Today in one of my classes we discussed B. B. Warfield’s classic booklet, The Religious Life of Theological Students.  There is much wisdom in this little booklet, so if you have not read it I encourage you to do so (online here).

In one places he exhorts theological students to realize and appreciate the privilege they have in studying about God.  This privilege continues to apply to pastors.  We must not forget what a privilege is our sin giving ourselves to the study of God.

“Think of what your privilege is when your greatest danger is that the great things of religion may become common to you!  Other men, oppressed by the hard conditions of life, sunk in the daily struggle for bread perhaps, distracted at any rate by the dreadful drag of the world upon them and the awful rush of the world’s work, find it hard to get time and opportunity so much as to pause and consider whether there be such things as God, and religion, and salvation from the sin that compasses them about and holds them captive.  The very atmosphere of your life is these things; you breathe them in at every pore; they surround you, encompass you, press in upon you from every side.  It is all in danger of becoming common to you!  God forgive you, you are in danger of becoming weary of God!” (emphasis added)