“To serve the Lord is to be the Lord’s slave…. To be a slave is the status of those who serve the Lord and the meaning of serving the Lord. Serving the Lord is not about doing a great work before men; it is about being a slave before the Lord.

… Since serving the Lord is a matter of being a slave, it is also a matter of living to the Lord. The entire being of one who truly serves the Lord is to the Lord. His whole living, his entire life, is to the Lord. Therefore, service is a matter of one’s entire living. The call to serve the Lord is not limited to full-time workers and preachers. With the Lord’s leading, it is possible to serve the Lord by maintaining respectable works in any career (Titus 3:8, 14)…. No matter what our career or job may be, we can serve the Lord as long as it is according to the Lord’s will. It is not the Lord’s intention that every Christian would leave his job or career to be a full-time preacher. The Lord’s will is for every one of us to serve Him, but serving Him does not necessarily mean we must become a preacher. It only means that we live to Him in everything. There are many preachers today who do not necessarily live to the Lord. Similarly, there are many believers who love the Lord and truly live to Him, even though they have a career or job. They may not be preachers, but they are truly serving the Lord by living to the Lord.

According to the Bible, we are not called to make a profession out of preaching; rather, we are called to serve the Lord. This is our career. Any career or job that we have is a secondary matter. Our principal occupation is to serve the Lord; serving the Lord comes first. Our goal for living on the earth is to serve the Lord. We should make serving the Lord the center and goal of our lives. The only reason that we have a career or a job is to make a living and to supply the needs of the Lord’s work. We also can contact people through our careers and jobs to preach the gospel to them. No career or job is more important than serving the Lord and preaching the gospel. We should consider our occupation only as something that we do on the side. Our focus should be on serving the Lord and preaching the gospel. Regardless of whether we are doctors, teachers, businessmen, or laborers, our career or job should be for serving the Lord and preaching the gospel. Doctors should serve the Lord and preach the gospel while practicing medicine. Teachers should serve the Lord and preach the gospel while teaching. Whatever our profession, we should serve the Lord and preach the gospel. Each of us should consider serving the Lord and preaching the gospel as our primary occupation and our careers and jobs as secondary occupations. This is the living of a normal Christian. This is the only way to live to the Lord and to serve Him.”

(Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 3, Chapter 3, Section 1)