Matth. 6, 24-34.
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will cling to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; neither for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than food? and the body more than raiment? Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow, they do not reap, they do not gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more than they? Who is there among you that can add a cubit to his length, though he care for it? And why do you care for clothing? Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow; they do not work, nor do they spin. I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed as one. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which today stands, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more do it unto you, O ye of little faith? Therefore shall ye not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? what shall we drink? wherewith shall we be clothed? The heathen seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Therefore do not worry about the morrow, for the morrow will take care of its own. It is enough for every day to have its own plague.
In this gospel we see how God separates the Christians from the Gentiles. For this doctrine the Lord giveth not unto the Gentiles, because they receive it not: but unto his Christians it is given. But he does not consider them to be his Christians, who hear the word alone, so that they want to learn it, and can repeat it, as nuns do the Psalter. So the devil also hears the gospel and the word of God, yes, he can do it better than we can, and could preach it as well as we could, if he wanted to; but the gospel is such a doctrine that it should be alive, and in fact it should work, should strengthen and comfort people, make them courageous and bold.
(2) Therefore, those who hear the gospel only so that they know it and can speak of the wisdom of God are not Christians, but those who do as the gospel teaches are righteous Christians. But there are very few of them: we see many who hear it, but they are not all doers. Now let us see what teaching the Lord gives in this gospel. First of all, he begins with a natural example, that we all must confess that this is so; experience also teaches each one. And thus he speaks:
No man can serve two masters, either he will hate one, and love the other; or he will cleave to one, and despise the other.
(3) He that will serve two masters shall serve, that it be not called served; for it must surely be so, as the Lord saith here. It is possible to force a servant to do a work that is repugnant to him and displeases him to do, but no one can force him to do it gladly and with all his heart. He may well do it until his master is present; but when he comes away, he hastens away and does no good. So then the Lord wills that the service be done out of love and willingly: if not, it is not a service; for people do not like that, that something should be done to them unwillingly. This happens naturally, and we experience it every day. Now if this is the case here under
to the people, that no one can serve two masters: much more should it be so with the service of God, that the service is not divided, but is done willingly and from the heart; therefore the Lord adds, and says:
You cannot serve God and serve mammon.
(4) For God cannot suffer anyone to have another master besides Him; He is a zealot, as He Himself says, and cannot tolerate anyone serving Him or His enemy. Mine alone, saith he, or let it be. Now see how finely Christ introduces the example here: "No one," he says, "can serve two masters; either he will hate one and love the other, or he will cling to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." As if he wanted to say: As it is here among the people, so it is also here before God.
(5) We shall find few of them that sin not against this gospel. The Lord makes a severe judgment, which is frightening to hear, that he should say this of us; and yet no one wants to confess it, indeed no one wants to suffer it to be said, that we hate and despise God, and that we are his enemies. No one, if he were asked whether he loved God and adhered to Him, would say, "Yes, I love Him. But see how the text here concludes that we all hate and despise God, love mammon and cling to the same. But God will suffer this from us until his time comes; when he first sees it, he will one day throw his fists at us before we look back. It is impossible that he who loves money and goods and is attached to them should not hate God. For here he holds two of them against each other, which are enemies together, and concludes: If you love one of the two and cling to him, you must hate and despise the other. Therefore, no matter how handsomely one lives on earth and yet clings to goods, he must hate God; and again, he who does not cling to money and goods loves God. That is certain.
6. but where are they who love God, and
not be attached to money and goods? Look at the whole world, including Christians, whether they despise money and goods. They want to make an effort, to hear the gospel and to act on it. We have the gospel, praise God, no one can deny that; but what do we do about it? We think only of learning it and knowing it, and nothing more comes of it; we think it is enough that we know it, and we have no concern that one day we will do it; but we have great concern, because if anyone has a florin or two, or even a penny, lying in the window or in the parlor, he worries and fears lest the money be stolen from him; but he could do without the gospel for a whole year. And such journeymen want to be considered evangelical.
Here we see what and who they are. If we were Christians, we would do the same: we would despise goods and care for the gospel, so that we would live in it one day and prove it by deed. Of such Christians we see little: therefore we must also hear the verdict that we are despisers of God and hate God for the sake of riches and goods. A fine glory that is! We should be ashamed in our hearts; off with us! How finely we exist now; that is, I mean, crossed out, what little fruits we are.
