1. the greatest harm comes to the church from false brothers.
2. what a hypocrite is.
3. what people the Christians have to argue with the most.
4 False brothers have come in the place of monks.
8. of Judah Iscarioth, the example and model of all false brothers.
Judas, for what he serves and is useful as an apostle.
7. poor Judas.
8. Judas an image of the enemies of Christ and his divine word.
9. how Christians are preserved against the devil and tyrants.
10. that the heretics and the fanciers are useful to the Christians.
False teachers do great harm in the world.
12. from the way of the ostrich.
13. secret enemies of the gospel, false brothers.
14. beware of false brothers.
15. from false Christians.
16. the Christians weapons and armor.
17. likeness of a Christian life.
18. Godly Christians Enemies.
19. a Christian is a patient.
(20) False brethren are the worst enemies of Christians, as Judas was among the apostles; that they should not be offended.
The world does not recognize righteous Christians.
22. a Christian's characteristic.
23. false Christians, inward secret enemies, the worst.
24. from whom one shall suffer violence and injustice.
25. what is the hypocrite's humility.
26. from false Christians.
From false brothers comes the greatest harm to the church.
I am not afraid of those who attack the church from outside and of public enemies, such as the papists and tyrants with their violence and persecution. For by this the church is not corrupted, nor is God's word hindered, but rather it increases and is increased. As Tertullianus says: Sanguine Christianorum rigatur Ecclesia1 ): through Christian blood the church is watered, fertilized and improved. But the inner evil of the false brothers will do the right damage and devastate the church, so that there will be mercy. Judas had to betray Christ, and the false apostles had to confuse and falsify the gospel. These are the true companions through whom the devil rumbles and destroys the true church.
Therefore, he comforted Mr. Gabriel, pastor, and Mr. Michael Schuttes, deacon at Torgau, for the sake of Jeckel, the antinomer, who was then Saxon court preacher at Torgau, that they should watch and pray. For the devil, he said, cannot be countered or resisted with human strength and weapons. For, as Job says Cap. 41, 18, he respects a long spear that is shaken and used for a thrust like a straw. But he is afraid of the sword of the spirit, that is, of God's word, which causes him burnt sorrow. Therefore, let us honor God's word, hold it dear, and pray.
2. what a hypocrite is.
Doctor Martin Luther asked how the little word hypocrita should actually be translated.
1) Cf. cap. 20, z 12.
The hypocrite is not only a hypocrite or flatterer who caresses and speaks what one likes to hear, but who also deceives and harms, and that among the people. Hypocrita is not only a hypocrite or flatterer who caresses you and speaks what you like to hear, but at the same time also deceives and does harm, and that under the appearance of holiness, as the examples Matth. 23, 23. ff. clearly indicate that Hypocrita is a harmful deceiver. For St. Jerome says: That pretended holiness is twofold wickedness. Therefore Hypocrisis is called false, Hypocrita a child of perdition, a false desperate knave. Lucas painter calls such a knave a holy rogue. Hypocrite is too thin and weak.
3. with what people the Christians have to quarrel the most. 3)
(Cordatus No. 266.)
The greatest and most violent quarrel that Christians have is with false brothers, and it is by far the most violent because they want to be and be called Christians, which they are not. If they wanted to say that they were people like Pilate, Judas and Herod, that is, if they wanted to give up the name of Christians, we would suffer from them all the adversities that they would dare to inflict on us; the war would be over and peace would be restored to us. But because they still want to use the Christian name, we have to fight,
2) Cf. Cap. 37, § 70; Cap. 4, § 70.
3) Quite similar Cap. 39, § 13 and § 24.
and do not want to suffer in any way that they speak and do with impunity what is not due to Christians. For we arrogate to ourselves the rule over consciences by the word, and will not let it be taken from us.
4 False brothers have come in the place of monks.
(Cordatus No. 171.)
After we have cut off monks and nuns 1) by the preaching of the word, now false brothers confuse everything, so that also in our listeners it will be true what is written: "He came into his own, and his own did not receive him. [John 1:11.]
5. of Judah Iscarioth, the example and model of all false brothers.
