Delivered on the day of Paul's conversion in 1517.
He will receive it back a hundredfold and possess eternal life. Matth. 19,29.
(1) Herein lies the whole gospel*) and this is the purpose of all the commandments of God, that we may be completely stripped of all evil desires; for we must be pure and holy and undefiled, and not cling to any thing with passion. For this reason the gospel is
*) Here gospel is taken in the broader sense as the whole teaching of the New Testament.
Nothing else but a development and interpretation of the old law; for not committing adultery, not being angry, not stealing is in truth and reality nothing else than not coveting, not being attached to any creature, not giving oneself and one's life. For this evil concupiscence is the cause of all strife, contention, war, bloodshed, and all rebellion and sedition among men, so that the apostle speaks in truth: "Evil concupiscence is a root of all evil"; for we will even
have little prosperity unless we abandon and leave everything. That is why everything is abandoned, and precisely that, the root of all good.
Is this not a strange order and reversal? The desire for good is the root of all evil, and the spurning of good is the root of all good. Whoever leaves good, good follows him; but whoever seeks good and follows it, good leaves him. So he who does not leave it will be left, but he who leaves it will not be left. Therefore see here the vanity and futility, yes, the wickedness of desire.
(3) Yes, we find this also confirmed in experience, in that the desire cannot be satisfied; for if a greedy man is not satisfied, what is that but that he is abandoned by that which he himself does not want to abandon? For he cannot obtain as much as he would like, and yet he desires it. Thus the poets have written about Tantalus, who, standing up to his mouth in water, is tormented by the most intense thirst; but as often as he bends down to drink, the water recedes. Here the desire is depicted in a fine picture. On the other hand, if the despiser of all things has an abundance of all good things, what does this mean but that he is sought and desired by that which he abandons? The miser begs for riches, but the rich beg for a poor man; they hate him who loves them and love him who hates them. Therefore, the verse can also be applied to them: Quod sequitur, fugiunt, quod fugit, ipse sequor (i.e.: What he pursues, they flee; what he flees, I pursue).
4. whoever does not want to be forsaken, let him forsake; whoever wants to be loved, let him hate; whoever wants to be honored, let him despise; whoever wants to be glorified, let him be reviled; and so on from everything else. Therefore it is also said in Ps. 8:7, "Thou hast put all things under his feet"; and not, "Thou hast put all things upon his head. For a man who forsakes and spurns all things, what else does he do but have them under his feet? So he has everything, because it is under his feet; he does not have it, because he tramples it under his feet. Thus it is promised in the law of Moses: "All the land that your foot shall tread upon shall be yours.
That is, if you despise it, it will be yours; if you do not possess it, you will possess it. For if you have nothing, you will possess everything; but if you possess everything, you will have nothing. Why? Because you do not trample it underfoot, neither will you become powerful over it, but it tramples you underfoot on your head and makes you slaves.
(5) So also in our text, the one who has left only the simple receives the hundredfold. But this abandonment is not to be taken in a crude sense, as if the Lord were telling us to disengage from one another and not to care for one another; on the contrary, he has commanded each one to care for his neighbor and to honor his parents. Otherwise all would have to become hermits; but where would the commandment of charity remain with a hermit? Yes, since he commands to love the enemies, and has set his kingdom, that is, us, in the midst of his enemies, it is evident that one must not forsake men and good for the sake of evil, much less for the sake of good. Therefore, this abandonment is to be understood spiritually, that is, that it is done inwardly before God in secret, but outwardly one must cling to them as much as possible and mingle with them; so that man learns to look at everything here with indifference, and only let himself be driven by God to God through God, come what may, and for their sake not violate the love of God. How else could he leave his wife, since the Lord Himself says (Matth. 19, 6.): "What God has joined together, let not man put asunder"; and through the mouth of the apostle (1 Cor. 7, 10.): "I do not command the married, but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from the husband" ? But he who trusts his wife never does anything on her account that displeases God. This is what Job did when he did not curse God as his wife wanted. Thus, a man abandons his children when he prefers their love to the love of God, just as Abraham did with Isaac and the same Job did when he spoke nothing against God at the news of the death of his children.
6 It is clear how difficult and rare such love and abandonment is. For
the parents rather leave God and everything, than their children, yes, than the unreasonable, carnal monkey love for the children. And what wonder; they beget flesh, they are flesh, they love flesh, they understand everything carnally; nature has no true love for the children, but this only grace has: and this seems strange to men. For what is more natural than parents loving children and spouses loving one another? and yet it is not true, but it seems to be only love, as it is openly in the day, for they forsake God. For their love is not united to their children, nor do they love in such a way that it keeps them back from what is against God, as Job loved his own when he sacrificed for them, if they had blessed God in their hearts; but they love them for what is detrimental to their salvation. Thus the poet Persius writes of the foolish desires and vows of the mother: Hunc optet generum rex et regina puellae; quicquid hic calcaverit, hoc rosa fiet et Crassi mittunt in aedes; that is, they desire for them only glory and pleasure, but not the fear of God and a blessed state with God. But it is the duty of pious parents, like Job, to sanctify their children daily and to ask the Lord to give them the grace of the fear of God and to be their father themselves. For they must despair of their own diligence and endeavor, nor can they become pious through human effort, as so many undertake to do.
Today we celebrate the commemoration of the conversion of St. Paul, which is worthy of honor. For he is actually the teacher, master and apostle; since he was made a teacher and apostle of the Gentiles by God through a great miracle, while the Jews were made teachers and apostles by God.
You can read more about it in:
XII. Theil, Kirchenpostille, 2. Pr. am 4. Sonnt, nach Ostern, eine Abmahnung von der bösen Lust.
XII. Theil, XXXI. versch. Sermons, Homily
twelve apostles, only this One was given to the Gentiles. The Jews received this honor because of the promise given to their fathers. But this is also a mystery, that so many and great apostles do not accomplish so much with the proud and wise and righteous, as only the one and small one does with the foolish and sinners; for Paul himself calls the others "high apostles", but himself the least among them (1 Cor. 15, 19.); he says (2 Cor. 11, 5.): "I have done no less than the high apostles"; and again (2 Cor. 12, 11.): "Those who are the exceedingly high apostles",*) and to the Galatians (2, 6.): "But of those who had the reputation, of what sort they were, I care nothing." But all these apostles together converted only a few Jews, although it took them a long time to do so; but Paul alone converted very many nations in a very short time. Therefore, if this apostle had not been given to the church, all the others would not have been sufficient. Therefore, he is worthy of being held dear by all, especially by the teachers, although in our days, unfortunately, Aristotle is held in higher esteem than he. The cause of this seems to be no other than "that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness more than light.
Here, both in Löscher and in the Erlangen edition, there is a misreading that seems to have arisen from an incorrect understanding of the manuscript. Instead of: Et verum qui sunt super mortem apostoli,
it must read: Et iterum (namely 2 Cor. 12,11.): qui sunt supra modum apostoli; / which passage has been rendered in Luther's German translation in the same way as the immediately preceding one (2 Cor. 11, 5.): nihil me minus fecisse a magnis apostolis. D. Red.
on the day of St. Andrew, about the secret interpretation of the ship and the nets, which the apostles left at Christ's command.