Now the world cannot hide its unbelief in gross, outward sins; for I see that it loves a florin more than Christ and all the apostles, even if they themselves were there preaching. I can hear the gospel daily, but it does not profit me daily; but it may come to pass, when I have heard it a whole year, that for one hour the Holy Ghost will give it me. Now, if I had obtained this hour, I would not only have obtained five hundred florins, but also the riches of the whole world; for what would I not have if I had the gospel? I would have received God, who makes silver and gold, and all that is in the earth; for I have received such a spirit, that I know I shall be preserved forever; which is much more than if I had the church full of florins. Behold now,
Whether our heart is not a mischief full of malice and unbelief. If I were a true Christian, I would say, "When the gospel comes, a hundred thousand guilders will come to me, yes, much more. For if I have this treasure, I have all that is in heaven and of the earth. But this treasure you must serve alone; for you cannot serve God and mammon. Either you must love God and hate money; or you must hate God and love money: this and no other.
(9) And the Lord uses the Hebrew language here, which we do not use. "Mammon" means good or riches, and such a good is not used, but is kept as a treasure, and is really the money and goods which one puts away for a store. Christians do not do this, they do not collect treasure, but they ask God for their daily bread. But the others are not satisfied with this, they make a large supply, on which they may rely, if our Lord God dies today or tomorrow, so that they still know where to go. That is why St. Paul calls riches and avarice a god of this world and idolatry in Eph. 5, 5, Col. 3, 5; Christ agrees with this and calls it serving mammon.
(10) How can it be that the Gospel and St. Paul most of all call avarice idolatry and not other sins, when impurity, fornication, lusts, evil desires, unchastity and other vices are more against God? It is to our great shame that gold is our God, whom we serve, in whom we trust and rely, but who cannot sustain us nor save us, neither standing nor walking, who neither hears nor sees, who has neither strength nor power, with whom there is neither comfort nor help. For even if one has the riches of the whole world, he is not for a moment safe from death.
(11) What good are the emperor's great treasures and riches when the hour comes for him to die? It is a shameful, ugly, impotent god, who cannot help even a swarming man, indeed, who cannot preserve himself; there lies
He is in the box, and lets him wait, yes, one must have respect for him, as for a faint, powerless, weak thing. The Lord, who has it, must watch day and night that the thieves do not steal it; the powerless God cannot help himself yet. Fie on you, the dead god, who cannot help in the least, and yet is so disgusting and delicious, lets him wait in the most splendid way and keeps himself safe with large boxes and locks, and his master must wait all hours and take care that he does not perish in the fire, or any other misfortune befall him. If this treasure or god is in clothing, it must be protected from the smallest worms, from moths, so that they do not destroy or consume it.
(12) Should the walls spit upon us, that we should trust more in the God whom moths eat and rust corrupts, than in the God who creates and gives all things, who has heaven and earth in his hand, and all that is therein. Is it not a foolish thing for the world to turn away from the true God and trust in the shameful mammon, in the poor wretched God who cannot keep himself from rust? O how shameful a thing is that of the world! God sends many enemies to money and goods, so that we may see and recognize our unbelief and ungodly nature, that we trust so in a powerless and frail God, who we could so easily come to, that we would adhere to the true, mighty and strong God, who gives us everything, money, goods, fruits, and what we need: yet we are so foolish, and make gods out of it. Fie on you, you cursed unbelief.
(13) Other sins make us happy, we get something out of them than eating and drinking; item fornication, someone has a joy from it at times; item wrath atones for its lust, and other vices more. But in this vice one must serve, be tormented and martyred without ceasing, and has neither pleasure nor joy in it. Money lies in a heap and is served, despite the fact that someone has made a little wine from it; the rust comes and eats it, yet it must not be used.
so that he does not anger his God. And if his servants keep him long, they have nothing more than some poor beggar. I have nothing, yet I eat and drink as well as anyone who has plenty of mammon. When he dies, he takes as much of it with him as I do. And it certainly happens that these people never live as well and deliciously as the poor people often do. Who is the judge of this? God, the Lord, provides it. They have a plague in their body that they cannot eat; they are unhealthy inside, so that no food tastes good to them; they have a bad stomach; their lungs and liver are rotten; they have this disease and that disease; they lack here and there, and never have a good hour, so that they neither desire to eat nor to drink.
