That the public ministry (Pfarramt) is the supreme office in the Church is a thought to which Luther in his writings reverts time and again. But he also shows why the office of the Christian pastor must be regarded as the highest office; it is supreme because of the Word of God which it teaches and applies. Luther says St. L., X, 1592: "If the ministry of the Word is committed to some one, then also all the other offices which are administered in the Church through the Word are given him, namely, the power to baptize, to bless to administer Holy Communion, to bind and to loose, to pray, to judge and decide. Indeed, the office of preaching the Gospel is the highest of all; for it is the true apostolic office, which lays the foundation for all others, on which all others must build, as, for example, the office of teachers, prophets, and rulers and those of persons who have the gift of healing." Cp. also X, 1547.
Of the bishops, who according to 1 Tim. 3, 5 must take care of the Church of God, Luther writes St. L., XII, 338: "These, then, are those who must take care of all other offices that the teachers may attend to their office and not be negligent, that the deacons may rightly divide the gifts and not be indolent."
Again X, 1548: "To whom the ministry of the Word is committed, to him is entrusted the highest office in Christendom; hence he may also baptize, administer the Mass Holy Communion, and attend to all pastoral duties. But if he does not wish to do this, he may adhere alone to preaching and leave the other secondary offices (Unteraemier) to others, as Christ and Paul and all apostles did, Acts 6."
As Luther, so also the confessional Lutheran Church teaches that the public ministry (the pastoral office) is the supreme office in the Church, since it deals with the Word, which is Christ's supreme gift to the Church. (Cp. Dr. Walther on the proposition: "The Ministry of the Word the Highest Office in the Church, from which All Other Offices of the Church Flow." Kirche und Amt, p. 342 ff.)