From the first epistle of St. Paul to Timothy Cap. 1, 18. 19. 20. and Cap. 2, 1. 2. *)
Held Friday after Oculi, March 24, 1525.
1 Tim. 1, 18. 19. 20. This commandment I command thee, my son Timothy, according to the foregoing prophecies concerning thee, that thou in the same exercise good chivalry through faith and a good conscience, which some have cast off, and have been shipwrecked in the faith; among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have given to the devil, that they may be chastened to blaspheme no more.
So far we have heard, 1) that St. Paul had to do everything to exhort Timothy to fight against the false teachers, so that he always had it on, that the people remain firm in the true, pure doctrine, and drive them on all the time. For the devil does not sleep, and makes every effort to deceive us; so the flesh is slippery, and does not remain steady and firm. Therefore it is necessary for the word to go forth continually, that the people may remain under the banner of the gospel in the controversy, and that they also may be raised up who fall and are challenged with false doctrine.
According to the previous prophecies about you.
2 I do not know what he means by this text; I do not understand it, because it is not almost clear. But it reads as if the Spirit had testified about Timotheum, as about Paulum, Apost. 13, 2. since he says, "Separate unto me Paulum and Barnabam." So the text reads as if he had been prophesied about.
1) From these words "So far we have heard" Köstlin ("Martin Luther", Vol. I, p. 809 aü. p. 614, note 2) rightly concludes that Luther went through the First Epistle to Timothy coherently.
that he should convert many and bring great benefit. But since there is nothing of this in the Scriptures, we cannot rely on it with certainty; therefore we let it go. For we must hold fast to that which is clearly expressed in the Scriptures. Or I hold thus, "According to the former prophecy," that is, according to the Scripture which Paul taught him. For the apostles have proved all things from the Scriptures, and so I will drive him into the Scriptures, that he may practice them, and that they may be a guide to him in all things.
That you practice a good knighthood in it.
(3) This is that thou be not slothful and desolate, and desist not, though many be displeased, and many false teachers dispute with thee. For a true preacher must be a man of valor, and a man of good courage, and a man that traveleth: he that will preside over others shall not sleep, because of the false prophets. The devil also does not sleep, he wakes him up; therefore he must watch, and stand as a man of war in armor, always waiting for the attacks.
4 Here a Christian life is pictured, that it should be a war, Job 7:1, and those who have the word should go beforehand in the forefront of the army, have the sword in their fist, and draw the troops behind them, be prepared, and wait all the way for the blows, as in a real battle; otherwise we will soon be defeated.
5. in a battle, one may not defend that no one perishes or is maimed, for the nature of war does not give it to-
*This sermon was first printed in the first part of the Eisleben Collection, p. 394, and subsequently included in the Altenburger, vol. II, p. 882; in the Leipziger, vol. XI, p. 461 and in the Erlanger, vol. 51, p. 306. We reproduce the text according to Walch, who took it from the Eisleben edition. Aurifaber's dating is confirmed by the second index to Luther's sermons found in Zwickau. Cf. Buchwald, Andreas Poach's handwritten collection of unprinted sermons by D. Martin Luther, first volume, first half, p. XXI. From the same index we see that Luther had already preached two sermons on Chapter I of the First Epistle to Timothy on March 17 and 18.
He who lies lies, if only the heap remains and keeps the field. So also, we have to dare a lot; and even though we have the word pure, their stings do not go off without damage. There never arose a false teacher who did not deceive people. The devil does not want to miss, he strikes down some with false teaching, which he mixes with pure teaching; he strikes some, that is certain, so well it cannot be kept. Now when flesh and blood fill it, and the poisonous doctrine enters the heart, the man is already slain and dead. Again, if I convert one with pure doctrine, I beat him from the devil and win him to Christ. Therefore we must strike into it, and pluck out some of the devil; we have a captain who triumphs in us, and keeps the field.
This spiritual dispute must remain. For that the church should be governed without strife, without battle, in peace, as the pope thinks, that is not possible. But though the false prophets have the following, yet we are not under; because we have the word pure, we are undestroyed. Even if they deceive a lot, there is no power in it; the truth is still above, and beats the lie down, no matter how big it is; the truth is too powerful, and the lie is too weak and feeble.
7 But that sects arise is right and must be so, Luc. 17, 1. 1 Cor. 11, 19, otherwise I would not know that I had to be in conflict; we would also never come to the foundation of the Scriptures if we were not contested. Therefore he is also called a God of hosts, that is, a duke of hosts; he is everywhere in the field. Here, and in another place also, is all knighthood, strife, and contest with him, against the flesh and against the devil; therefore let us be good knights, valiant, waiting for the blows of the mobs.
By faith and good conscience.
