John 15:17-25.
This I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hates you, know that it hated me before you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember my word which I said unto you: The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things shall they do unto you for my name's sake: for they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and told them, they would have had no sin; but now they have nothing to excuse their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else has done, they would have had no sin; but now they have seen it, and yet they hate both me and my Father. But that the saying might be fulfilled which is written in their law, They hate me without a cause.
(1) In today's Gospel, there are two particular things that we are to learn: the first is the command by which Christians are to conduct their lives if they want to live rightly and godly; the other is, if they are in trouble and have to suffer in the wicked world, what consolation they should take, and how they should be able to
of such suffering, that it may become small and easy for them.
2) From the first part we should know that the Lord has summarized our whole life in the one commandment of love, that we Christians should live kindly among ourselves and help one another in whatever way we can.
For this is the way of love, that one neither thinks nor speaks evil of anyone, but does all the good that one can and is able to do. If you, my Christians," says Christ, "do this, then you have done enough and must not look for a greater or better service; God will be satisfied with you and will be pleased with you in the best way.
(3) This is a short, simple command, according to which Christians are to judge all their doings. For they have great cause, not only because of the example that God has shown them all love and mercy; as we heard in the Gospel of the two servants, that God has forgiven all our sins, and above that has given His Son for our own: but also because we Christians are brothers among ourselves and children of God, who are all called to an eternal inheritance, and have a common enemy who opposes us and would gladly deprive us of such an inheritance. Therefore we should be all the more diligent in assembling ourselves together, and not help such an evil enemy against the Christians to his will of courage; but think: Behold, this is also a Christian, and has the very enemy who is creeping after him to his eternal destruction, as he did after me. What then would I do to myself and to him, that I should first of all press him also, or do him evil? I want to help him, be kind to him, show him all love and loyalty; in this way I do what is rightfully mine and what Christ, my Lord, has told me to do.
(4) Therefore, we Christians must not look far to see how and by what means we are to serve God; as the world looks around and tries and undertakes all kinds of things. As we see in the papacy, there is so much and so many different ways of serving God that everyone has his own way of serving God, and yet it is not a service. For what do you think that God is served by a monk running into a monastery, needing special food, clothing and other things? God does not ask for such works; He has commanded you to hear His word diligently, to be baptized, to seek forgiveness of sins from Christ, and to receive His Supper. If you have done these things, you have done everything that God wants you to do for His sake.
Although God commands us to do this, so that it may benefit us, and so that we may come to the knowledge of God, to the forgiveness of sins and to eternal life, we must not give a penny for it, except that those who serve us for this purpose may receive their wages or remuneration as devout, faithful servants. That is a small thing! Apart from this, God has no need of your money and goods, nor does he want it.
(5) Therefore, it has been a vain fare that the world has thought that if one built churches, decorated them beautifully, and made great endowments, then God would be pleased and served by them. No, you cannot serve God with money and goods; He does not want your money, but your heart, so that you consider Him to be a God, put all your trust in His goodness, and fear Him. If you do this, he will have enough and will not want more from you for himself. But after that he wants you to love your neighbor and help him with your money and goods; or if you cannot help with money and goods because you yourself are wretched, poor and a beggar, that your heart may be kind to your neighbor. If you do this, God will acknowledge that you have done it for him and will accept and pay for it as his own service.
(6) This should make us Christians willing and joyful, that after we have rendered God His own service with our hearts, He does not expound more to us than that we should love one another. This is a service that rich and poor, small and great, high and low can render; indeed, what is more, the most powerful and greatest lords need such service just as much and rather more than the least and poorest. Emperors and kings are great lords; but if they do not have people who love them rightly and mean them faithfully, their power and wealth are of no avail. For love is such a service that all men need, and all men can perform it if they will. Maid and servant in the house are in a very lowly profession or station; but a maid with her cooking, washing, and other things, a servant with his work-
The people who work together can only prove their love and serve their neighbor well. As we have experienced, faithful household servants are held dear and valuable everywhere. So children can serve their parents, one neighbor can serve another if he has a kind heart. And so everything, all hours, in all places, and toward everyone, could be done in service, if we would look to love and do what is necessary and useful for our neighbor.
(7) But how many are they that do it? We all forget our love for others, and think only of our love, that we do what is profitable for us. But by this we testify that we are not Christ's disciples; otherwise we would esteem his command greater and higher, and in all our dealings, in buying and selling, look to the love of our neighbor, and not to our own use and advantage alone.
