3RD SUNDAY IN LENT (3)
Text: Ephesians 5:1-9.
Source from Back to Luther with German archive reference. Back to Walther's Epistle Sermons.
Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ Jesus.
Man is so created that he must love something. Man can not go indifferently through the world. In his inner being he has the ineradicable inclination not only to know all kinds of things, but also to find delight in something, take pleasure in something, have his heart cling to something, in a word, to love something. Man's heart can not remain empty of all love. If man does not love God, he loves the world; if he does not love the Creator, he loves the creature; if he does not love the Invisible One, he loves the visible creature, if not heavenly things then earthly, if not the holy and pure then the unholy and the impure.
When man came forth from God's hand, the right, the true, holy love dwelt in his heart. He loved God above all things as his God his highest good, the most lovely beauty, the epitome of sweetness, the source of all treasures, joy, and blessedness; he loved his fellow man who was created like him as the co-partner of his nature, his second "I" as himself. And in this holy love man was also most happy and blessed.
But when man fell into sin, a great tragic change took place in him. Love to God above all things as his highest good, and love to his neighbor as himself was extinguished. But since man had kept the heart given him at creation with its yearning, with its desires, with its inclinations, his heart was filled with another love, with the love of the creature, with the love of the transient things of this world, yes, with the love of vanity and sin itself.
Now all men are born into the world filled with this unholy love. By nature every person still has a heart which must love, a desire for joy and happiness which he must appease, a yearning for peace and rest which he must seek to satisfy; but as long as God does not change man's heart, he seeks his happiness not in the love of God and his neighbor, but one in riches, a second in lust, a third in honor.
Nevertheless, there has always been in the world a little flock known alone to God, who have had a heart changed by God; this little flock exists today. And how does the Holy Scripture describe them? The Epistle to the Hebrews describes them in the following words: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Heb 11,13. St. Paul sketches the following picture of them: "They that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it." 1 Cor 7,29b-31a. Who are they? They are the reborn children of God or the true Christians, who are in the world but not of the world, whose body is upon earth, but whose heart is in heaven.
I do not doubt that there exists also among us such a little flock of true Christians. My dear friends, this is only too certain: As long as such Christians live in this world, so long are they also in great danger of losing again the heavenly, holy mind of love which God has planted in them. It there-
fore is constantly necessary that they not only examine themselves whether they are still in that love but always encourage themselves anew.
Since our today's Epistle holds before all Christians such urgent reasons for walking in holy love, let us now hear these reasons. May he, the only Fount of all true love, grant us his grace, that the cold may be warmed and those already having this love may be enkindled by it more and more.
Quote the text here: Ephesians 5, 1-9.
As you have heard, this text deals with a double love, first, with the holy and pure love, and then, with an unholy and impure love; he exhorts us to walk in holy love; he warns us against a life in unholy love; and finally, he supports the admonition and warning with mighty and powerful arguments.
So let us now hear the apostle's answer to the question:
WHAT SHOULD INDUCE A CHRISTIAN TO KANT HOLY LOVE AND FRIGHTEN HIM AWAY FROM LOVE OF UNHOLY THINGS?
The apostle answers:
1. That as Christians They are God's Children. This Should Move Them to Love Holy Things, and,
2. That as God's Children They are Saints. This Should Frighten Them
Away from the Love of Unholy Things.
Oh Lord God, highest Good, to love you is our salvation; to forget and despise you means hell. But see, how blind and perverted man's heart is; it forsakes you, the living Fount, and hewes out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Yet pour out upon us the living water of your Holy Spirit and his peace and joy, so that we may all taste and see how good it is to love you and be in communion with you; we may forsake the deserts of this world and its sinful and transient joys with which our heart can never quench its thirst, but cause it to languish eternally. Lord, turn this present hour into an hour of gracious coming upon us all, for the sake of your love which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
I.
