John Calvin as a Pastor
Most people remember John Calvin as a theologian. He certainly was that. But above all else, for almost all of his adult life, John Calvin was a pastor. Preaching and teaching the Word of God were the primary elements of Calvin’s ministry. Many times, he preached or lectured on the scriptures as many as 12 times a week.[1] More than anything else, Calvin regarded himself as an expositor of God’s Word.[2] In his last will and testament, which he dictated on April 25, 1564 shortly before his death, Calvin began by describing himself as a “servant of the Word of God in the church of Geneva.”[3] He summarized his life by these words: “moreover, I declare that I endeavored to teach His Word undefiled and to expound Holy Scripture faithfully, according to the measure of grace which He has given me.”[4]
Calvin was a great theologian, but more than that, he was a pastor. And many misunderstand the life and ministry John Calvin simply because they have never read his sermons or his personal letters. To only read his commentaries and theological writings is to miss the heart of John Calvin. In his sermons, there is a gentleness in John Calvin that is often missed. Sherwood Wirt notes that during the twenty-seven years he was a pastor in Strasbourg and Geneva, “he showed a sensitivity and love for his parish members that is a model for today’s ministers.”[5]
We hope this work will provide a different view of John Calvin. One that shows him as a pastor who preached the Word of God and cared for the people in his church. This was true of most of the Reformers as they attempted to restore the teaching of God’s Word to a church which had become captive to sacramentalism. Luther launched the Reformation with the Word of God and preached it faithfully in Wittenburg. But Calvin might be considered the pastor of the Reformation. We will begin with a brief overview of his life and then look at his ministry as a pastor.
Brief Biography
Calvin was born in Noyon, France. In August 1523, Calvin arrived at the University of Paris to begin training in the most famous university of Europe. There he learned Latin grammar and syntax. While his classmates were partying, Calvin was busy with studies in logic and theology. In 1528, he moved to the University of Orleans to take up the study of law at the request of his father. (The contrast with Luther is interesting –Luther, in defiance of his father, forfeited a career in law to become a monk; Calvin, in obedience to his father, gave up the study of theology to become a lawyer). When his father died in 1531, Calvin left the study of law to return to Paris to study theology.
Somewhere between 1527 and 1534, Calvin experienced what he described as a “sudden conversion.” Unfortunately, Calvin gives little specific details of his conversion. Most likely, he had come in contact with Reformation ideas from the writings of Luther during his studies under Jacques LeFevre d’Etaples (a French humanist in Paris). On All Saints Day, 1533, Nicholas Cop, a friend of Calvin, delivered a convocation address which shocked his hearers. Cop did not praise the Saints but rather proclaimed Christ as the only mediator between God and man. As result, Cop was forced flee for his life. Calvin, too, was implicated in the event and had to escape from Paris in the nick of time, his friends hoisting him down out of a window on bed sheets while the police were knocking at the door!
Calvin fled to Basel where he hid but he was not idle. He spent his time writing The Institutes which became a best-seller overnight. It was such a huge success because it provided an important apologetic for the Reformation and because it was brief (small enough to hide in one’s coat). The first edition which appeared in 1536 had only 6 chapters (his final edition had 79!). In the summer of 1536, as Calvin was traveling from Paris to Strasbourg, he had to take a southern detour and spend the night in Geneva due to military maneuvers by Charles V. When Guillaume Farel, who had led the city to embrace Reformation months before, heard that Calvin was in the city, he visited his hotel and pleaded with him to stay and assist in the work of Reformation. When Calvin protested that he was a scholar not a pastor, Farel pronounced God’s curse on Calvin’s studies. Calvin stayed and thus began his work as pastor of Geneva. Here Calvin would spend the remainder of his years (with the exception of a three year exile to Strasbourg because the city council felt his methods were too harsh) preaching and teaching almost daily.