I am surprised, said D. Martinus, that nothing is written about Judah, what he did to Christ for mischievousness. I think he did it most with his tongue, because Christ does not complain about him without a cause in the 41st Psalm [v. 8, 10]. He will have gone to the chief priests and elders and spoken of him peevishly. I also baptize, he will have said, but I see that it is otherwise. In addition, he was also a thief, he intended to obtain something honest from Christ. Just as Georgius Wicelius, Crotus, and others also came to us and wanted to become great lords with us. So Judas must also have been a desperate bad guy, because if the man, Jesus Christ, is an enemy, there must be a great cause. He must have longed for Christ. Otherwise, if he had not been so wicked, our Lord God would have forgiven him, just as he did St. Peter, who also fell, but out of weakness; but Judas falls out of wickedness.
But just as the Jews at Jerusalem could not be prevented from crucifying Christ, so neither can they be helped when the punishment of God is at hand. This we see in the case of the traitor Judah. Our Lord God has Judah and the other Jews finely attacked, and so they are very weak,
1) shorn out, i.e. separated, eliminated.
as if he could not count four; but after that he comes well to them, and at last pays them.
Judas, for what he serves and is useful as an apostle.
Judas, said D. M., is as necessary among the apostles as otherwise three apostles; he solves and solves many innumerable "arguments" and loci, as, the main article of justification, against the heretics, the Donatists, who pretend that no one can baptize except he who has the Holy Spirit. Against this stands Judas, who is an apostle and one of the twelve; therefore what he did in his office was right; but if he stole and is a thief, he has done sin and wrong: therefore his person must be separated from the office; for Christ did not command him to steal, but to carry on the office of preaching, baptizing etc.
So also Judas solveth, which they reproach us with: Yea, say they, there are many bad fellows, false brethren, and unbelievers among you. Right, Judas has also been an apostle, he will undoubtedly have stood and held himself in a much better position than an intelligent man of the world, than the others, no one has provided for him. At the table in the last supper Judas is actually the pope, he has also taken the bag, is a miser, thief and belly servant, also wants to confess Christ and boast; sed re vera nihil habet, nisi tantum nomen, quod dicitur Judas; but he is in truth a true Sharioth.
7. poor Judas, D. M. Luther.
(This § is Walch, St. Louis Edition, vol. X, Col.
1472 f. No. 40, the first verse).
8. Judas, a picture of the enemies of Christ and his divine word.
That Judas hanged himself, and his belly burst open, and his bowels fell out of him, is an example and a picture of how all those should perish who persecute Christ and kill his Christians. For as it happened to Judah, their commander and captain, because he betrayed Christ,
So shall it be with the other enemies of Christ. And the Jews should look at their cousin Judah and see that they would all perish in the same way.
There is also an allegory and mystery in the little words "belly" and "bowels". For the belly signifies the whole Jewish kingdom, which is to fall away and go to the ground, so that nothing of it remains. Item, that the entrails were poured out, so it was indicated that also the children of the Jews and their descendants, yes, the whole Jewish family, should perish and perish.
It has also been said that where God's word goes, one only becomes more angry and stubborn, since one should reform and convert from it. There is a terrible example and spectacle of this in Judah: he preaches the gospel himself, and performs great miracles and wonders, and is also the chief among the apostles, and yet he betrays Christ and sacrifices him on the flesh bench, so that he is captured and crucified. Thus the Jewish people become neither more pious nor better: although they have heard the gospel from John the Baptist, from Christ, the Son of God Himself, and from all the apostles, yet they crucify Christ in the end, and beat all the apostles to death, and thus remain hardened in their sins until they are destroyed and annihilated by the Romans. It is a strange thing that the gospel, which should soften them and entice them to repentance, should only make them harder, worse and more wicked. But it is the same with the sun, which shines on mud or dung, which is soft and full of water, but the moisture dries up because of the sun's heat and warmth, and the dung becomes as hard as a stone or pebble. On the other hand, the sun also shines on wax, which is hard, so that it must be driven apart with axes and mallets, but when the wax feels the heat of the sun, it softens, melts, and fuses. Thus, some only become more angry and hardened from the preaching of the divine word, and to them the word is "a stench unto death," as St. Paul says in 2 Cor. 2:16, but Christian hearts are turned to God by it, and they are not ashamed.
and the gospel is to them "a savor of eternal life, yea, a power of God that maketh them blessed," Rom. 1:16. Now, the Jews have not improved much from the gospel, nor have they become more devout through the manifold miracles and examples of the wrath of God, which He has presented to them for repentance.
