# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1848_S33
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 33 —

he immediately adds: "Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work
with you for your joy." Likewise, when this same apostle had urgently
exhorted this congregation at Corinth concerning a collection for the poor,
he adds: "I say this not as a command, but to prove, by the earnestness of
others, that your love also is genuine." Earlier still, the apostle had
told the Corinthians, when they paid more attention to the persons than to
the word preached by them: "Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? They are servants
through whom you believed. So let no one boast in men. For all things are
yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or
the present or the future — all are yours. And you are Christ's, and Christ
is God's." Even in elections and appointments of officers for the
congregations' temporal needs, the apostles therefore made no claim to a
right to carry these out by themselves alone.

When almoners were to be chosen at Jerusalem, the apostles addressed the
congregation thus: "Brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good
repute, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this
duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the
word." Whereupon it is said: "And what they said pleased the whole
gathering, and they chose Stephen and so forth. These they set before the
apostles." Further, according to the account in Acts chapter 21, when Paul
had come under suspicion among the congregation at Jerusalem as an enemy of
the Mosaic law, and when he finally arrived at Jerusalem himself on his
journey, James and the elders did not want to decide the matter by
themselves alone, nor to force the congregation to be content with their
judgment; rather, the whole church council was immediately of one voice:
"What then is to be done? The assembly must certainly come together, for
they will hear that you have come." Further, according to Acts 15, when a
dispute arose among the Christians at Antioch over whether Gentile converts
had to be circumcised, and Paul and Barnabas could not settle the divided
crowd, the congregation chose them and others, whom it sent as its delegates
to Jerusalem, so that counsel might be sought there, where not only a Peter
and a James were present but also the greatest number of converted and
respected Jews. What happens? The apostles and elders assemble to examine
the matter; but even they do not dare exclude the congregation; everyone
comes together; speech and counter-speech arise from various sides; at last
Peter and James stand up and set the matter in its proper light. A joint
decision is then reached and set down in a synodical letter, which reads:
"We, the apostles and the elders and the brothers — it has seemed good to
us, having come together with one accord." From this we see how far the
holy apostles were from allowing themselves any lordship over the
congregations. Even in the most important church assemblies, they granted
the so-called laity no less right, no less seat and deciding vote, than
themselves.

Therefore they also faithfully and earnestly warn all who hold an office
in the church against any desire to lord it over others. Among other
things, Peter writes: "The elders among you I exhort, as a fellow elder:
Shepherd the flock of Christ that is entrusted to you, exercising oversight,
not under compulsion but willingly; not for shameful gain, but...