# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1855_S260
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

260 How Are Truly Lutheran Congregations Founded, etc.

All of which the devil knows especially well how to exploit, both by himself and in alliance with the world and the flesh.

After these general preliminary remarks, we now approach more closely the solution of our task, which we shall attempt here by means of two questions and their answers.

1. What is the distinctive spirit and disposition of a faithful Lutheran pastor?

2. What are the principal parts of his official ministry?

As to 1. The short answer to this question is: the evangelical spirit; that is, he must be moved and driven, in his care for every individual soul entrusted to him and in every individual exercise of his pastoral care, by holy zeal for God’s glory and by Christ’s sincerely compassionate, teaching, rebuking, comforting, tirelessly active and patient, interceding, persevering and hoping, faithful and wise love. What matters here is that he keep as continually as possible before his eyes the lofty and sublime example of the great Chief Shepherd and Bishop of his own soul, who contended just as powerfully for God’s glory and for His pure evangelical doctrine, brought forth from the Father’s bosom, concerning His fully valid and all-sufficient merit, against the objections of the self-righteous, work-righteous Pharisees who were zealous for their ordinances and human commandments, as He, in heartfelt compassion and fervent love, received the repentant tax collectors and sinners, cast the devils out of Mary Magdalene, who had been possessed sevenfold, forgave the sins of the adulteress and the notoriously disreputable prostitute of the city, lodged with Zacchaeus, who had grown old in sins of unrighteousness but now longed for salvation, and finally, at the lowest stage of His own humiliation, raised the murderer on the cross beside Him through His gracious absolution into heaven with Himself as the firstfruits of those blessed under the New Testament. In short, in His tirelessly seeking shepherd’s love and nurturing shepherd’s faithfulness, He sought again what was lost, brought back what had strayed, healed what was wounded, cared for the weak, such as His own disciples, and continually went after even the hundredth lost sheep. In this connection one must also keep in view, for example, the apostle Paul, a human being like us, who, in order to encourage the witnesses of his faithful labor of love—the elders of the congregation at Ephesus—to follow him diligently, spoke as follows in his farewell words at Miletus, Acts 20:31: “Therefore be vigilant, and remember that for three years I did not cease night and day to admonish every one with tears.” For although no servant of the Lutheran, that is, orthodox Church possesses or ought to possess apostolic gifts of the Spirit and of miracles, every one of them could surely come nearer to Paul in fervency of love if, as constantly as that precious apostle, he penitently recognized himself in the mirror of the Law as the chief of sinners and, like him, lived just as deeply and fully in and from the grace of God in Christ and in justifying faith, and