Thirdly, we learn from this example that the enemies of the Lord Christ and his word do not cease their tyranny until they are brought down to the ground; for no admonition, warning or miracle will help them, as can be seen in Sodom and Gomorrah, in Pharaoh who tormented the children of Israel, in the empire of Babylon, and in Jerusalem etc.
9. how Christians are preserved against the devil and tyrants.
D. M. Luther once said: it reminds him of the pious Christians as a goose, which one ties on a wolf pit, where around vain hungry wolves stand, and they want to eat gladly; but the goose is kept alive, and the wolves, who jump after the goose, fall into the pit, are caught and slain. So also the dear angels protect us Christians, so that the devils, the ravening wolves, with the tyrants and persecutors do not have to destroy us.
10. that the heretics and the fanciers are useful to the Christians.
D. M. Luther said in 1542: "We do not know how good it is for us that we have adversaries, and that heretics revolt and oppose us. For if Cerinthus had not done so, John the Evangelist would never have written his Gospel; but since Cerinthus opposed the divinity of the Lord Christ, John had to write and say: In Principio erat Verbum, and made the distinction trium personarum so clear that it could not have been clearer. So, when I began to write against the indulgence and the pope, Doctor Eck lay against me, he made me lively and woke me up. I wanted to wish the same man from the bottom of my heart that he would be converted and that he would be like-
I wanted to make a fist of him so that he would convert. But if he should ever remain so, then I wish him that he would become pope, for he would have well deserved it: for until now he has had to bear all the burden, toil and work of the papacy against me with disputes and letters alone; although they have also paid him in part, for he alone has seven hundred guilders from the parish of Ingolstadt income. But he would be cheap, because they have no one else who could do it and attack me. He gave me the first thoughts against the pope and brought me there, where I would otherwise never have been able to go. Therefore, if the heretics and others of our adversaries think they can do us great harm, they must serve us and be of use.
And Doctor Martin Luther said at another time that St. Augustine said: "Heretics, they woke us up and made us lively, chased us into the holy scriptures to think about them more diligently and to investigate what is right, otherwise no one would think about the word. Dissensio haereticorum facit eminere, quid sentiat Ecclesia.
False teachers do great harm in the world.
A liar, said D. Martinus said, "A liar and a false teacher deceives people, deceives souls, and kills them, so that they do not even think it, notice it, or realize it, under the appearance of God's word; but he, a murderer, can deceive no one. So Judas is a liar and a murderer, like his father the devil.
It is a great thing that Judas sat at Christ's table and was not ashamed when Christ said, Matt. 26:21, "One of you will betray me. The other disciples thought nothing less than that Judas would betray Christ; indeed, every one feared that he would be the one to betray Christ before Judas, to whom Christ had entrusted and entrusted the bag and all the administration and housekeeping; therefore he was held in great esteem by the apostles.
12. from the way of the ostrich.
(Cordatus No. 230.)
It is said of the ostrich that if it has only hidden its head under a leaf or foliage, it means that it is completely covered and so hidden that no one can see it: so the hypocrites take some good work and think that all the filth of their sins is covered and hidden with it, and they are most beautifully adorned and righteous before God.
13) Secret enemies of the gospel, false brothers. 1)
We do not want and should not suffer that the secret enemies of the gospel and our persecutors, who nevertheless want to be called our brothers, want to trample us underfoot; unless they confess that they are such people, as they are in truth, that is, enemies of Christ and his word. But they do not do this, indeed, they boast that they are lovers of God's word, and teach righteously, and yet they secretly persecute him and his word. We do not want to suffer this, even if it should come to ruin, and we want to tell them plainly and not mince words.
14. beware of false brothers.