So Calvin became a “Reader in Holy Scripture” at the church in Geneva. He was their pastor all of his adult life (except for 3 years in exile) even though he was never ordained and never became a member of the church![6]
Calvin and Farel’s method during those early years proved to be too harsh for the people of Geneva and they were both expelled from the church and the city in 1538. Calvin went from there to Strasbourg where he became a pastor to French refugees. This experience added 5 dimensions to his life that would later prove useful to his ministry. First, he learned the art of being a shepherd for the people. He not only preached and visited the people, he began to give serious thought to the importance of worship in the Reformation church. He especially added the practice of singing from the Psalms because of the way the Word of God changed people’s hearts.[7]
Second, Calvin became a regular teacher at a school recently organized in Strasbourg. There he lectured three days each week, offering courses on the Gospel of John and the Pauline Epistles. He also preached for sermons each week to his French congregation. Third, he thoroughly revised The Institutes which were re-published in August 1539 in a version three times larger than the 1536 version. In 1541, he also published a French translation of the Institutes which was as important to the development of the French language as Luther’s translation of the Bible into German. Also in 1539, Calvin published his Commentary on Romans and a number of other booklets, including his Reply to Sadolet, which is considered by many to be the best apology for the Reformed faith written in the 16th century, and his Little Treatise on the Holy Supper.
Fourth, he became one leaders of the Protestant movement participating in a number of conferences aimed at reuniting Protestant and Catholics. He also traveled to Frankfurt, Hegenau, and Worms and served as an adviser at Protestant conferences. Fifth, he became a husband and a father. Martin Bucer tried several times to find a suitable bride for the young pastor. Eventually, he married one of his own parishioners, Idelette de Bure, the widow of a French-speaking Anabaptist who had been converted to the Reformed faith by Calvin himself. She had two children from her previous marriage; they only had one child, a son named Jacques who was born prematurely and died in infancy. At his death Calvin wrote, “Certainly the Lord has afflicted us with a deep and painful wound in the death of our beloved son. But he is our father: he knows what is best for his children.”[8] When his wife died in 1549, Calvin again wrote his friend: “You know the tenderness or rather the softness of my soul…. The reason for my sorrow is not an ordinary one. I am deprived of my excellent life companion, who, if misfortune had come, would have been my willing companion not only in exile and sorrow, but even in death.”[9] She left behind two children from her first husband whom he continued to care for.
On Sept. 13, 1541, Calvin returned to Geneva. The situation in Geneva had worsened. Calvin preferred to stay in Strasbourg but Bucer told Calvin that God would judge him and that he would be acting like Jonah running away from God. In his first sermon, Calvin took up at the very place he had left off three years before, at the very chapter and verse in the book he had been preaching through.
Calvin’s return to Geneva was a remarkable success. Most of that success came because he and Farel moved away from an autocratic style of leadership where they attempted to force everyone to reform by laws and threats to teaching the Word of God as an agent of change. Not only were people’s hearts changed, but the regular preaching of the Word also created a unity in the city that laws were unable to create.[10]
That did not mean his ministry was without difficulty. He had struggles over the Lord’s Supper, struggles with the Libertines, and the infamous conflict with Michael Servetus. But he kept his focus on preaching and teaching God’s Word.
With regard to the Lord’s Supper, Calvin refused to allow those living in open sin to partake. This angered many of the wealthy men in the congregation who Calvin prevented from taking the supper. They decided that they would kill Calvin at the next celebration of the Lord’s Supper. They came to the front of the church with their knives and swords showing and demanded to be admitted to the supper. Calvin bared his breast saying, “These hands you may crush; these arms you may lop off; my life you may take; my blood is yours, you may shed it; but you shall never force me to give holy things to the profane and dishonor the table of my God.”[11] At this, the men returned their knives and swords to their scabbards and left the church.
Calvin’s conflict with Servetus also shows his pastoral heart. Servetus was an anti-Trinitarian who was condemned to death by both Protestants and Catholics. The Roman Catholics captured him in Vienne, France and condemned to be burned at the stake as a heretic.[12] When he escaped three days later, he went to Geneva even though he was warned not to come under penalty of death. After the sermon by Calvin, he was arrested and imprisoned.[13] During his time in prison, Calvin met with him, read scripture and prayed with him, urging him to repent. While Calvin agreed with the death penalty,[14] he urged the City Council to consider a lesser charge rather than burning him at the stake.[15]
Calvin as a Pastor
Let’s look at Calvin as a pastor. First, Calvin produced many volumes of works, most of which are rarely studied today. As mentioned earlier, he was constantly revising and adding to the Institutes. As a result, the Institutes grew from 6 chapters in his first edition to 79 chapters in his last edition.
