Part 2 - The Minister Must First Be Saved

To emphasize the standard is not to be mean-spirited, nor should it be viewed as censorious. We exercise the same judgement when trusting our health to the diagnosis of a qualified physician, or place ourselves under the knife of a qualified surgeon. But the ministerial office is qualified by God Himself. Theological schooling is very important. But how do you measure education when in our day, every school claims to be truthful while contradicting each other on doctrinal interpretation? And even so, to be proficient theologically, or to confess to a creed, does not necessarily mean one is spiritually born again. When this requirement is set aside, everyone is ministry is legitimately correct, and the line between mere human knowledge and heaven-sent unction is blurred.

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We are not among those who accept the apostolical succession of young men simply because they assume it; if their college experience has been rather vivacious than spiritual, if their honours have been connected rather with athletic exercises than with labours for Christ, we demand evidence of another kind than they are able to present to us. No amount of fees paid to learned doctors, and no amount of classics received in return, appear to us to be evidences of a call from above. True and genuine piety is necessary as the first indispensable requisite; whatever call a man may pretend to have, if he has not been called to holiness, he certainly has not been called to the ministry. 

"First be trimmed thyself, and then adorn thy brother", say the rabbins. "The hand", saith Gregory, "that means to make another clean, must not itself be dirty." If your salt be unsavoury how can you season others? Nor is the possession of this first qualification a thing to be taken for granted by any man, for there is very great possibility of our being mistaken as to whether we are converted or not. Believe me, it is no child's play to make your calling and election sure. 

The world is full of counterfeits. and swarms with panderers to carnal self-conceit, who gather around a minister as vultures around a carcass. Our own hearts are deceitful, so that truth lies not on the surface, but must be drawn up from the deepest well. We must search ourselves very anxiously and very thoroughly, lest by any means after having preached to others we ourselves should be castaways. Alas! the unregenerate pastor becomes terribly mischievous too, for of all the causes which create infidelity, ungodly ministers must be ranked among the first. 

I read the other day, that no phase of evil presented so marvelous a power for destruction, as the unconverted minister of a parish, with a £1200 organ, a choir of ungodly singers, and an aristocratic congregation. It was the opinion of the writer, that there could be no greater instrument for damnation out of hell than that. 

People go to their place of worship and sit down comfortably, and think they must be Christians, when all the time all that their religion consists in, is listening to an orator, having their ears tickled with music, and perhaps their eyes amused with graceful action and fashionable manners; the whole being no better than what they hear and see at the opera not so good, perhaps, in point of aesthetic beauty, and not an atom more spiritual. Thousands are congratulating themselves, and even blessing God that they are devout worshippers, when at the same time they are living in an unregenerate Christless state, having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. He who presides over a system which aims at nothing higher than formalism, is far more a servant of the devil than a minister of God. 

A formal preacher is mischievous while he preserves his outward equilibrium, but as he is without the preserving balance of godliness, sooner or later he is almost sure to make a trip in his moral character, and what a position is he in then! How is God blasphemed, and the gospel abused! For some work we choose none but the strong; and when God calls us to ministerial labor we should endeavour to get grace that we may be strengthened into fitness for our position, and not be mere novices carried away by the temptations of Satan, to the injury of the church and our own ruin.

The work of an unconverted man may be blessed to the conversion of souls, since the Lord, while he disowns the man, will still honour his own truth. 

Whatever his natural gifts, whatever his mental powers may be, he is utterly out of court for spiritual work if he has no spiritual life; and it is his duty to cease the ministerial office till he has received this first and simplest of qualifications for it.

Spurgeon, C.H. (n.d.), Lectures To My Students: it Should Be One Of Our First Cares That We Ourselves Be Saved Men. The Banner of Truth Trust.