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On October 31, 2002, we celebrate the 485th
anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation.
One of Luther's great contributions was the proper relationship between
family, state, and church. In Sixteenth Century Europe the highest
authority was the Pope and the Church. Then came the State including
occupations, and then came the family. Luther said the Bible teaches
the reverse order.
First comes the family, then comes the State including occupations, and
then comes the church.
The following quotations are from Luther on the family, State, and Church
are as profound today as they were in the Sixteenth Century.
In the first place, He has entrusted His Word to parents, as Moses often
declares: "Tell your children these things." In the second
place, He has given it to the teachers in the church, as Abraham says in
Luke 16:29: "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear
them." Where there is a ministry, we should not wait for either an
inward or an outward revelation. Otherwise all the orders of society would
be confused. Let the clergyman teach in the church, let the civil officer
govern the state, and let parents rule the home or the household. These
human ministries were established by God.
Therefore we must make use of them and not look for other revelations.
LW2:83
One must note, however, that the Lord also speaks to us through human
beings. When parents give orders to their children, the tasks may
seem insignificant and unimportant in their outward appearance; yet when
the children obey, they are obeying not so much men as God." LW2:271
Thus when the government, by virtue of its office, calls citizens into
military service in order to maintain peace and to ward off harm,
obedience is shown to God. For the Lord tells us (Rom. 13:1): "Let
every person be subject to the governing authorities." But someone
will say: "Obedience is dangerous, for I may be killed!" My
answer is: "Whether you kill or are killed is immaterial, for you are
going as the Lord has told you. It is, therefore, a holy and godly deed
even to kill an adversary, provided the government commands it.
You must have the same conviction about the general call, when you are
called to the ministry of teaching: you should consider the voice of the
community as the voice of God, and obey. LW 2:272
Thus every person surely has a calling. While attending to it he
serves God. A king serves God when he is at pains to look after and
govern his people. So does the mother of the household when she
tends her baby, the father of a household when he gains a livelihood by
working, and a pupil when he applies himself diligently to his studies.
LW3:128
This life is profitably divided into three orders: (1) life in the home;
(2) life in the state; (3) life in the church. To whatever
order you belong-whether you are a husband, an officer of the state, or a
teacher of the church-look about you, and see whether you have done full
justice to your calling and there is no need of asking to be pardoned for
negligence, dissatisfaction, or impatience. But if you have conducted your
affairs in such a manner that there is no need of saying: "Forgive us
our trespasses," then by all means go out into the desert, and occupy
yourself with those showy and difficult works. LW3:217
God has appointed three social classes to which he has given the command
not to let sins go unpunished. The first is that of the parents, who
should maintain strict discipline in their house when ruling the domestics
and the children. The second is the government, for the officers of the
state bear the sword for the purpose of coercing the obstinate and remiss
by means of their power of discipline. The third is that of the church,
which governs by the Word. By this threefold authority God has protected
the human race against the devil, the flesh, and the world, to the end
that offenses may
not increase but may be cut off. Parents are the children's tutors, as it
were. Those who are grown up and are remiss the government curbs through
the executioner. In the church those who are obstinate are excommunicated.
LW3:279
Accordingly, the three celestial hierarchies about which the asinine
sophists prattle so much are nothing else than the life in the household,
in the state, and in the church. Those who live outside these three orders
live in a self-elected kind of life which, throughout the prophets, God
rejects and condemns. LW4:23
Every pastor would have taught the Word of God in his parish; and the
church would have felt satisfied with the Word, Baptism, the Lord's
Supper, absolution, and solace in death and life. Then everyone would have
done his duty in his civil and household activities, whether he was a
servant or a master, an officer of the state or a subject. Those monstrous
papistic abominations would never have crept into the church. LW4:181
For they are without the Word. For God speaks with us and deals with us
through the ministers of the Word, through parents, and through the
government, in order that we may not be carried about with any wind of
doctrine (Eph. 4:14). Children should listen to their parents, citizens to
the government, a Christian to the pastor and the ministers of the Word, a
pupil to his teacher. LW5:71
For you will be assailed in the household, in the state, and in the
church. LW5:143
But the following definition is truer and is complete: "Marriage is
the lawful and divine union of one man and one woman. It has been ordained
for the purpose of calling upon God, for the preservation and education of
offspring, and for the administration of the church and the state."
LW5:189
This respect toward the king is memorable, for one must conclude that the
state is an ordinance of God, just as marriage and the church are from
God, and whatever good is done in those stations is divine and has been
obtained from God by the prayers of the godly. LW7:143
We know that there are three estates in this life: the household, the
state, and the church. If all men want to neglect these and pursue their
own interests and self-chosen ways, who will be a shepherd of souls? Who
will baptize, absolve, and console those who are burdened with sins? Who
will administer the government or protect the common fabric of human
society? Who will educate the young or till the ground? Yet these duties,
which have been commanded and approved by God, have been scorned and cast
aside in the papacy, and the devil has foisted those monstrous acts of the
monks upon men with horrible fury. LW7:312
Thus God could rule the church through the Holy Spirit without the
ministry, but He does not want to do this directly. Therefore He says to
Peter: "Feed My sheep (John 21:16). Go, preach, baptize,
absolve." In the state He says to the magistrate: "Watch,
defend, use the sword, etc." Therefore Paul calls the apostles
"fellow workmen with God" (1 Cor. 3:9). To be sure He alone
works. But He does so through us. LW8:94
For there must be ministers of the church to teach the Word. The ministry
is necessary; one cannot do without it. Not all can devote themselves to
the Holy Scriptures. The requirement of this life demands that there be
craftsmen, smiths, and potters, as Sirach 38:24 ff. testifies. Without all
these a city is not built. Not all should leave the fields, household
management, the helms of states, and the other duties of common life.
Therefore certain days have been designated for sacred assemblies. On
these days the laity comes together to hear the Word of God. Here indeed
the eyes must be red, and the teeth must be white. LW8:269
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