Additionally, he wrote Reformation tracts and numerous personal letters. There are 7 volumes of his personal letters with each volume containing between 400-500 letters. These letters reveal a personal side of Calvin not seen in his theological works and commentaries. Take for example his letter to some members of the church in Geneva after he was kicked out:
Nothing, most beloved brethren, has caused me greater sorrow, since those disturbances which had so sadly scattered and almost entirely overthrown your Church, than when I understood your strivings and contentions with those ministers who succeeded us. For although the disorders which were inseparably connected with their first arrival among you, might with good reason prove offensive to you; whatever may have given the occasion, I cannot hear without great and intense horror that any schism should settle down within the Church.
Calvin encourages them to love these pastors and honor them because of the office of the church. And he encourages them to “conduct yourself as true Christians and occupy yourselves in doing to others as you would have them do unto you.”[16]
When the son of one of his friends died in the plague, Calvin openly expresses his own struggle:
When I first heard the news of the death of your son, I found myself so distracted and so confused that for days I could do nothing but cry, and even in my prayer to God, I was not comforted at all nor helped by the aid that He often gives in times of adversity.[17]
On another occasion, when he heard about the illness of a friend’s son, Calvin wrote, “I was hit with fresh fear and overwhelmed with deep sorrow. I was staggered and was already weeping for him as though he was already dead.”[18]
He also produced many commentaries on the books of the Bible. He published commentaries on every New Testament book with the exception of 2nd and 3rd John and Revelation. He also wrote commentaries on every book in the Old Testament totaling 45 volumes in the English version.
Also, Calvin preached as many as twelve times each week. And most of his sermons were recorded and published. After 1549, Calvin’s sermons and lectures were recorded with the help of three secretaries.
In copying, they followed this plan. Each had his paper ready in the most convenient form, and each separately wrote down with the greatest speed. If a word escapes one (which sometimes happened, especially on points of dispute and in those parts that were delivered with some warmth), it was taken down by another…. Immediately after the lecture ended, de Jonviller took the papers of the other two, placed them before him, consulted his own, and collating them all dictated to someone else so as to copy down what they had hastily taken down. At last he read it all through in order to be able to read it back to M. Calvin at home the following day. When any little word was missing, it was edited; or if anything seemed not explained sufficiently, it was easily made plainer.”[19]
Calvin and Preaching
First, Calvin’s preaching was biblical. Calvin said: “When we enter the pulpit, it is not so that we may bring your own dreams and fantasies with us.”[20] “A rule is prescribed to all God’s servants that they bring not their own inventions, but simply deliver as from hand to hand, what they have received from God.”[21] Calvin believed that text should determine the structure and development of the sermon. Some texts might require more explanation before the preacher moves to application. But the text should govern the message. A verse should never be a springboard for the preacher to teach his own ideas. In his commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations he said, “as soon as men depart, even from the smallest degree of God’s Word, they cannot preach anything but falsehoods, vanities, impostors, errors, and deceits.”[22] Calvin taught that “The scripture is the fountain of all wisdom, from which pastors must draw all that they place before their flock…. The church can be only edified by the preaching of this Word.”[23]
His focus was on the Word of God. He preached through books of the Bible verse by verse. He was so committed to the text that once, when he was seriously ill between October 1558 and June 1559, when he returned to the pulpit in June, he preached from the very next verse in the book of Isaiah.[24]
- H. L. Parker summarized Calvin’s position on the importance of preaching the text by reminding modern preachers:
What our congregations need to know above all else, is to know what God says to them. Hence our task in the pulpit is not to set before them our own thoughts or our own experiences, however lofty they may be, but to tell them what the Bible says, and to tell it in such a way that the sermon is not a simple lesson in Biblical theology, but an application of the Gospel contained in the Bible teach the Bible. He wanted the Word of Christ to rule in the hearts of men, and change their attitudes and actions in the world in which they lived.[25]