14 Thus it is with those who serve this god, Mammon. The true God lets himself be used, serves the people: but mammon does not do it, he only wants to lie quietly and let himself be served. And for this reason the New Testament calls avarice idolatry, because it wants to serve itself. But to love and not to enjoy would displease the devil. This is repugnant to all those who love and serve this god, Mammon. He who is not ashamed and turns red has an iron forehead.
(15) So now the word "serve" is written. For it is not forbidden to have money and goods; for we cannot spare them. Abraham, Lot, David, Solomon and others had much goods and money, and still today one finds many rich people who are also pious; but it is another thing to have goods and to serve the goods; to have mammon and to have mammon as a god. Job was also rich, had much goods, and was mightier than all those who dwelt toward the east, as it is written in the book of Job; yet he says Cap. 31, 24. 25.: "Have I put the gold for my confidence, and said to the nugget of gold, my consolation? Did I rejoice that I had great goods, and that my hand had gotten all things?"
Summa Summarum, this is what God wants,
That we should not serve money and goods, nor care for them; but should work and command them to care for them. He that hath goods, let him be master of them. He that serveth is a servant, and hath not the goods, but the goods have him: for he may not use them when he will, neither can he serve others with them; neither is he so bold as to stir them up. But if he is a lord over the goods, the goods serve him, and he does not serve the goods: he may then use the goods, as Abraham, David, Job and other rich men do, and looks only to the Lord, as St. Paul teaches 1 Cor. 7:32. Then he helps the poor from the goods, and gives to those who have nothing. When he sees one who has no skirt, he says to the money: "Out, Squire Guilder, there is a poor, naked man who has no skirt; you must serve him. There is a sick man lying there who has no refreshment: "Come out, Squire Anneberger and Joachimsthaler, you must go and help him! Those who deal with their property in this way are masters of their estate, and certainly all righteous Christians are. But those who save a lot of money and are always thinking about how to make the lot bigger and not smaller are servants.
(17) He is a lord of mammon, who attacks him for those who need him, and lets God rule, who says Luc. 6:38: If you give, I also give; if you have nothing more, you still have me, who still have enough; yes, I have more than I have forgiven and can still forgive. From time to time we see many pious poor people, so that the rich may help the poor and serve them with their wealth. If you do not, you have a sure sign that you hate God. He who is not afraid of the judgment he will hear at the Last Judgment will not be moved. For thus he shall hear from God, Behold, thou hast hated me, and loved him that could not keep himself from rust and moth. How well you will stand there.
18 So this is the opinion: We must have goods, but we should not be attached to them with our heart; just as Psalm 62:11 says: "If riches fall to you, do not attach your heart to them. Work
but we are not to take care of the food. This is what the Lord says here in the Gospel with bright clear words, as he thus concludes and speaks:
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; neither for your body, what ye shall put on?
(19) And now he uses a reasonable natural speech to conclude that they should not provide food; for reason must conclude and admit that it is so, as he says, sets forth the reason and cause of his speech, and asks:
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
20 As if to say: You are about to turn back: the food should serve the life, so the life serves the food. So also with the clothes: the clothes should serve the body, so the body must serve the clothes. The world is so blind that it does not see this!
(21) Now we must take heed to the words of the Lord. He says, "Do not worry," but does not say, "Do not work. Worry is forbidden to us, but work is not; indeed, we are commanded and commanded to work, that the sweat may flow down our noses. God does not want man to walk idly; therefore He says to Adam Gen. 3:19: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread, until thou return unto the earth from whence thou wast taken." And as the 104th Psalm v. 22. 23. says: "When the sun goes out, man goes out to his work and to his labor until evening." We should not worry, that is forbidden to us here; for we have a rich God, who promises us food and clothing; for he knows what we lack before we worry and ask.
(22) Why then does he not give us without work? Because it pleases him to do so; he makes us work, and then he gives, not because of our work, but because of his goodness and grace. This we see before our eyes; for though we labor all the years in the field, yet he giveth one year more than another. Therefore we are fools, yes, we act against God, when we worry about how we will get money and goods together, yet we are not doing so.