(8) What faith and a good conscience are, you have now heard enough. God cannot suffer, even if you were Solomon and had all the art, that you should brave it. Paul does not want us to rely on our spiritual armor in battle, that is, on our art, which we have in the Scriptures,
but on faith and a good conscience. For where it is not done in faith, it is lost. If the devil leads me into presumption, so that I think I am more learned than the other, and rely on my art, God is never there. And if the devil sees this, he proposes a vine, that a loose knave and a bad layman, who hardly knows two sayings in the Scriptures, may give thee. For you do it without faith, in presumption, thinking you know, and do not want to let God be Lord. You must despair of all art, must let God argue, and thus say: Lord, help; if you do not help, nothing helps; it is due to you, I am only the fist, the matter is yours; if you do not stop, I am soon overcome, if I had eaten all the Scriptures.
9 So God is wonderful; he wants me to know the Scriptures and be mighty in them, otherwise I should not preach and yet not want to rely on them. Paul exhorts Timothy, 1 Ep. 4, 16, to study without ceasing; likewise Christ, that we should abound in the word, that we may smite the multitudes. He wants scholars to preach who are equipped in the Scriptures and can practice this knighthood, and yet they should not rely on their art and wisdom, but the Holy Spirit should drive them in faith: so the devil will be weakened. God will direct it, he will give us a mouth and wisdom, which not all the unrighteous shall contradict nor resist; therefore I shall also put it to God, and not to myself. There is also a great example of this in the Old Testament about Gideon, in the book of Judges Cap. 7, 2. ff., where God says to Gideon: "The people are too many that are with you; Israel wants to boast against me and say that they have done it. Therefore let the foolish and the timid return. Twenty-two thousand men went away, leaving only ten thousand to fight. Then said the LORD, The people are yet too many: them that fall on their knees to drink, let them go; but them that lick with the tongue like a dog, by them will I deliver you. 1) And of them
1) Here in the text of the previous editions is erroneous: "those who lick with their tongue like a dog, let them go, but through them I will redeem you who fall on their knees to drink."
were only three hundred men; lest they should boast as if it had been done by their hand.
010 But why doth he call them to have armor, because he would fight for them? It is a strange God; he will not do it without armor, nor by the armor; he wills that we bear swords, and yet will not rely upon them. So he also wants me to work, that I may feed myself, and yet he says he will feed me like the birds, without my work, Matth. 6, 26. Therefore we must send ourselves into it: He wants to have external things, and yet trust nothing in them. In this way we must also do to him here. He wants us to read the Bible carefully, and yet he wants us to work by his help. David says Psalm 44:7: "I will not trust in my bow, neither will my sword help me"; itemPs. 147:10: "He delighteth not in the strength of the horse, neither taketh pleasure in any man's legs." Why do you deny, David? Do you say that you have no confidence in your armor? Why don't you hang it on the wall at home? Although David did not trust in it, he did not want to be without armor, for that would be tempting to GOD. God wants us to need and use it, so that we may keep the faith pure, and the world thinks it is natural, and by outward armor.
(11) Therefore, whoever begins to argue, let him beware that he does not think he is the man who argues, but let God rule and stay under the captain Christ, who is too clever for the devil. But if you want to do it with your own art, and bring the Bible with you, the devil will blow it away, because he also knows the Bible. And if you are clever in the best possible way, God can take away your speech. Again, when the time comes, and God wants to use you for this, you will understand it very well, and God will give you mouth and wisdom. God takes you as a larva and fights in you in the same way as in a mummery. So it is not the larva that works, but he who is under it, and yet he must have the larva if he wants to make a mummery. Therefore, what I have is only a larva; Christ must work, and we desert idols and larvae with our art.
fine. If he does not fight through it, I am lost; and if I have Paul's and Mosi's art, the devil gives nothing to your larva. But if I have a cheerful heart toward Christ, faith and good conscience, let the devil trot here, he will not devour Christ.
Which some have pushed away from themselves, and suffered shipwreck in the faith.
(12) Now when the devil brings men to lead them into the presumption of their state, it is already lost; they stand in their defiance and cheat themselves in their prudence; they do not strike well, and are finely caught and slain with their own sword. Now we see the mad spirits fighting foolishly; in presumption they step up, have no good conscience, suffer shipwreck in the faith, and do nothing, because they want to do the thing alone with their intellect.
(13) Now if presumption is dangerous in outward things, how much more in spiritual things? Pray to God that you do not presume on the Scriptures. God wants to have a humble, bruised spirit, and strong-minded on Christ, Isa. 66, 2. Ps. 51, 19. so they think they must deliver it, or it is lost. They should hand it over to God and command Him, throwing the keys at His feet and saying: "Lord, if you do not do it, it is not done; Lord, if you do not want to help, I will gladly be put to shame; the matter is not mine, therefore I will have no honor in it; I will gladly be your larva, only that you fight. The mobs cannot do that, they want to go straight through with their heads according to their reason, no one has told them to do so, they force their way in as if they are mad, as if God needs them and must have them, Jer. 23, 21. Ezek. 13, 1. ff, therefore they have lost faith, Ezech. 22, 22. ff. Learn to recognize God and give everything to Him, and see that you hang on the head.
Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander.