Second, Calvin’s preaching explained the text to his congregation. He preached without notes, in part, because he wanted to have a personal connection with his listeners. He believed that the task of the preacher was to communication the Word of God in language people could understand. Even though he knew the original languages and preached from his Greek Bible and Hebrew Old Testament, he would explain the text simply in language that the people could understand.[26] He never cited Greek or Hebrew words but simply explained them in the language of the people.[27]
One secret to Calvin’s preaching is found in his personal preparation. While Calvin preached almost entirely without notes, he did not do so without preparation. Calvin wrote that the pastor “ought to be prepared by long study for giving to the people, as out of the storehouse, a variety of instruction concerning the Word of God.”[28] Calvin believed that the pastor must be a lifelong learner:
If we enter the pulpit, it is on this condition, that we learn while teaching others. I am not speaking here merely that others may hear me; the word which goes for from my lips must profit myself; otherwise woe is me! The most accomplished in the Scripture are fools, unless they acknowledge that they have need of God for their schoolmaster all the days of their life.[29]
On another occasion, Calvin stated, “If I should come to the pulpit without deigning to look at a book and should frivolously think to myself, ‘Oh, well, when I preach, God will give me enough to say,’ and come here without troubling to read or think what I ought to declare, and did not carefully consider how I must apply Holy Scripture to the edification of the people, then I should be an arrogant upstart.”[30]
Third, Calvin believed that preaching should not be “dead but alive.” “Doctrine without zeal is either like a sword in the hand of a madman, or… else its serves for vain and wicked boasting.”[31] He believed that preaching without a manuscript helped him to be able to communicate more personally to his congregation.
Fourth, Calvin taught that preaching should come from a humble heart. In his sermon in 1 Timothy 1:13-15, he notes speaks about Paul’s understanding that he was the chief of all sinners and says that we all need that attitude or God will not be exalted.[32] To preach humbly, Calvin taught that we need to aim the sermon at ourselves before preaching to the congregation. He humorously said, “It would be better for [the preacher] to break his neck going up into the pulpit if he does not take pains to be the first to follow God.”[33] Above all, preachers need to be humble, realizing that they are sinners too. Calvin reminds us that “To be good theologians we must lead a holy life. The Word of God is not to teach us to prattle, not to make us eloquent and subtle and I know not what. It is to reform our life, so that it is known that we desire to serve God, to give ourselves entirely to him and to conform ourselves to his good will.”[34]
One other essential for a humble heart was prayer. Calvin warned pastors to be sure they guarded their hearts by devotion and prayer. “Two things are united,” Calvin concluded, “teaching and praying; God would have him whom He has set as a teacher in His church to be assiduous in prayer.”[35] Preparing to preach was essential but all would be for nothing without seeking God in prayer.
Fifth, Calvin always preached the grace of Christ. Calvin says that when the word humbles us by true self-knowledge, we flee to the grace of Christ.[36] The only subject being treated throughout every sermon should be, “God as he gives himself to be known by us in Jesus Christ.”[37] He said, “So, then, our faith must look to our Lord Jesus Christ and our gaze must be fastened entirely on him, or else we cannot approach God the Father—for in ourselves we are too far away.”[38] This is not to say that every sermon focuses on Christ or the gospel. When he preached through Old Testament books, Calvin stuck to the historical context in his interpretation and exposition. But then he would apply it in light of Christ and the gospel.[39]
Usually his words were gentle and his tone was moderate. His desire was to build up the congregation, not to tear them down. To do so, Calvin frequently used first person plural pronouns such as “us” and “we” when he exhorted the congregation. In doing so, he included himself in every application.[40] In a message from Galatians, Calvin challenges listeners to examine their own lives: “We must all, therefore, examine our lives, not against one of God’s precepts but against the whole law. Can any of us truly say that we are blameless?”[41]
Also many of his sermons reveal his deep concern for the salvation of his hearers. Quite frequently, his conclusions would include an exhortation to trust Christ by faith alone and his prayers would echo his pleas.
