August 24, 1523.
1. grace and peace in Christ our Savior. We have heard from you, dear lords and friends in Christ, with joy, how God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has caused the glorious light of His grace and the splendor of the knowledge of Himself to shine upon you through His Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have been reconciled, have peace with God in a joyful conscience from all our former sins and wrongly vowed good works, in which we have been so miserably deceived by the apostles of darkness and preachers of Belial, Isa. 9, 2. Luc. 1, 58. Therefore we rejoice over you and with you and heartily offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God, the Father of all mercy, Ps. 50, 14. Ps. 119, 12. 13. 164. 171. and ask that God, who began these things, both in you and us, may also increase and keep His glory in all of us until the end, so that we may be found as His new work of grace without punishment and reproach in that day, Amen.
2. And that we also do our part, since we have been made partakers of the same gifts and of the same spirit, and dwell in the same good, we ought and ought to reach out one to another, and with constant exhortation to stir up and awaken one another, the faith that is given to us, so that we will not grow lukewarm and secure as time goes by, and in the end also let go of the high, precious, wholesome word of the gospel and become disgusted with it, just as the Jews in the desert grew weary of the daily manna, as it is written, Numbers 11:6. 11:6, Ps. 78:33, 35, Ps. 106:15: "Their soul was weary of all kinds of food; so they came hard upon the gates of death." As we also see some become weary of the unlearned, who only take pleasure in the newly returning gospel, as in a new newspaper,
and then fell down with fleshly devotion.
(3) But we, brethren, knowing such deceitfulness of the wicked enemy, ought to be valiant, and not let idle idleness creep in, as though we had enough of the gospel, and knew it all, and sought after new babblings and questions, as they do "whose ears itch, and turn from the truth to tales," 2 Timothy 4:3. 4:3, 4. For they do not feel their need, nor the perilous snares of Satan; wherefore they regard not the daily bread, and seek where the fleshpots and garlic abide in Egypt.
4 But you, dear brethren, are in special need, that you cling hard to the gospel of grace and have many laborers in the harvest; for you dwell, as Ezekiel, Cap. 2, 6. "among the scorpions," and with the bride "among thorns like a rose," High. 2, 2, who not only put trouble in your way with their seductive appearance of fictitious worship, but also force their false human teachings into you. Although they are not able to raise more than that they (their teachings) have come here and are used to it, and many hold with them in all the world, yet ours is a small new group, with whom the truth is not to be assumed, but with their old large group, which has also always been the voice of their fathers. When a prophet was awakened anew and came from God, he had to hear this plea: "The law is not lacking for the priests, nor the counsel for the ancients, nor the word for the prophets." So the prophets always had to be wrong, because they taught differently than their previous prophets, priests and elders had taught and held long ago.
5 Whether it's now also like you and us, should be
do not surprise us, but strengthen us all the more, because we see and grasp that we feel the same way about the word of God, as the prophets and apostles did, Matth. 23, 34. 37. 1 Cor. 4, 9. 23, 2. 5. Therefore we see that they do the same, that they raise the same objection against us, which they also raised against the holy prophets, that we should rejoice and thank God that we are so like and similar to the prophets and apostles, even to Christ Himself, Matth. 5, 11. 12. For we know that we have God's word for us, which even our enemies do not deny. So we also know that they have the word of men and only the old custom of the crowd for themselves, which they also confess themselves.
(6) Therefore, brethren, be firm, build and comfort one another in the power of God, that is, in the Word of God, which overcomes all things, and be sure that the saying of Christ concerns you, when He says, Luke 6:22-23: "Blessed are ye, when men shall attack you, and put you to death, and shall mock you, and shall pronounce your name evil, because of the Son of man: for so did their fathers the prophet, and so did their fathers the prophet, and so did their fathers the prophet, and so did their fathers the prophet.
also done." And because his own son had to suffer such things, he wants to keep what he says Matth. 10,24.25.: "The servant is no more than his master; if they have called the father of the house Beelzebub, much more will they do this to his household. What comes from God, the world must be hostile to, nothing else will come of it. And if the world does not hate or persecute it, it is certainly not of God; as Christ Himself says, John 15:19: "If you were of the world, the world would love your own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you"; Cap. 16:33: "But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. In the world ye shall have trouble; but in me peace."
May our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ strengthen you and us in his holy light to the praise and honor of his holy name forever and ever, amen. Pray for us, dear brethren, and let Mr. Maurus and Frederick be committed to you, and who are of such profession and grace. For in Christ they can abundantly comfort and instruct you in all things that are pleasing to God. Grace and peace be with you. At Wittenberg, on the day of Bartholomew. Anno 1523.
Martinus Luther, Ecclesiastes Wittebergensium.