Anno 39, the 13th of January, letters came to M. Philippo from D. Jakob Schenk of Freiberg, boastful, splendid, and deceitful ones, in which he corrupted him and smeared his mouth. He reported this to D. M. Luther and said: "Whoever wants to court a beautiful woman must start with the maid. Luther answered and said, "This is my advice, which I give you, that you beware of him, and have no fellowship with him, neither in writing, nor in colloquy, nor in other conversations; for he abuses our goodwill.
15. false Christians.
(Cordatus No. 1805.)
Clouds pass by without rain, like the false evangelicals who boast that they are Christians and yet do not bear good fruit, and Jude [v. 12.] says of them, They are clouds without water.
1) Same content as § 3 and § 24 in this Cap.
16. the Christians weapons and armor.
Job says: "Man's life is a knighthood on earth", Job 7, 1. A man, especially a Christian, must be a man of war and be at loggerheads with his enemies. And St. Paul describes the armor Eph. 6, 10. ff. Now there are two kinds of armor that Christians must have, one of which in Greek is called phylacteria, that is, armor to guard the heart; the other is called amynteria, that is, armor and projectile to strike and slay the enemy.
The armor and armor, so serve and belong to the custody of the heart, are these:
1) The belt of truth; that is, the knowledge of the pure doctrine of the gospel, which is righteous, not a fabricated and hypocritical confession.
2) The cancer of righteousness; but this is not the righteousness of a good conscience, although this is also necessary, because it is written Ps. 143, 2: "Do not go into judgment with your servant" etc. Item, St. Paul says 1 Cor. 4, 4: "I am aware of nothing, but therefore I am not righteous"; but is the righteousness of faith and forgiveness of sins, of which Moses speaks, 1 Mos. 15, 6: "Abraham believed God, and this was counted to him as righteousness."
3) The boots or shoes are the works of the profession, in which one must remain and persevere, not going further nor breaking out beyond the set goal.
4) The shield of faith. The fable of Perseus holding the head of Gorgoni in his hand rhymes with this: whoever looked at it was dead from the beginning. And just as Perseus threw the head of Gorgonis before his enemies and held it up before them, and thus retained the victory; so also we should throw the Son of God, as the head of Gorgonis, before all the evil temptations and wiles of the devil, and we shall surely prevail and retain the victory.
5) The helmet of salvation; that is, the hope of eternal life, as St. Paul interprets 1 Thess. 5:8.
But Amynteria, weapons so that you can use the
Enemy beats and slays, that are two:
6) Firstly, the sword of the spirit that
is God's word; and secondly, prayer. For as the lion is not more terrified or afraid of anything than the rooster's cry, so the devil can be overcome with nothing else but the word of God and prayer, of which Christ Himself has given us an example, Matt. 4:4 ff.
17. likeness of a Christian life.
Our life is like a ship's voyage. For as the mariners before them have the port to which they direct their voyage, that they may obtain it and come thither safely and out of all danger; so also the promise of eternal life is made and done unto us, that in it, as in a port, we should rest gently and securely. But because the ship in which we are led is weak, and great, violent, dangerous, impetuous winds, weather, and waves want to fall upon us and cover us, we truly need a wise, skillful shipmaster and patron, who will govern and lead the ship with his counsel and understanding so that it does not either strike a rocky cliff or even drown and sink.
Now our ship's master and patron is God alone, who not only wills the ship, but is also able to govern and maintain it; so that, even though it is tossed and assailed from time to time by impetuous waves and storm winds, it may nevertheless reach the shore and port unharmed and unbroken.
But he has promised that he will help us if we only ask him diligently for government and help, protection and protection, and call upon him with earnestness; and as long as we have and keep this shipmaster with us, there is no need, and we come out of all misfortune, so that the cruel winds and waves cannot harm us nor cover us. But if those who are in the ship, in the greatest danger, wilfully throw the master and regent out of the ship, who could preserve them by his presence and counsel, in that case the ship must perish and perish. And it is clearly seen that the shipwreck did not happen out of negligence.
The ship's master was not to blame for this, but rather for the willfulness and foolishness of those who were in the ship.
This likeness and image finely shows what the cause of our misfortune and misery is and where it comes from.
18. Godly Christians Enemies.
(Cordatus No. 65 and No. 1357.)