Now, everything can be done here for a while. There is no lack of teaching or preaching; you are told faithfully and often how you owe such obedience to God, and that on the last day he will pay for all kindness to the poor, and that everything we do for our neighbor will be praised on the last day as having been done for him. But to whom do these things go to the heart? who believes them? who keeps them? For if we believed it and let it go to our hearts, there should be less unfaithfulness, miserliness, transgression, deception and damage in the marketplace, in stores and in homes.
(9) Well, everything can be done for a while, but what judgment will finally follow, Christ says in Matthew 25, that he will call such unmerciful Christians, who have no love, to go into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, where they must burn forever. He does not say, the Lord, that such fire is prepared for men. For even though they are all sinners and guilty of eternal death, God wanted to prevent such misery by giving His Son to die for us and then revealing His loving word to us, so that we would know what to do if we wanted to serve God and live to please Him. Thus, our dear Father desired to have us blessed, and for this reason he has given us
not eternal fire, but heaven and eternal life decreed.
(10) But there we go, we consider the forgiveness of sins through Christ to be a small treasure; if we had enough money and good things, we would be more interested. Again, what God tells us to do and serve Him with, we have no desire to do. It must follow, because we are so much in the devil's way, and follow his will more than our Lord God's word, that we must also bear the same judgment with him; we do that to ourselves. We could do better, but we do not want to do better.
(11) Let this be enough of the first thing which the Lord commanded his disciples here at the last supper, when he was to be taken captive that night, and to be crucified in the morning, that they should love one another; and he commanded them thus, saying, I command you. As if to say, If ye will not do it, ye shall do me the highest disobedience, and therefore shall bear your punishment.
The other is the consolation. For here it says: If Christians do what they want, the world will still be hostile to them and hate them. But we know what follows from this, especially when it is such people who have the ability and can do harm. There it does not remain with the bad will; it follows also bad works that one causes harm where one can. Now it would not be a bad thing if the Lord had named these people and said, "If you are Christians, the servant and maidservant in your house, or your neighbors, or a whole village, or a whole city will be hostile to you and do all kinds of evil. For we experience every day what evil a single neighbor, maid or servant can do. But the Lord makes it even harder and more severe, and says, "If the world will punish you. For "the world" does not mean one man, one village, one city, but all men: that a Christian, coming whithersoever he will, shall find the host, the devil, at home; who shall not fail, and shall give him so much of enemies, of temptations, and of miseries, that he shall not know whither.
(13) If therefore, saith the Lord, ye would gladly shew all love and friendship to every man, but every man is an enemy unto you, and would gladly do you all manner of hurt, learn here what ye ought to think, and how ye may put yourselves into such a perverse life, that ye be not vexed thereby, and depart from the faith and the word. For as it says there in the parable of the seed, the persecution of pieces in particular is one thing that hinders the seed so that it cannot continue and perishes. For this reason, when the cross and persecution come, it soon happens that one thinks, "If I have no more of my faith than that everyone should be hostile to me, I will rather abandon such faith and keep the favor of the people. As we see at court, where the lords will not tolerate the gospel, some prefer to be in favor with their lord rather than with the gospel. This is how it is in the world. Therefore the Lord will comfort and warn his disciples here, that they do not do so, but stand fast in the word, and draw comfort in persecution and suffering, from causes such as these.
014 The first cause that he hath set his own example before us, saying, If the world hate you, know that it hated me before you. Item, after this he says: "The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my word, they will keep yours also." As if to say, "Surely it would be a wretched servant to see his master content with dry bread and a drink of water, or lying on a hard straw, who would not be content with such things, but would have it better. Therefore, when things go badly for you, you do everything to people, but they do everything badly to you and are bitterly hostile to you; see here how I, who am your master, have fared, how the world has treated me, and what I have earned with my service and faithfulness: the gallows and the cross. If this is how you are, do not be lazy, but thank God that you are like me, and that you are as I was. For if the world shall bear with you, as it hath with
If my father has kept himself against me, do not doubt that he will keep himself against you as he has kept himself against me, so that he will give you pleasure in this suffering forever. Without this, it is the same in the world: at court, no one is ashamed of his prince's color; everyone wears it gladly and thinks it is an honor for him. Now I am also a king and have my courtiers, the Christians. Would they be ashamed of my color, which I have worn in the world? That would be an eternal disgrace.