It is true, my friends: At the beginning of our text the apostle makes a big demand of Christians in the words: " Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor." Vv. 1.2. The apostle exhorts Christians to have only love, but who is to be the example after whom they should judge themselves? Who is the prototype whom they are to imitate? What is the original which they are to try to attain? It is to be God himself. " Be ye therefore followers of GOD." says the apostle.
How does God love ? John expresses it briefly in the words: "God is love." Not only does God have love, God not only practises love; he is love itself; his whole essence is love; he is a love whose fire glows throughout heaven and earth; he is a sea of love which continually overflows everything which exists.
Particularly he revealed himself to men as a God who loves beyond the power of words to express. He loved us even before we existed; he loves us all
from eternity, and from eternity decreed to pour out his love upon us all. He created us, and behold! when we fell and became his enemies, his love did not wane; then he truly revealed how ardently he loved us. After the eternal counsel in order to save us God not only offered us heaven and all his treasures; he did infinitely more; he gave us his very own Son, yes, gave him up to suffer, bleed, and die for us, and he, the Son, willingly gave himself for us; he went to the grave; he became a sacrifice upon the altar of the cross, a sweetsmelling sacrifice tb God, appeased his righteousness which was outraged by our sins, and we were acceptable to God in the Beloved in spite of our sins.
You see, that is the example of love which the Christian is to go by, the model of love which he is to imitate, the heavenly pattern which he is to seek to attain. That is why the apostle does not say: Have love or exercise love; but: " WALK in love." It is clear that the apostle means to say: You Christians, your entire life is to be one continual love, a love of God and man; this holy love should fill and move your whole heart; this holy love should reveal your words; this holy love should shine out of your countenance and your every bearing; this holy love should be the beat of your heart from which love proceeds into all the powers of your soul and all the members of your body. Your heart should hold no loveless thought, no indifference toward any person, not even against your foe and offender, so that you can always rejoice with everyone who rejoices and weep with everyone who weeps. God himself must dwell within you and along with God love, that holy universal love, that ardent love of God himself must also dwell within you which ever and always empties itself out.
I repeat, it is true: This is a huge demand which the apostle makes of Christians. However, as great as it is, just so powerful, so mighty, so urgent is also the reason which he adduces. What does the apostle add? He says: " As dear children." He means to say: I can not say to all men: " Be ye there fore followers of God, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor." V.l.2. For how can that person, who still lies in the death of sin and vanity, who has not yet known God as his highest good, w ho wanders about like a blind person, still seeking his rest and peace in the things of this world, how can he follow God in love? If he hears the summons to have divine love, he thinks that this is foolishness; and if he even wanted to begin to love, he could not; his wretched heart would be drawn back to earth; it can not ascend to eternal love in order to pour itself out from above.
But; you Christians, have you not by faith known this love by which God as a father has loved his children from eternity? Were you not begotten by God through the experience of this love, reborn, become partakers of the divine nature and true children of God, children of eternal perfect love? Yes, as God's children you are therefore not only in duty bound to love as God your Father loves; as his true children you also have the power, the blessed power to receive love. Up ! therefore, up! " Walk as dear children in the love" of your Father.
You children of God, is that not so? Must you not admit that the apostle's words are correct? Are you not as God's children in duty bound to walk in love? Should not a child be like his father? Should not a child bear the image of his father? Should not a child imitate his father? Would not a child be considered a bastard which is so unlike his father?
God whom you call your Father i s nothing but pure love and goodness. Would you dare to call yourselves God's children if your heart is not full of holy love, if you do not love God above all things as your greatest good, If you do not love your fellow-redeemed brethren brethren and sisters as yourself? No, then you must leave aside the claim to be God's children: then you must
confess that hitherto you have only called God your father, but that you have not been his children, that you are not begotten by him, and have not become partakers of his divine nature. Therefore, as dear as you hold the name of being a child of the Most High God, so zealously walk in love.
