Service

True evangelical faith is of such a nature that it cannot lay dormant, but manifests itself in all righteousness and works of love. It dies unto flesh and blood; destroys all forbidden lusts and desires; cordially seeks, serves and fears God; clothes the naked; feeds the hungry; consoles the afflicted; shelters the miserable; aids and consoles all the oppressed; returns good for evil; serves those who injure it; prays for those who persecute it; teaches, admonishes and reproves with the Word of the Lord; seeks that which is lost; binds up that which is wounded; heals that which is diseased and saves that which is sound. The persecution, suffering and anxiety that befalls it for the sake of the truth of the Lord, is to it a glorious joy and consolation.

If you have accumulated wealth, expend it on others; if you have the faculty of teaching, do not bury the talent, but bring it out publicly for the sake of those who need it! Or if you have any other advantage, become useful to those who require the benefit of your labors! Do you not see that for this reason, especially, the bee is more honored than the other animals; not because she labors, but because she labors for others? For the spider also labors, and toils, and spreads out his fine textures over the walls, surpassing the utmost skill of woman; but the creature is without estimation, since his work is in no way profitable to us; such are those who labor and toil, but for themselves!

It is not customary that an intelligent person clothes and cares for one part of his body and leaves the rest destitute and naked. Oh, no. The intelligent person is solicitous for all his members. Thus it should be with those who are the Lord’s church and body. All those who are born of God, who are gifted with the Spirit of the Lord, and who, according to the Scriptures, are called into one body of love in Christ Jesus, are prepared by such love to serve their neighbors, not only with money and goods, but also after the example of their Lord and Head, Jesus Christ, in an evangelical manner, with life and blood.… Behold, such a community we teach.