Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 15 - "But it is one thing to have possessions and another to serve them; to have mammon, and to make a god out of it."
17. He is a lord of mammon who lays hold of and uses it for the sake of those who need it and lets God rule, who says in Luke 6:38. Give, and it shall be given unto you; have you nothing more, you surely have me still, and I have still enough, yea, I have more than I have given away and more than can ever be given away. We see here and there many pious poor people only for the purpose that the wealthy may help and serve them with their riches. If you do it not, you have the sure proof that you hate God.
He, whom the sentence does not terrify, that he will hear on the day of judgment, can be moved by nothing. For he will hear then from God:
Behold, thou hast hated me and loved that which could not protect itself against rust and moth. Ay, how firmly you will then stand!
18. Hence the sense is, we must own some possessions, but are not to cleave to them with our hearts; as Psalm 62:10 says: “If riches increase, set not your heart thereon.” We are to labor; but we are not to be anxious about our existence. This the Master says here in our Gospel in plain and clear words, when he thus concludes: “Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink: nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.”
19. And he now uses a reasonable and natural form of speech, by which to close, that they are not to be anxious for the nourishment of their lives; for reason must conclude and yield that it is as Christ says, when he gives the ground and reason of his discourse by asking: “Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment!”
20. As if he would say: You turn it just around, the food should serve your life and not your life the food. The same is true in respect to raiment; the clothing should serve the body, thus the body serves the clothing. The world is so blind that it cannot see this.
21. Now we must here have a high esteem for the words of the Lord. He says, “Be not anxious;” he does not say, Labor not. Anxiety is forbidden, but not labor; yea, it is commanded and made obligatory upon us to labor until the sweat rolls down our faces. It is not God’s pleasure for man to tramp around idly; therefore he says to Adam in Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken.” And as Psalm 104:22-23 says: “The sun ariseth. man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening.”
We are not to be anxious, this is forbidden; for we have a rich God who promises us food and clothing; for he knows what we lack, before we are concerned and begin to pray.
22. Why then does he not give us what we need without our labor?
Because it is thus pleasing to him; he tells us to labor and then he gives it; not because of our work, but out of kindness and grace. This we see before our eyes; for although we labor every year in the field, yet God gives one year more than another. Therefore, we are fools, yea, we act contrary to God’s will, when we are worried as to how to scrape together gold and riches, since God gratuitously and richly promises that he will give us all and will abundantly provide for our every want.
He, whom the sentence does not terrify, that he will hear on the day of judgment, can be moved by nothing. For he will hear then from God:
Behold, thou hast hated me and loved that which could not protect itself against rust and moth. Ay, how firmly you will then stand!
18. Hence the sense is, we must own some possessions, but are not to cleave to them with our hearts; as Psalm 62:10 says: “If riches increase, set not your heart thereon.” We are to labor; but we are not to be anxious about our existence. This the Master says here in our Gospel in plain and clear words, when he thus concludes: “Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink: nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.”
19. And he now uses a reasonable and natural form of speech, by which to close, that they are not to be anxious for the nourishment of their lives; for reason must conclude and yield that it is as Christ says, when he gives the ground and reason of his discourse by asking: “Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment!”
20. As if he would say: You turn it just around, the food should serve your life and not your life the food. The same is true in respect to raiment; the clothing should serve the body, thus the body serves the clothing. The world is so blind that it cannot see this.
21. Now we must here have a high esteem for the words of the Lord. He says, “Be not anxious;” he does not say, Labor not. Anxiety is forbidden, but not labor; yea, it is commanded and made obligatory upon us to labor until the sweat rolls down our faces. It is not God’s pleasure for man to tramp around idly; therefore he says to Adam in Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken.” And as Psalm 104:22-23 says: “The sun ariseth. man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening.”
We are not to be anxious, this is forbidden; for we have a rich God who promises us food and clothing; for he knows what we lack, before we are concerned and begin to pray.
22. Why then does he not give us what we need without our labor?
Because it is thus pleasing to him; he tells us to labor and then he gives it; not because of our work, but out of kindness and grace. This we see before our eyes; for although we labor every year in the field, yet God gives one year more than another. Therefore, we are fools, yea, we act contrary to God’s will, when we are worried as to how to scrape together gold and riches, since God gratuitously and richly promises that he will give us all and will abundantly provide for our every want.