Additionally, Calvin had a heart for missions and his congregation sent out many to share the gospel and plant new churches. His sermons often included a call for believers to go and share the gospel. From 1555 to 1564, Calvin’s church sent out 88 people as missionaries. Those numbers sound high, but they only include those who were residents of Geneva. When you include the non-Genevans who came to study in Geneva, they sent out many more! For example, in the years 1561-1562, they sent out 142 non-Genevans. They sent missionaries to every country in Europe. Many were captured by the Roman Catholics and put to death. So many were martyred while spreading the Protestant faith that Calvin’s school in Geneva was often called “Calvin’s School of Death.”[42]
Calvin’s disciples were also church planters. In 1555, they started 5 churches in France. In 1559, they had started 102 new churches. By 1562, they had started over 2150 churches in France. Many churches wrote letters back to Calvin about their congregations. One French church in Bergerac, France wrote Calvin that they were having between 4,000 and 5,000 in worship each Sunday! While we do not know the exact number of members for all these churches, historians estimate that there were over 3 million church members in these churches started by Calvin’s missionaries and church planters![43]
Finally, Calvin’s sermons always had practical application. In his sermons, he often moved quickly from the text to a contemporary application. His concern was that the Word of God would be applied to his people’s lives in a way that was practical and clear.
Perhaps one weak area in Calvin’s preaching would be the introduction. Calvin spent very little time with introductions focusing almost immediately upon the text. Most of the time Calvin began with a review of the previous verses that he preached. Here are some examples taken from sermons he preached on the book of Micah.
“Yesterday, we saw a Micah proclaimed god’s judgment against all unbelievers.”
“In this passage, Micah demonstrates in whose name he speaks, seeing that he attributes such power and authority to His Word.”
The continued this pattern even in his sermons from the New Testament. In a sermon from Galatians, he began, “We saw last time, that we need to have confidence in the fact that the gospel is true.”[44]
In concluding his sermons, Calvin usually gave a short summary of the truths that he had expounded. Then he called for his hearers to fully and completely obey the Lord. Finally, he concluded with a heartfelt public prayer they cried out to God to enable His people to both understand the Word and live it out. [45]
John Calvin was certainly a great theologian. His Institutes became the systematic theology for most Protestants during the Reformation. But he was more than a theologian – he was a pastor who cared for his congregation and who faithfully preached God’s Word so that they might be changed by it. Calvin often opened his lectures on the Word with a simple prayer: “Grant us, Lord, to meditate on the heavenly mysteries of Thy wisdom, with true progress in piety, to Thy glory and our edification. Amen.”[46] May that be our prayer as well whenever we open God’s Word!
[1] Bernard Cottret, Calvin: A Biography (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 228.
[2] T. H. L. Parker, “Calvin the Expositor,” in John Calvin: A Collection of Distinguished Essays. Editor, G. E. Duffield (London: Sutton Courtenay Press, 1966), 177.
[3] Jules Bonnet, vol. 4, Letters of John Calvin. Vol. I-IV (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 365-68.
[4] Theodore Beza, The Life of John Calvin, trans. Henry Beveridge (Edinburgh, Scotland: Calvin Translation Society, 1844; reprinted by Back Home Industries, 1996), 26, cited in Steve Lawson, The Expository Genesis of John Calvin (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust, 2007), 17.
[5] Sherwood Wirt, “John Calvin: The Burning Heart,” in Moody Monthly (November 1977), 119.
[6] William Edgar & K. Scott Oliphint, Christian Apologetics Past & Present (Vol. 2: from 1500): A Primary Source Reader (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 37–41; Randall C. Zachman, John Calvin As Teacher, Pastor, And Theologian: The Shape of His Writings and Thought (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009). Michael Philliber argues that Calvin had to be ordained to be a pastor in the church but he argues from silence. He concludes that Calvin was not ordained as a Roman Catholic priest but he was ordained when the Council appointed him as “reader of Holy Scripture.” See, “Was John Calvin Ordained,” (19.01.2008) http://mphilliber.blogspot.com/2008/01/was-john-calvin-ordained.html, Accessed 30.10.2017.
