"For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body."
The sufficiency of the apostle was not in himself, but in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, whose gracious influences filled his soul, bringing every thought into subjection and obedience to Christ. His ministry was fruitful. The first great commandment is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." "And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." On these two commandments the whole interest and duty of moral beings hang. Those who do their duty to others, as they would that others should do to them, are brought into a position where God can reveal himself to them. They will be approved of him. They are made perfect in love, and their labors and prayers will not be in vain. They are continually receiving grace and truth from the Fountain Head, and as freely transmitting to others the divine light and salvation they receive. In them is fulfilled the language of the scripture, "Ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."
Selfishness is abomination in the sight of God and holy angels. Because of this sin, many fail to attain the good which they are capable of enjoying. They look with selfish eyes on their own things, and do not love and seek the interest of others as they do their own. They reverse God's order. Instead of doing for others what they wish others to do for them, they do for themselves what they desire others to do for them, and do to others what they are most unwilling to have returned to them. Love is of God. The unconsecrated heart cannot originate or produce this plant of heavenly origin, which, in order to flourish, must be watered constantly with the dew of heaven. It can flourish only in the heart where Christ reigns. This love cannot live and flourish without action; and it cannot act without increasing in fervency, and extending and diffusing its nature to others.
God's ministers must have the truth in their hearts, in order to successfully present it to others. They must be sanctified by the truths they preach, or they will be only stumbling blocks to sinners. Those who are called of God to minister in holy things, are called to be pure in heart and holy in life. "Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." If God pronounces a woe upon those who are called to preach the truth and refuse to obey, a heavier woe rests upon those who take upon them this sacred work without clean hands and pure hearts. As there are woes for those who preach the truth while they are unsanctified in heart and life, so there are woes for those who receive and maintain the unsanctified in the position which they cannot fill. If the Spirit of God has not sanctified and made pure and clean the hands and heart of those who minister in sacred things, they will speak according to their own imperfect, deficient experience, and their counsels will lead astray from God those who look to them and trust to their judgment and experience.—Testimony for the Church, No. 19.