excepting that of his being an
apostle and minister of the Gospel: and the consideration of
their relation to God has the same influence upon them it had
upon him; they are not their own, nor are they the servants of
men, nor do they belong to Satan, nor even to the ministering
angels, but they are the Lord's; not merely by creation, as all
men are, but in a way of special grace: they are Jehovah the
Father's, to whom he bears a peculiar love and favour, and whom
he has chosen in his Son for his peculiar people; and which is
made manifest and known by drawing them with loving kindness to
himself in the effectual calling; by his Gospel coming in power
to them; by the blessings of the covenant of grace being bestowed
on them; and by the spirit of adoption witnessing to them, that
they are the children of God: they are Jehovah the Son's, they
are his people made willing in the day of his power; they are his
portion assigned him by his Father; they are his spouse and
bride, whom he has betrothed to himself; they are his children,
to whom he stands in the relation of the everlasting Father; and
they are his sheep the Father has given him, and he has laid down
his life for; all which appears by their having his Spirit, as a
Spirit of regeneration and sanctification, without which none are
openly and manifestatively his: and they are Jehovah the
Spirit's; they are his regenerated and sanctified ones; they are
his workmanship, having his good work of grace begun and carrying
on in their souls; they are his temples in which he dwells; he
has the possession of them, and will not leave them till he has
brought them safe to glory: and under all this evidence, and
especially through the testimony of the Spirit of God unto them,
they call themselves the Lord's, as the apostle here does, and
this engages them to serve him. The natural man has no desire,
but an aversion to the service of God; converted men are willing
to serve him, and delight to do it; they serve God in the best
manner they can, in righteousness and true holiness, in an
acceptable manner, with reverence and godly fear, and heartily
and willingly; as appears by the pleasure they take in being
called the servants of God, by disclaiming all other lords, by
running all risks to serve the Lord, and by lamenting it, that
they serve him no better.