(15) Therefore let no Christian say it of himself; but let them be merry and willing, and think, Now am I like my Lord Christ, now do I wear the ornament which he wore in the world. If the world considers it a disgrace or a misfortune, what do I ask? My Lord Christ in heaven, God, and all his angels and saints consider it the greatest, best adornment and the greatest happiness. As we see in the apostles, Apost. 5:41, they left the council at Jerusalem rejoicing when they were beheaded. Why is that? One should not laugh, but weep after the beating. But, says the evangelist, they rejoiced because they had been worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus. Therefore they were not deterred from preaching with beating, but taught the gospel of Christ every day in the temple and now and then in houses. So shall it be with us. It was a disgrace that they were beaten, just as it is a disgrace among us when one is beaten with rods. And yet they rejoiced, and with their preaching gave cause that they should suffer more. For this reason they did not consider suffering to be a disgrace or a harm, but a great honor and a precious thing, as it truly is. For Christ Himself bore such adornment for and for. This is the one cause.
The other is that the Lord says, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." Here the Lord makes two different kingdoms: one is called the world kingdom, where the devil is the king of the world.
The other is called the kingdom of heaven, where our Lord Christ is supreme. These two kingdoms are such that they can never get along with each other. And because the world empire with money, goods and power here on earth is superior to the kingdom of heaven and the Christians, it is because of this that the Christians have to suffer and be crushed by such a world empire. Such a thing has a hard, sour appearance and is very painful to the flesh. But, says the Lord, it is a very good sign; for it is certainly true that if you belonged to the world and under the devil's kingdom, he would be well pleased with you, and the world would love you. But that the devil does not leave you satisfied, and the world is hostile to you, is a sure sign that you belong to Christ's kingdom. It is like this: here on earth it is poor and miserable, whereas the world is powerful and rich; but such power and riches last no longer than here on earth, and are followed by eternal suffering and misery; whereas Christians must suffer here with poor Lazaro for a little while, and afterward shall reign and live with the Lord Christ for eternity.
17 Thus the Lord makes the cross and suffering a certain sign and emblem by which we can know that we belong to the kingdom of God and eternal life. On the other hand, the world and reason judge the cross and suffering as an indication of God's disgrace and wrath. But Christ cannot lie. "If you were of the world," he says, "the world would love you. But since ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you from the world, therefore the world hateth you."
(18) Who then would be afraid of suffering? and not rather lift up his hands and say with the apostles: O dear Lord Christ, I thank thee that I have become worthy to suffer for thy name's sake? You yourself wore this ornament, and I, if I also wear it now, can thereby realize that I belong to your kingdom and under your banner, otherwise the world would hold me differently etc. Therefore, whoever wants to be afraid of God's grace, of heaven and eternal bliss, he may be afraid of the cross and
of persecution will also be frightened. But Christians will rejoice and thank God for it, as Paul says that Christians glory in tribulations.
19 The third reason is that the Lord says, "They will do this to you for my name's sake. This is no small comfort in truth, if we will consider it aright. The world, even though it does not have Christ nor wants to have Him, cannot be exempt from all suffering; it must sometimes take its stand and bite into a sour apple. Two great misfortunes coincide here; the suffering itself is heavy and painful; and the evil conscience is added to it, so that one must say: Behold, God is punishing your sin; if you had been more pious, it would not have happened to you. But with the Christians, says the Lord, it shall have another opinion. They too are poor, weak, frail sinners, but the world is not hostile to them for that reason, nor does it punish them for it. But the fact that they have to suffer is for my name's sake, so that they believe in me, keep my word, confess me, and place their salvation in me. Then they know well that they are doing right and pleasing God. Because they have to suffer for this alone, they cannot have an evil conscience because of this suffering, for they suffer for a good cause.
That is a very necessary consolation. For our reason and nature do not remain behind. As soon as a misfortune comes under our eyes, we look around and think what we have done to deserve it. The devil also stirs things up, for he is very anxious to make our hearts heavy and our suffering all the greater. But let Christians diligently remember the word of Christ, "All these things shall they do unto you for my name's sake." This is always clearly stated what is to be done. For two things are spoken: They will do these things to you for my name's sake, and for your sin's sake.