God richly promises to give us everything and to provide us superfluously with all necessities.
23. but would anyone say, "Does St. Paul say that we should be careful? as, to the Romans Cap. 12, 8: "If anyone governs, let him be careful"; and soon after, v. 11: "Do not be sluggish in your care"; item, to the Philippians Cap. 2, 20. He says of Timothy, "I have no one of my own mind who cares for you in this way." And he himself, Paul, 2 Cor. 11, 28, boasts that he takes great care of all the churches. There you see how we should nevertheless also care. Answer: Our life and a Christian being is based on two things, faith and love. The first goes to God, the other to the neighbor. The first is not seen, that is faith, which only God sees; the other is seen, and is love, which we should show to our neighbor. Now, the care that comes from love is commanded, but that which is beside faith is forbidden. If I believe that I have a God, I cannot be careful for myself; for if I know that God cares for me as a father cares for his child, what should I fear? what should I worry much about? I say evil: If you are my Father, I know that nothing bad will happen to me; as the 16th Psalm v. 8 says: "I have the Lord always before my eyes, for he is at my right hand; therefore I shall be safe." Even so he has everything in his hand, therefore nothing can fail me, he cares for me. But if I approach and want to care for myself, it is always contrary to faith; for this reason he also forbids this care. But the care of love he wants to keep, so that we should care for others and share our goods and gifts with them. If I am a ruler, I must care for my subjects; if I am a householder, I must care for my household; and so on, after each has received gifts from God. God cares for all, and this is the care that pertains to faith. We are also to care for one another, and this is a care of love, namely, if God has given me something, that I may be careful how others receive it.
24. one must be careful here that we do not make a gloss, but schlechts so ver
stand as the words read: We shall not provide food. God says: Work, and do not give, I will give; if he gives, then see to it that you distribute it properly: do not see to it that you overtake it, but see to it that your household and others overtake the same that God has given you, and see to it that your household works and does not become naughty.
025 If I be a preacher, let not my care be where I take that which I preach: for if I have it not, I cannot give it: for Christ hath said, Luc. 21:15.I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which shall not gainsay, neither shall all your adversaries withstand." But if I have this, then I shall take care how others receive it from me, and that I seek how I may most formally present it to them, how I may teach and admonish the ignorant who know it, how I may rightly comfort the afflicted consciences, how I may awaken the careless and drowsy hearts, and make them strong, and so on, as St. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:1. Paul did, 1 Tim. 4. 2 Tim. 4. Tit. 3. and commanded his disciples, Timothy and Tito, to do likewise. This shall be my care, that is, how others get it from me; but I shall study and ask God. Studying is my work, the work he wants me to do, and if it pleases him, he will give; it may well happen that I study lazily, and he still gives nothing; for a year or two, and if it pleases him, he gives etc. until it pleases him. There he gives frequently and superfluously, to an hour.
(26) Let him also be a householder, and let him do what he is commanded, and let our Lord God take care of him as he giveth. When he gives, then he provides as he gives to others, his household, and sees from this that the same his household has no lack in body and soul. This is what the Lord means here, when he says that we should not provide food and clothing, but that we should work for it, that is, in short. For you would have to lie behind the stove for a long time for anything to be given to you, if you did not till or work. It is true that God could feed you without work, could give you something to eat.
Roast, boiled, grain and wine grow on the table; but he will not do it, he wants you to work and use your reason in these things.
(27) So it is with preaching, and with all our things. He gives us wool, which he makes grow on the sheep, but it does not immediately become cloth, we have to work and make cloth out of it; when the cloth is there, it does not soon become a skirt, the tailor has to make it beforehand; and so on, with all things God acts in such a way that he wants to provide and we have to work. We have examples of this before our eyes. In particular, he tells us about two of them, which should put us to shame, namely, about the birds and the flowers of the field. Of the birds he speaks thus:
Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow, they do not reap, they do not gather into the barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
28 As if the Lord were saying, "You have never seen a bird with a sickle reaping and gathering into the barns; indeed, birds do not work as we do, nor are they fed. But the Lord does not mean that we should not work, but that we should be relieved of our care by this example. For a bird cannot work the soil as we do; yet it is not without work, but it does that for which it was created, namely, that it bears young, feeds them, and sings a little song to our Lord God for it; if God had given it more work, it would do more: It gets up early, sits on a branch, and sings the song that it has learned, and does not know of any food, nor does it care for it; after that, when it is hungry, it flies and looks for a grain; God has put one there for it, which it never thought of while it was singing, and yet it would have had reason enough to have provided food. Be ashamed that the little birds are more pious and faithful than you; they are happy and sing with joy, and do not know what they have to eat.
