Further implied in this power to teach is the right and duty of the church to do these things: (1) to provide for the training of its future ministers or to exercise careful supervision over that training; to call, examine, send, ordain, and support its ministers; to have the Word of God preached by their ministry both to believers and nonbelievers and thus to establish, expand, and propagate the church of God among humankind; (2) to administer the Word of God by means of the ministerial office in various ways according to everyone’s need, specifically in the form of “milk” for the youthful members of the church and “solid food” for the adult members, but always in such a way that the full counsel of God, all the riches of his Word, are unfolded, developed, and applied according to the needs of every people and country, of every age and period, of every church and of all believers in particular (Isa. 3:10–11; 2 Cor. 5:20; 1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Tim. 2:15; 4:2); (3) to preserve, translate, and interpret the Word of God according to the rule of faith and to defend it against all deceptive opposition (1 Tim. 1:3–4; 2 Tim. 1:13; Titus 1:9–11, 13–14), and thus to build up the church on the foundation of apostles and prophets (Eph. 2:20) and make it a “pillar and foundation of the truth,” that is, a pillar and foundation that undergirds the truth, displays it for everyone to see, and makes it known to all (1 Tim. 3:15).
Herman Bavinck, John Bolt, and John Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 419–420.
並使其成為“真理的柱石和根基”,即支撐真理的柱石和根基。將真理展示給所有人看,讓所有人都知道(提前 3:15)。