Heretics: “How prudently Scripture abstains from mentioning the names of sects and persons is a fact particularly to be observed.” [because it fits people of every age] [SL 4, 225f.]
History: “We must be satisfied with our histories as they are, and at times we must think and judge for ourselves whether the writer goes astray out of favor or disfavor, praises or criticizes too much or too little, according to his partiality for people or things; just as we must bear it that, because of loose control, drivers pour water into the wine while it is transported across the country, so that we cannot get the unadulterated drink, as it grew, but must be satisfied to get at least most of it or some of it.” [SL 14, 379f.]
Holiness: “We should not be holy in order to earn or prevent something. For people who do this are hirelings, servants, and day laborers. They are not willing children and heirs who are holy for the sake of holiness, that is, for the sake of God alone; for God Himself is Righteousness, Truth, Goodness, Wisdom, and Holiness. And he who seeks no more than holiness itself, seeks and finds God Himself. But he who seeks reward and flees punishment never finds God but makes reward his god. For that which moves a man to do something is his god.” [SL 10, 1698]
Holiness: “I
recall that Staupitz used to say: More
than a thousand times have I promised God that I would be better, but I have
never kept my promise. Hereafter I shall
promise no such thing, for experience has taught me that I cannot keep the
promise.” [SL 9, 688] Gal. 5:17
Holy Ghost: “[The Spirit] could, of course, do this apart from the Word; but He does nto want to do it in that way. And who are we to inquire into the reason for the divine will? It is enough for us to know that God so wills it.” [SL 18, 1811f.]
Honor: “Here the saying of Solomon applies: As the fire in the furnace proves the gold, so man is proved by the mouth of him that praises him (Prov. 27:21). Few and most spiritual men must they be who, when honored and praised, remain indifferent and unchanged, so that they do not care for it, nor feel pride and pleasure in it, but remain entirely free, ascribe all their honor and fame to God, offering it to Him alone, and using it only for the glory of God and the edification of their neighbors.” [SL 10, 1322]
Humility: “Among
the Greeks there was a philosopher by the name of Diogenes [who was so holy in
the devil’s type of holiness that he would not live in a house. From his belt hung a cup that he would use
when he wanted to drink water.]… Now one day he sees a child pass by, scoop
water with its hand, and drink; so the ‘holy’ man promptly flings the cup to
God’s earth and violently curses himself because he, a man so remarkably holy,
had not known that nature had supplied him with a cup form which he might drink
and that the wooden cup was quite unnecessary.
This gave him such a reputation throughout
Humility: “In
short, God refuses to change His method for the sake of wiseacres. His way is to make something out of
nothing—life out of death, righteousness out of sin, honor out of shame, riches
out of poverty. To sum up everything, He
wants to deal with the lowly. Such is
the nature of our God.” [SL 7,
827f.] Matt. 11:25-30
Idolatry: “Idolatry
is far more fervent than true piety.”
[SL 4, 1786] Psalm 121:1
May 10
Jews: “The
Jews have no reason to boast, but they should humble themselves and acknowledge
their mothers’ blood. For on the
fathers’ side they are Israelites, but on the mothers’ side they are Gentiles…
There is no difference between Jews and Gentiles except for the fact that Moses
later separated this people from the Gentiles by a different form of worship
and political administration.” [SL 2,
1173f.] Gen. 38:1-5
Joy: “To
achieve this joy we must cling wholeheartedly to the Word and find comfort in
the thought that Christ has so solemnly promised to be with us, together with
the Father, and to protect us, so that no misfortune will harm us, no power of
the devil and the world will crush us or tear us away from Him. In this way we constantly find comfort and
joy, and we become increasingly happy as time goes on.” [SL 8, 812]
John 17:13
Joy: “You have
as much laughter as you have faith.” [SL
4, 1909] Psalm 126:5
Judging: “That
our hearts hold that God is a stern Judge with whom sinners find no grace but
form whom they must expect only disfavor is altogether false thinking; it is
devoid of all truth, although the Law itself preaches nothing else of our Lord
God… The sinners who confess their sins, and are repentant, who wish they had
not so angered God, who find all their concern and sorrow in the fact that they
have offended God and have not kept His Commandments and, therefore, pray for
grace—these sinners shall find grace.”
[SL 13a, 954] Matt. 18:21-35
Judgment Day: “Since the Gospel is so despised, I suppose that Judgment Day is not far away, not over a hundred years. God’s Word will decline again and fall; and, because of a lack of upright and faithful servants of the Word, a great darkness will come. Then the whole world will turn wild and epicurean and will live wild and abandoned lives in all security. But then the Voice will come and ring: ‘Behold, the bridegroom cometh.’ (Matt. 25:6)” [W-T 6, No. 6985]
Justification: “Under the circumstances you should certainly be glad at heart that you have come out of a city and a country in which people are bidden to deny and to persecute the Word of grace and the forgiveness of sins and the doctrine that we are justified and saved solely through Christ, without any merit on our part. For this is the chief article from which all our doctrines have flowed.” [SL 10, 1940]
Justification: Justification
is hard to hold, not indeed by itself—for in itself it is most sure and
certain—but so far as our relation to it is concerned. I often experience this myself, for I know
the hours of darkness in which I sometimes wrestle. I know how often I lose the roots of the
Gospel and grace, as if they were suddenly hidden from me by dense clouds. I know how slippery is the footing of even
those who are experienced in this matter and can step up most firmly.” [SL 9, 94f.]
