Let us never for a moment admit in our innermost thoughts that the ministry is a profession, or a calling that we follow as a matter of business. We must stand uncompromisingly against professionalism in our lives. We must fight it day and night.
We are in the ministry because God calls us to win souls. By any means and every means we are to " save some." Let us forget that we are preachers as we stand before the people, and remember only that we are sinners who have found the Saviour, and have heard God's call to go out and tell others of His grace and power. Surely the apostle Paul revealed the unprofessional view that he had of his work when in his later years he wrote: " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 1 Tim. 1:15.
Let us pray for the daily experience of grace in our own hearts, subduing our iniquities, that will take formalism and professionalism out of our lives. " First for his own sins, and then for the people's," is the order of experience that will keep us from formalism and professionalism which constantly threaten us.
Washington, D. C.