29. this is ever said to us to mighty, great shame, that we cannot do so much
do as the birds do. A Christian should be ashamed of a little bird that can do an art it has not learned. If you were to say to one in springtime, when birds sing most beautifully, "How do you sing so joyfully when you have no grain in the barn? It is a mighty example, should really knock us on the head, and provoke us to trust God more than we do. That is why he concludes with a strong saying and says:
Are you not much more than they are?
(30) Is it not a great shame that the Lord makes the little birds our masters and tells us that we must first learn from them? Fie on ugly, shameful unbelief! The little birds do what they should, but we do not. In the first book of Moses, Cap. 1, 28, we have a commandment that we are lords over all creatures; and the birds are to be our lords in wisdom? Out with the hopeless unbelief! God makes us fools, and sets the birds before us, that they should be our masters and rule us, only that they show us how we serve mammon and forsake the right, true God. Now follows the other example of the flowers of the field, so that the Lord may provoke us not to care for the clothing; and it reads thus:
Who is there among you who will add a cubit to his length, though he cares for it? Why then do you care for clothing? Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow: they do not work, nor do they spin; I tell you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not clothed as one of them. If God so clothed the grass of the field, which stands today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, should he not much more do this to you? O ye of little faith!
31 As if to say, "Life is not yours, neither is the body; you cannot make yourselves a cubit longer or shorter, nor do you care how you clothe yourselves. Look at the flowers of the field, how they are adorned and clothed, nor do any of them anything.
They do not yet sew, yet they are beautifully decorated.
(32) Again, the Lord does not mean that we should neither sew nor work, but that we should work, spin and sew, but not worry. The evil that we have is our labor: if we will add to it, we do as fools: for it is enough that every day have his own evil. I think this is also a defiance, that the little flowers stand there and put us to shame, and become our masters. Thanks be to you, little flowers, who are eaten by cows, and God exalts you so high that you become our masters and teachers. Fie, that this earth carries us! If this is an honor for us, I don't know. We must confess that the least little flower, which tramples the cattle underfoot, should become our teacher; do we not find fine people? I think so too. And add to this the richest, most powerful king Solomon, who was most exquisitely clothed in purple and gold, so that his adornment should not be compared to flowers, 1 Kings 10. Is this not a great thing, that the adornment of the flowers of the field should be more highly esteemed than all precious stones, gold and silver?
But we are so blind, and do not see what God wants with it and how He means it. The little flower stands there for us to see, throbbing at us and saying: Even if you had the adornment of the whole world on you, you are still not like me, which I stand there, and do not worry about where this adornment comes from, do not worry about it, I stand there alone and do nothing about it; and even if you are beautifully adorned, you are still unhealthy and serve the impotent one.
But I am fresh and beautiful, and serve the true, right God. Behold, such an ugly, shameful thing is unbelief.
(34) These are excellent, mighty examples, two, of the birds and flowers. The birds go to the food; the flowers to the clothing. And in the whole New Testament our shame is not so exposed and held up to us as in this very Gospel. But there are few of them who understand it. From these examples and parables the Lord concludes and says thus:
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? what shall we drink? wherewith shall we be clothed? The heathen seek all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Therefore do not worry about the morrow, for the morrow will take care of its own. It is enough for every day to have its own evil.
35 This then is the summa of the gospel: Christians are not to provide food; God provides for them before they remember it: but they are to work, that is commanded them. But what is the kingdom of God and his righteousness, it would be too long to say about it now, also you have often heard about it, if you had noticed it. That is enough of this gospel now; may God give us grace that we may also do so in time to come, and that the gospel may not remain in our ears and on our tongues alone, but may come into our hearts and burst forth fresh with action.