Gal. 1:11-12
May 17
Justification and Sanctification: “[Paul] calls those works ‘works of the Law’ that are done without faith and grace… But he calls those ‘works of faith’ which are done in the spirit of liberty, purely out of love to God. And these can be done only by those who are justified by faith…
Because the layman has not been consecrated and ordained and set aside for this purpose [that of doing the priest’s works], he is actually doing nothing at all; he is merely playing and deceiving himself and his people. This principle applies to the just, good, and holy works that are done outside or before justification…
Therefore when
the blessed James and the apostle say that man is justified by works, they are
disputing the false conception of those who contended that a faith without its
works would be sufficient. However, the
apostle does not say that faith is without its characteristic works—for then it
would be no faith at all, since ‘activity reveals the nature of a thing’
according to the philosophers—but that it justifies without works of the
Law. Therefore justification does nto
require the works of the Law; but it does require a living faith, which
performs its works.” [W 56, 248f.] Romans 3:20
Justification and Sanctification: “Tell me, friend, is this not granting the antecedent but denying the consequent? Nay, it is taking Christ away and bringing Him to nought while He at th esame time is most highly exalted by preaching. All this is nothing but saying yes and no to the same matter. For the Christ does not exist anywhere who has died for such sinners as, after the forgiveness of sins, do not leave their sins and lead a new life… They are fine Easter preachers, to be sure, but shamefully poor Pentecost preachers. For they preach nothing of sanctification of the Holy Spirit… Christ has earned not only grace for us but also the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that we might not only have the forgiveness of sins but also stop sinning.” [SL 16, 2241]
Languages: “You,
too, as future teachers of religion, should apply yourselves to the task of
learning this language, unless you want to be taken for dumb cattle and
uninstructed rabble who somehow teach the Sunday Gospels and the Catechism with
the help of books that have appeared in German.
We need theological leaders; we must have fighters who stand on the
battle front against men of other nations and languages, men who are teachers,
judges, and masters in this language.”
[SL 5, 342f.] Psalm 45
Law and Gospel: “An amazing thing it is, and one unheard of in this world, to teach Christians to learn to ignore the Law, to live before God as if there were no Law. Yet unless you ignore the Law and are firmly convinced in your heart that there is no Law and no wrath of God but only grace and mercy for Christ’s sake, you cannot be saved; ‘for by Law is the knowledge of sin’ (Rom. 3:20). Again, the Law and its works must be urged in the world as if there were no promise and no grace. And this must be done because of the stubborn, proud, and tough.” [SL 9, 20]
Law and Gospel: “For
this reason it is difficult to preach to people: it is never right, no matter how you preach
to them; they always lean to one side.
If you do not preach faith, their works become purely hypocritical. If you urge faith alone, works will not
follow. In a word, the danger is that
people either have works without any faith or ‘faith’ without any works.” [SL 8, 549]
John 15:10-12
Law of God: “[Moses]
concerns us only insofar as he agrees with the Natural Law. We have our Master, Christ Jesus. He has proposed to us what we are to know,
observe, do and not do.” [SL 3,
1004] Exodus 19-20
Law of God: “The
old Adam hates the Law. But what he does
not like to do he does halfway if he is forced to do it; if he is not forced,
and does it for the sake of the reward and benefit, the does it from a false
motive… The slogan of the world is not
‘his delight is in the law of the Lord’ but ‘his hatred and hypocrisy are in
the Law of the Lord.’ Be guided by this
fact, and learn patience.” [SL 9,
1764f.] Psalm 1:2
Law of God: “Thus
man is to be humbled, to creep to the cross, to sigh for Christ, to long for
His grace, to despair of himself, and to base all his confidence on
Christ.” [SL 12, 250f.] Gal. 3:23-29
May 25
Law of God: “The
Law indicates what is wrong with man.
The, when Christ comes, He says:
No we want to establish the Law.
For He comes who helps to fulfill, as He says: I did not come to destroy the Law so that
there should be no Law but in order to fulfill it Myself and to bring help and
strength and the Holy Spirit, through whom you, too, may fulfill it. I do not want idle Christians.” [W 45, 160f.]
Matt. 22:34-46
Law of God: “Those
are absolutely not to be tolerated who hold that the teachings of the Law is to
be thrown out of the churches, for this plane is necessary for tough and
knotted logs.” [SL 6, 1232] Hosea 6:5
Laws: “To be sure, cutting a skin that is not our own is easily done; it is easy to burden others with laws that do not apply to us.” [SL 10, 761]
Laws: “The goodness and liberty, and, conversely, the wickedness and bondage of man, are not bodily or external. Of what benefit is it to the soul that the body is free, is hale and hearty; that it eats, drinks, and lives as it pleases? On the other hand, what harm comes to the soul from the fact that the body is in bondage, is sick and weary; that, contrary to its desire, it hungers, thirsts, and suffers? The influence of none of these things extends to the soul, to free or to enslave it, to make it good or bad.” [SL 19, 989]
Life, Future: “The
man who does not hope for a future life has as little need of Christ as cows
and other animals have need of
Life, Human: “In
all matters we should hope and pray for the best; nevertheless, we should fear,
and be prepared for, the worst.” [SL 7,
1443] Luke 1:46-55
Life, Human: “Moving about produces health; and health makes one move about.” [W-T 3, NO. 3256]