Pay attention to yourself, and to your teaching. Continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
If thus a good pastor is the salvation of his hearers, let bad and careless men know that their destruction must be ascribed to those who have the charge of them; for, as the salvation of the flock is the crown of the pastor, so from careless pastors all that perishes will be required. Again, a pastor is said to save himself, when, by faithfully discharging the office committed to him, he serves his calling; not only because he avoids that terrible vengeance which the Lord threatens by Ezekiel, — “His blood will I require at thy hand,” (Ezekiel 33:8,) but because it is customary to speak of believers as performing their salvation when they walk and persevere (84) in the course of their salvation. Of this mode of expression we have spoken in our exposition of the Epistle to the Philippians, (Philippians 2:12.) 