[7] “And this is not something invented a little time ago. For from the first origin of the Church, this has been so, as appears from the histories. And even St. Paul speaks not only of praying by mouth: but also of singing. And in truth we know by experience that singing has great force and vigor to move and inflame the hearts of men to invoke and praise God with a more vehement and ardent zeal.” Calvin’s preface to the 1541 edition to the Genevan Psalter cited in “The New Genevan Psalter” https://newgenevanpsalter.wordpress.com/preface/, Accessed 30.10.2017.
[8] Richard Stauffer, The Humanness of John Calvin, translated by George Shriver (Nashville/New York: Abingdon, 1971), 42.
[9] Ibid, 45.
[10] Benjamin W. Farley, John Calvin’s Sermons on the Ten Commandments (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980), 8-11.
[11] Henry F. Henderson, Calvin in His Letters (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1996; original, 1909),78; and Daniel E. Horn and Joshua E. Horn, The Communion of Christ’s Body (Youngsville, NC: Reforming to Scripture Press, 2010), 137.
[12] Roland H. Bainton, The Hunted Heretic (Boston: Beacon Press, 1960), 103.
[13] Walter Nigg, The Heretics: Heresy Through the Ages (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1962), 326.
[14] Luther, Melanchthon and most of the Protestant reformers also agreed that Servetus should be put to death. Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. VIII: Modern Christianity: The Swiss Reformation, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1910), 706.
[15] Denis Janz, ed., A Reformation Reader: Primary Texts With Introductions, 2nd Edition (Minneapolis MN: Fortress Press, 2008), 268-270.
[16] XXXVII.—To the Church of Geneva, dated June 25, 1539 in The Letters of John Calvin, Volume 1, Jules Bonnet, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45423/45423-h/45423-h.htm#Footnote_157_157, accessed 30.10.2017.
[17] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45423/45423-h/45423-h.htm#Footnote_157_157.
[18] Ibid.
[19] From Preface to the Minor Prophets cited in Parker, “Calvin the Expositor,” 185.
[20] Calvin, as quoted in T. H. L. Parker, Portrait of Calvin (Philadelphia: Westminster press, 1954), 83.
[21] Ibid, 43.
[22] Calvin, Commentaries on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah and the Lamentations, Vol. 2, trans. John Owen (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979 reprint), 226-227.
[23] Calvin, as quoted in J. Graham Miller, Calvin’s Wisdom: An Anthology Arranged Alphabetically by a Grateful Reader (Carlisle, PA and Edinburgh, Scotland: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1992), 254.
[24] Lawson, 33.
[25] T. H. L. Parker, Calvin’s Preaching (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992), 137.
[26] Ibid, 141, 148.
[27] Ibid, 86.
[28] Calvin, as quoted Miller, 256.
[29] Calvin, as quoted in J. H. Merle D’Aubinge, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, Volume VII (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1880, reprint 2000), 84-85.
[30] Calvin, as quoted in Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, 81.
[31] Calvin, as quoted in Miller, 361.
[32] Calvin as quoted in Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, 103-104.
[33] Ibid, 40.
[34] Ibid, 15.
[35] Calvin as quoted in Miller, 251.
[36] Ibid, 30.
[37] Ibid, 97.
[38] Ibid, 99.
[39] Ibid, 92.
[40] Lawson, 105-107.
[41] Calvin, Sermons on Galatians, 264-265.
[42] Lawson, 15.
[43] John Starke, “John Calvin, Missionary and Church Planter” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/john-calvin-missionary-and-church-planter, Accessed 30.10.2017. Also see Michael Haykin, “John Calvin on Missions” for some examples of Calvin’s teaching on missions. http://www.alliancenet.org/placefortruth/article/john-calvin-on-missions, Accessed 30.10.2017, and Haykin and Jeff Robinson, Jr., To the Ends of the Earth: Calvin’s Missional Vision and Legacy (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014).
[44] Calvin, John Calvin’s Sermons on Galatians, trans. Kathy Childress (Carlisle, PA and Edinburgh, Scotland: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1563, 1997), 49.
[45] Lawson, 119-129.
[46] Miller, 260.
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