The holy and pious martyr John Hus himself complains a lot about his sins in his writings. Well, one can see how he is, that he is burned so miserably and shamefully. Now when he himself says
If he would say, I suffer these things for my sins, let him not do so; for he suffers for the name of Christ, and for his sins nothing at all. Therefore such suffering and shame shall not make him conscience-stricken; but he shall, as he does, rejoice with the apostles, and be of good cheer, that he is worthy to suffer anything for Christ's sake. For though he be a poor sinner, yet the pope persecuteth him not for that; he persecuteth him for the right doctrine. Therefore, he should not be troubled by such sin. For he is not in the world under the devil's kingdom, where sin and death reign; but he is under the Lord Christ and the kingdom of grace, where there is forgiveness of sins and all grace within.
(22) The fourth cause, which we must consider, and therefore be confident and of good cheer in suffering, is this, that Christ says, "Those who persecute Christians do not know the Father; and what is more, they hate both the Father and the Son. This is especially against the great trouble that Christians see and suffer in the world. For behold, who were they that persecuted the apostles, and would not suffer the gospel? They were the chief priests of Jerusalem, who had the Word of God, the right worship, the profession and the office in the church. So, who are they today who persecute us? The pope, his cardinals, bishops, monks, priests, who have and bear the glorious name that they are called clergymen and the Christian Church. If they were loose boys, whom the whole world considered wicked, godless people, and who publicly let themselves be heard in such a way that they did not ask about God and His word, that would not move us very much. But they boast of God, and all their crying is that they want to keep to God, to His word and to the right worship. Therefore it may occur to a simple-minded, yes, even to a great and learned Christian, that he thinks: "Dear, they are also people, they also mean well; who knows whether you are so right in your cause etc."? ? Such thoughts put a heavy strain on the heart. This is what the name of God does to them, and their office and profession, so that they are highly respected in the eyes of the world.
23 Christ sees this and comforts his Christians. Be of good cheer, saith he, and fear not: let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be cowardly. I tell you, they praise God's word and name as they will; but if they cannot bear my name and my word, but rage against it and persecute it, doubt not, they know not the Father; yea, that is more, they hate the Father. For there will never be any other way: He who hates the Son hates the Father.
(24) Let us diligently remember the verdict. Turks and Jews boast much about God, and want to have a better faith than we Christians. For they say that they cannot fail to believe in the one God who created heaven and earth and all things; this cannot be wrong, they think. But Christ concludes here: He who hates me hates my Father. Since Turks and Jews persecute Christ and his word, it is certain that they also hate the God who created heaven and earth, do not believe in him and do not honor him. For Christ is the same one God; whoever then denies Christ has denied the true, one God's Son; as he says, "The Father and I are one." And here he says: His works testify that he is God, which they saw, but still did not want to believe. It is the same with the Pope: He boasts of God, His name and His word very highly; he also boasts of the Lord Christ and His suffering. But if one preaches: Christ died for our sins, his blood alone washed away our sins, through him alone we come to grace and eternal life; therefore, mass, saints, indulgences, fasting, going on pilgrimages, and other things do not serve the forgiveness of sins: the pope and his crowd do not want to suffer such preaching, persecutes preachers and listeners over it.
(25) These things, saith the Lord here, let them be a sure sign unto you; that he glorieth in my name, and in the name of God, as he will; that he knoweth not God, but is at enmity with God, and with the Lord Christ in his heart, doubting him not. Therefore, do not be frightened by their boast and great pretense. I do not know them; neither do they know me. There-
You have the consolation that because you love my word and love to hear it, you honor me and serve me; that you honor my Father and serve him. He will not leave you as his dear children, but will reward you and make you blessed. Therefore, do not be concerned about suffering; thank God that you are not among the multitude who not only do not know God, but are still enemies of Him. But you know him, and he also knows you. You love him, and he also loves you. Therefore, do not be disputing whether the world is hostile to you. Such enmity will not be able to harm you so much; God's friendship will help and benefit you a thousand times more.
(26) That it is thus decided: Whoever wants to know God, love God, worship God, serve God, let him know Christ rightly, love Christ, worship Christ, and serve Him. Apart from Christ, it is impossible to know, love, worship or serve God. This is the comforting sermon that should be dear to us Christians, because the cross will not remain outside, so that we may comfort ourselves with it, and in patience overcome all evil, and through Christ may finally be saved. May God grant this to us all, amen.*)
*) Here the edition a closes the sermons with the words: "God the Father, God the Son" etc. and still brings the common form of the prayer.