14 There will have been many heretics; here he names only two of them. But what heresies they have had, I will leave undecided. If the devil seizes such a man who has been among us, and has the
Bible also, he is worse and more harmful than all the pagans who do not know the Scriptures. The Turk is not so to us as the pope and emperor; they are poisonous to us, their mouths are full of blasphemy, that they would have us fall to the ground with all shame. So too, the red spirits are more hostile to us than the pope; they blaspheme so much that it is beyond measure; the closer they are to us as friends, the worse they are to us as enemies.
(15) These two were Christians; Paul might have taught them, and now they thought they had the Scriptures, and opposed Paul and his disciples. They were not bad fools, because they opposed Paul, but highly learned men, who must do it; they were not fools, who resisted such a great apostle, who preached so much, and did such great miraculous signs. It is a great presumption: they had in mind to put down what Paul had set up; that will have hurt him. He calls the Alexandrum afterwards in the 2nd epistle to Timothy Cap. 4, 14, a coppersmith, and says that he caused him much pain and resisted his words very much. It was not enough that he denied the gospel, but also caused him all other misfortunes.
16 Now this is comforting in the fight against the hordes. What are we compared to Paul? Although we have the same spirit, we are not so rich in faith; we are weak and still far from it; and the excellent man should suffer from a coppersmith's resistance? These boys have always torn apart for him what he has built for a long time.
Which I have delivered to the devil, that they may be chastened to blaspheme no more.
(17) These two did battle in Saint Paul's army, slayed him and turned him away, and overthrew many a strong sermon, so that it hurt him mightily. It was also a great thing that he had to give up the apostolic office and hand it over to the devil. 1) Thus
1) "surrendered" put by us instead of: "surrendered"; the latter may have come in here because this word is repeated immediately. That the reading given by us is correct is shown by the conclusion of s 18.
we must now freshly surrender to it, so that it will also happen to us; it cannot be bad people who do such damage in Christianity. The devil does not arm himself with bad people, but with the most learned who have courage and a head, because he would like to prevail. He also does not attack the conflict in the strongest place, but invades where the loose people are. That is why God must preserve it. If God does not keep it, it is already over. But those who presume are already of the devil; he deals with them as he pleases. But Christ has a proud courage, is also presumptuous; he presses on and triumphs over the devil.
18 When Paul saw that these two had thus corrupted Christianity, he was forced to punish them physically and gave them to the devil. But how he did it to him is not sufficiently expressed. Some think that he banished them; but it was too little and too bad, they would not have given anything to it. I think the devil will have possessed them and tortured them, that is where he gave them. But it did not help; the devil does not ask for such signs, which Paul did here. I did not want to have the grace to do miraculous signs, because those who do not turn to the word, against whom all the world cannot rebel, will not be moved by the signs. God does not give power to everyone, but only to the high spirits who know how to use it. For if anyone should have it, one would devour the other; you would give me to the devil, and I to you again. I do not mean that Paul condemned them; therefore I would like to understand that he let the devil torment them for a while, but not all the time, as he did in 1 Corinthians 5:5. But since it did not help, he let them go; that is then all the more given over to the devil.
The other chapter.
1 Tim. 2:1, 2. I exhort therefore that before all things we first make supplication, prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving for all men, for kings, and for all authorities, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and honorableness.
19 Now Paul, after admonishing Timothy to be diligent in his office, sets forth the order of how a right bishop should conduct himself. First, ask for secular authority. For this is the most necessary thing in the world, to have a strictly secular government. The world cannot be governed according to the gospel, for the word is too few and too narrow, it takes hold of few; the thousandth man does not accept it; therefore no outward government can be established. The Holy Spirit has a small group; the others are all harlots and knaves, who must have a worldly sword. Where the worldly regiment does not use its office strictly, then everyone tears to him in his sack; then follows riot, murder, wars, wife and children ravish, that no one wants to live safely. Mr. Omnes is not a Christian. King, princes and lords must use the sword, take away the heads. The punishment must remain, that the others may be kept in fear, and the pious may hear the gospel, and wait for their work, that everyone may be quiet and at rest. The apostles had great concern for the secular sword.
20. it is also now very necessary that
one would do a strong common prayer for the authorities, for we have neither king nor emperor who would be so diligent: the authorities are now lax and lazy, the superiors do not punish the subordinate lords, no rule, no prince is one with the other. From this arise so many outrages, and it is to be feared that God will one day mix us together and make a cake of us, so that we will swim in blood. Therefore we should ask that peace be preserved, that God would give the emperor so much mercy that he would keep the princes in check, the princes ruled the nobility and the cities, and immediately the overlords grabbed the heads of the underlords and visited them so that their rinds cracked. So with the officials 2c., so peace would be maintained everywhere. It is a pitiful state of affairs that so much internal turmoil has now arisen everywhere. It belongs to us, who are Christians, that we earnestly beseech God that worldly authorities may rightly execute their offices. Prayer is great, but our God is also great, and He also wants to hear us. If the sword were severe and the government was right, it would be good to preach the gospel, but it will not help. Amen.