Or do you intend to say: How can I love God above all things and my neighbor as myself? My heart is too cold, too dead, too corrupt to do that? Do you not by these questions confess that you are still children of death and sin and not children of God? Is not a child of God differentiated from a child of the world by the fact that the child of God is reborn by God and has received a new, loving heart, whereas a child of the world still has the old, unchanged, dead, hardhearted, loveless heart?
It is true: Even God's children here on earth are not yet perfectly delivered from the bands of their natural corruption; the old loveless heart often makes itself felt in wicked thoughts; it even bursts forth in loveless words and deeds, and often unnoticed attaches its love to the creature. But he who is a true child of God can not have this lovelessness and false love of the creature dominating him. If he has fallen into that love, he immediately falls down before God and beseeches and begs with groans and tears for grace and forgiveness. God has no stillborn children. Therefore if someone is a true child of God he is not only in duty bound to walk in holy love; he also has the desire and power and grace to do it.
Oh, then, listen, you children of God, to the urgent admonition of the apostle in our text, which he directs not only to the Ephesians but to all Christians: " Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor." Vv. 1.2. Oh, then, by the power of the Holy Spirit strive after the ability of being able to say in holy love to God with your whole heart every moment of your life, in joy and in tribulation, in honor and in dishonor, in riches and in poverty: "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Ps 73,25.26. "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God." Ps 42,2.
But also battle against every wicked thought against your neighbor; suppress every unloving impulse; keep a sweet heart toward everyone. Let your countenance be friendly and your speech show love; if you must reprimand for the sake of God's honor and your brother's salvation, then dip the bitter word of reprimand first into the honey of love.
Love like this will make your own life lovely; along with this love you will often taste the powers of the world to come; in the interest of others you will journey through this vale of tears as true merciful Samaritans, everywhere dry tears, still sobs, pour the wine and oil of consolation into wounds and bind them, and finally you will arrive in the heavenly resting place where faith will cease because it is turned into sight, and where hope disappears because it is fulfilled, but where love remains, and all, angels and men, are perfectly happy in the perfect fellowship of love among themselves and with God.
II.
Not only is there a holy and pure, but also an unholy and an impure love. Love is the hunger of the soul. As the physical hunger of man wants to be satisfied, so does also the hunger of the soul for love. But as the prodigal son, having spitefully forsaken the home of his rich father and the fellowship of his brother, greedily gulped the food of pigs, so also when man no longer loves
God above all things and his neighbor as himself, he greedily gulps even sin, the food of impure spirits. A heart empty of the love of God and his neighbor is not completely empty; as a vessel which has been filled with costly wine is filled with air when its contents are emptied, so the heart of man is filled with the love of vanity, perishable things, when holy love is emptied out.
Therefore after the apostle has admonished Christians to have holy love, he continues in our text: " But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you." V.3. The apostle means to say: If holy love is extinguished within you, nothing else is possible; unholy, impure love takes its place; if you lack joy in God and in spiritual, heavenly things, then the desire of fleshly things will become your joy; if you are no longer rich in God, you will seek to become rich in earthly things; your heart will cling to mammon.
Purposely the apostle adds: " Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting," to the gross sins of fornication and covetousness, for even those who no longer love God at times see that gross depravity leads to destruction; so they satisfy themselves with all kinds of tricks and buffoonery; they try to enjoy life by means of laughter and jests and thus appease their desires. If they do not live secretly in the vulgar lusts of unchastity or greed, they seek all the more the so-called social pleasures, the joys of fellowship and thus try to turn earth into heaven.
Now how does the apostle try to frighten Christians away from this love? He adds: " Let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints." He means to say: You Christians know that Christ became the Redeemer of the world in order to tear the world out of its sins and lead it back again into communion with God; you know that your sins are not forgiven so that you can continue peacefully in the service of sin but become free of them; God did not pronounce you righteous for Christ's sake in spite of your sins, so that you can be considered righteous in spite of a life of sin, but that you might receive power to follow after sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. You know that from the moment that God took pity upon your misery and pardoned you he has also given you his Holy Spirit who is continually to drive, renew, cleanse, and sanctify you. You are saints, sanctified through faith, and sanctified as temples of the Holy Ghost; your goal is perfect sanctification in eternal life. You are therefore in duty bound to flee all unholy love as hell itself. It you do not want to do this you cease being God's saints, and at the same time you also fall from the fellowship of God and Jesus Christ, lose your grace, and become a slave of death and ruin.
