Handelingen 6:4

4 Maar wij zullen volharden in het gebed, en in de bediening des Woords.

Handelingen 6:4 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 6:4

But we will give ourselves continually to prayer
Both in private for themselves, and the church; and in the houses and families of the saints, with the sick and distressed;. and in public, in the temple, or in whatsoever place they met for public worship:

and to the ministry of the word;
the preaching of the Gospel, to which prayer is absolutely prerequisite, and with which it is always to be joined. These two, prayer and preaching, are the principal employment of a Gospel minister, and are what he ought to be concerned in, not only now and then, but what he should give himself up unto wholly, that his profiting might appear; and what he should be continually exercised and employed in: and if parting with that branch of the ministerial function, the care of the secular affairs of the church, and of the poor of it, was necessary in the apostles, that they might be more at leisure to attend to the more important and useful duties of prayer and preaching; it therefore seems necessary that those who are called to labour in the word and doctrine, if possible, should be exempt from all worldly business and employment; that of the ministry being sufficient to engross all a man's time and thoughts.

Handelingen 6:4 In-Context

2 En de twaalven riepen de menigte der discipelen tot zich, en zeiden: Het is niet behoorlijk, dat wij het Woord Gods nalaten, en de tafelen dienen.

3 Ziet dan om, broeders, naar zeven mannen uit u, die goede getuigenis hebben, vol des Heiligen Geestes en der wijsheid, welke wij mogen stellen over deze nodige zaak.

4 Maar wij zullen volharden in het gebed, en in de bediening des Woords.

5 En dit woord behaagde aan al de menigte; en zij verkoren Stefanus, een man vol des geloofs en des Heiligen Geestes, en Filippus, en Prochorus, en Nicanor, en Timon, en Parmenas, en Nicolaus, een Jodengenoot van Antiochie;

6 Welken zij voor de apostelen stelden; en dezen, als zij gebeden hadden, legden hun de handen op.