The Christians are forced to suffer three kinds of persecutors, namely bad ones, worse ones and the worst ones. The first are the tyrants, who persecute us by force, and they sin against the Father, whose is all power or dominion. The second are the sectirians, who sin by human wisdom against the divine wisdom of the Son of God. The third are the false brothers, whose sin is out of pure malice against the goodness of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, they commit an indispensable sin and are the worst, they are simply Judases. Of these Christ says: "He who ate my bread" etc. and complains about them in the Psalm and in the last Gospel. [Ps. 41, 10.; Joh. 13, 18.] "They tear down and eat our bread", that is, they hear our sermon and trample us underfoot for wages.
Christians must endure threefold enemies because they believe and confess three persons in the Trinity. Against the power of the Father the tyrants, against the wisdom of the Son the sectirians, against the goodness and holiness of the Holy Spirit the false brothers. This is the theological proof. The grammatical one is that because some are more wicked than the tyrants, some more wicked than the sectarians, the third most wicked than the false brethren, who eat the bread of Christ and trample it under their feet out of pure wickedness. Therefore their sin is in vain. 1)
19. a Christian is a patient.
A Christian is completely passivus, who only suffers, both before God, because there he only receives and takes, and before the people, because there he only receives evil.
1) The second paragraph is probably another relation of the first paragraph, which Cordatus took from another collection of Luther's speeches into his own.
20. false brethren of the Christians worst enemies, as Judas among the apostles, that one should not be offended at this.
(Lauterbach, Oct. 13, 1538, p. 149.)
No one is surprised about the fame of J[akob] S[chenk], who will have applause for a while because of his eloquence without real content [sine re]. For the vain world is always looking for something new and unusual. But when the people at court get used to his words and realize that he always plays on the same string, they will grow tired of him. After all, St. Paul complained from time to time about the arrogance of the false brethren and about the astonishing applause of the great crowd; see the whole chapter 1 Cor. 4, where he praises his teaching and the sincerity of Timothy against the pompous false brethren who only put the kingdom of God into words. It is no wonder that we are also repulsed by it.
The world does not recognize righteous Christians.
Just as Christ, so also we, who are righteous Christians and cling to him alone, are invisible in the world, for it does not see faith, nor does it recognize us who believe in him, just as it does not recognize Christ, who is certainly among us and in us; as he himself says, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age," Matth. 28, 20. and Joh. 17, 22. 23.: "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfect in one" etc.
22. a Christian's characteristic.
The characteristic of a truly devout Christian is that he is strongest in the greatest and greatest weakness and wisest in the greatest foolishness. One is understood with the senses, the other with faith.
23. false brothers, inward secret enemies, the worst.
Ingratitude is a very vexing thing that no one has yet to bear or overcome
but Scipio the Roman; yet our Lord God can suffer more than we. If I had had to deal with the Jews, I would have lacked patience, I would not have been able to watch for so long. The prophets have always been poor people; they have been plagued and persecuted the most, not only by external, public enemies, but also by internal, secret enemies, by their own people. What the pope is doing to us now is nothing compared to what Jeckel and Grickel are doing: they are doing us heartache, the golden friends and little brothers. But it should be so. That is why Moses rightly said: You are a strange God.
24) From whom one shall suffer violence and injustice. 1)
Suffering and tolerating injustice takes place and applies only when the enemies of God's Word persecute us and confess to it; but the sin of those is not to be suffered who want to be brothers and to be considered Christians, as if they were leaders.
1) Same content As § 3 and § 13 in this Cap.
They are of the same doctrine with us, since they falsify it in several articles and do not want to be taught or reported. When they have been admonished once and for all, and have been overcome with God's word, they are not to suffer, nor to be silent about it, but to be punished, and to oppose it, as Christ teaches Matt. 18:15 ff. Therefore, if they want to boast of the name that they are brothers and Christians, they recognize their sin and that they have done wrong, and let themselves be punished. But if they still want to defend their sin, they only freely confess that they are enemies, and then we will be satisfied and willing to suffer everything from them as enemies; but from brothers we do not want nor should we suffer it.
25. what is the hypocrite humility.
(Contained in Cap. 22, § 107.)
26. false Christians.
It is safer to be an epicure and a sow than a false Christian. The pope is much worse than the Turk, as well as false brothers.