Struggling to Obey the Word of God

"'The pastor ought to have two voices: one for gathering the sheep; and another for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the mean of doing both." Moreover, the believer himself must continually be assisted to mortify in himself those natural tendencies that run continually so counter to the Word of God. This mortification is effected by the Word of God, which, even in the heart of the children of God, can slay and subdue and cast out what is evil . . . Meanwhile, let us note with Calvin that 'there is a certain vivifying killing of the soul" which continually slays the children of God in order that continually, under the Word of God, they may rise to new life" (Wallace, Calvin's Doctrine of the Word and Sacrament, p. 95).