And is that not so, my dear Christians? Yoü who know what your have received forgiveness of all your sins, do you not know that with this forgiveness you have received the Holy Ghost who has begun to move you, rule in you, and sanctify you? What do you do when you again surrender yourselves to unholy love? What do you do when you surrender yourselves to the sin of uncleanness, greed, and the pleasures of the society of the world?
You do what does not become you as saints; you cease being God's saints; you destroy the gracious work of the Holy Spirit; you lose your faith; you deny Christ and his redemption; you travel again the road to ruin. As dearly as you love the claim of being God's saint, just so earnestly battle against all impure and unholy loves.
However, the apostle knew full well the fearful power of sin and the flesh, of Satan and the world. He knew how easily even a true Christian can be enticed from his fortress and be bound by the sweet cords of uncleanness, or greed, or worldly vanity. He knew how often the flesh, the world, and Satan
join together in the hour of temptation in order to picture to the Christian that sin is something small and harmless and its enjoyment a heaven on earth. He therefore adds the threat: " For this ye know that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." V.5.
He wants to say: My dear Christians, do not think that God's love and grace is so great, Christ's merit so powerful, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost so constant, that a Christian can surrender to this or that sin and be saved anyhow. No, says the apostle, Christians are saints; they are not people who live in sin; whoever does that is not a Christian; his faith is a delusion, his love hypocrisy, his hope a dream; and if Christians will inherit the kingdom which has been prepared for them from the foundation of the world, such a servant of sin will be excluded from this inheritance and be cast out into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
There have always been preachers, who have made the way to heaven broad and, as the Prophet Ezekiel writes, sew pillows to all armholes and make kerchiefs upon the heed and have taught that it is not so necessary to tremble at every sin; grace will cover all sins; the sea of divine love would swallow the sins of all sinners. And the worst of these preachers is the one which all Christians still bear in themselves, the flesh and blood still clinging to them. Therefore the apostle adds in our text: " Let no man deceive you with vain words; for be cause of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be ye not therefore partakers with them." Vv. 6.7.
The apostle means to say: Christians, do not trust those who want to convince you with sweet talk and brilliant words that one could be a Christian and be saved without earnestly struggling against his sins; that one could be an unchaste, greedy, or lustful child of the woRld and still have God's grace and enter heaven. If they promise you freedom, they themselves are servants of ruin. Bear in mind: Why are the children of disobedience condemned? Is it not because of these very sins? How dare you hope that you will be saved if you imitate these children of disobedience by your life and works? Because you confess with your mouth, that you believe and are Christians? because you outwardly are still in the fellowship of Christians? What a fearful deception! This very thing will doubly condemn you, for you add to the sins of unbelief also this, that you hypocritically call yourselves Christians, believers, God's children, and saints. Some day when the Judge will separate the sheep from the goats, you will find yourself separated and placed at his left hand.
Oh my dear friends, you who are Christians or want to be Christians, let us bear in mind: Christians are to be saints, saints not only by imputation of grace but also saints in deed, saints through holy thoughts and desires, saints through holy words and bearing, saints through holy works and life, in a word, saints through holy love.
If we want to be and remain such saints, then the crown and salvation beckon us; if we do not want to be and remain such saints, then hell and death threaten us.
What must, what will we chose? God will not change his arrangement. To gratify our flesh, God will not become a God who has pleasure in wickedness. To be sure, he is and remains eternal love; but a holy, a pure, an unspotted love. Oh let us cast ourselves into the arms of this love so that it may fill us, that it may guide us, and that it may finally save us. Amen.