# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1855_S4
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

4                    On the Doctrine of the Holy Office of the Ministry.

...of faith to depart from it. But here that very analogy obliges me, as we shall explain further below, to stand firm on this point. If God gives himself, with everything that he is and has (Song of Songs 2:16; 6:2; cf. Exod. 20:2), then to the one to whom everything is given, to whom the world with all that is within it and above it is given as property, to him, of course, the apostolic office of the ministry is given as well — not merely for his use and benefit (this restriction is justified by no statement of Scripture), but as his possession, as his own property. The believers are the young princes to whom the King, their Father, gives all things for their service, each in the measure that befits it: his only-begotten, essential Son (Matt. 20:28), the heavenly hosts (Heb. 1:14), all that is high and deep, all the power and wisdom of this world, life and death, things present and things to come (Rom. 8:28, esp. vv. 32, 31, 33–39; Gal. 4:1–7; Rom. 4:13; 1 Cor. 6:2) — and thus also the office of preachers, which they are to appoint from among themselves. (Cf. Luther on Psalm 117, § 80 below — unless the Lord, where necessity requires it, sets certain ones apart in a direct manner.) This latter point is established as incontrovertibly clear, not only from the history that, in the further course of things, even apostles and prophets proceeded mediately out of the congregation (cf. Acts 11:22; 14:14; Phil. 2:25; 1 Cor. 14:29), but also from the admonition of 1 Cor. 3:21, that believers should not, say, boast of belonging to a preacher (ch. 1:12) — except in necessary opposition to ambiguous bands of heretics — just as they can rather boast of belonging to Christ (v. 23, directly and without the intervention of any man), provided only that they do not thereby at the same time despise his servants — but rather the preachers should boast of belonging to the believers (2 Cor. 4:5), being at the same time, as their servants for Jesus' sake, the believers' precious good, their granted treasure and riches; for the one whom someone serves possesses him, provided nothing further is added that would make it impossible to hand over the service itself to him as well. (Blessed are the faithful servants who are themselves found to be believers — who, as children, as heirs, begotten in the womb of the spiritual mother and raised great at her breasts and by her blessing, have fled back again out of the wanderings of the world to that same refuge; then they are not mere stewards, administrators of an office to which a lord and a lady appointed them, but, together with all the rest, are themselves the lords and owners, possessors of all the goods that have been given to the believers! And they shall shine like the splendor of heaven and like the stars, forever and ever. As the sowing, so shall the harvest be. *)

*) Note. Compare v. 8 of Paul Gerhardt's hymn "Herr, ich will gar gerne bleiben" ["Lord, I will gladly remain"]: Make me a valiant watchman, whose eyes stay open when the fairest of your treasures, your children, fall asleep, when the house goes to bed, and the thief lurks with cunning after his neighbor's goods and money — ah, then grant that I may give the alarm! And v. 10: If I have this, then my will is at rest, for I have you yourself, you, immeasurable fullness of that which shall refresh me forever in heaven. Well for me, well, and well again! If God's fullness is to refresh me, what could I lack?