“By Silvano, your faithful brother, who cares to me, I wrote briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you are. (I Peter 5:12)
The Amanuenses of classical Rome were people (almost always slaves) with the gift of writing, so they devoted themselves to copying books, another work of these men was to write letters, which were dictated by others who did not have the ability to write. It is not difficult to see how important these men’s lives were to history, as they were responsible for writing several books in ancient times.
- Now imagine its importance to Christianity.
- How much valuable information exists today because of the existence of such men.
- How honorable was the existence of the Copyist monks.
- Who were used by God to keep the sacred scriptures on earth.
- Everyone knows that Paulo dictated almost all his letters so that Amanuense could write; how many precious truths we would have missed if God had not provided such men in the apostle’s life; even Peter.
- As in the text quoted.
- Used these men in the composition of his epistles.
As I pray to the Lord to thank them for their existence throughout history, I also pray that God will raise up modern Amanuenses on earth. I am not talking about people who are dedicated to writing, but of men and women of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, who give their lives to spread the message of Christ preached by others, just as the ancient Amanuenses did.
Not only do we need great preachers, but also people willing to carry this message as much as possible using their particular gifts. Who knows that the gift of speaking another language will not be able to translate a good book?Who knows, the gift of synchronizing subtitles can be used to make visible some preaching to people with hearing impairments Why not dedicate the gift of posting videos to improve the appearance of preaching a good theologian?
Some people may be surprised that I call these personal skills “gifts,” but that’s what they are. One of the great losses of Christianity is the idea that God’s men can only be used to work when they hold a microphone in front of A large part of Christians live waiting for a post, from there, to devote themselves to the Work of the Lord. We must always learn from what God told Moses about Bezalel when choosing craftsmen for the tabernacle:
Read carefully what the text says. God Himself says he filled Bezalel with wisdom, understanding, and science. All this with one purpose: to develop projects and sculpt in various materials. Can we have the same spirit these days? God, as in the time of Exodus, always gives us human talents to use these skills for His Kingdom. It can be argued that personal talents are instruments that we must use to spread the gospel of the Kingdom.
Remember what happened in Acts 6, when the Greeks murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were despised in daily ministry, because of such circumstances, the Apostles gathered and said:
“It is unreasonable for us to leave the word of God and serve the tables; choose, brethren, from among you, seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we are preparing for this important matter. But we will persevere in prayer and speech ministry (AT 6. 2-4).
Notice how glorious the Apostles’ response was, they say that serving the tables was an important matter because it would help them devote themselves only to the ministry of the word, few respectable men, filled with the Holy Ghost and wisdom, want to serve the tables. in the midst of today’s evangelization. This is for one reason only: no one remembers the names of those who serve the tables. No one remembers the face of an amanuense from the past. There is no biography of temple sculptors.
Only when we abandon this satanic quest for recognition will we truly understand the diversity of ministries. Reader, you must understand that you may not be called to teach, but you may be called to support those who teach. The Lord and analyze yourself so that God will guide you Who knows, maybe you are called to be a modern amanuense?
Author: Yago Martins, voltemos ao Evangelho Authorization Contributor: You are authorized and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that you do not modify it in any way and do not use it for commercial purposes. a link to this document on our website and the author’s reference is predictable.