# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 07 22_S189
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

189

lost, thou hast lost Christ. And when He is gone, the unity of love will indeed be of no profit to thee.

On the other hand, if thou keepest the unity of the Spirit and Christ, it harms thee not, though thou be not one with those who pervert and falsify the Word, and thereby rend the unity of the Spirit. Therefore I would rather that not only they, but the whole world also, fall away from me, and become my enemies, than that I should fall away from Christ and have Him for an enemy; which would then come to pass if I let His clear, open Word go, and clung to their loose dreams, whereby they would force the words of Christ to their own opinion. To me the one Christ is much greater and more than countless unities of love.

But with those who love Christ and teach and believe His Word aright, we offer that we will not only keep peace and unity, but will also right gladly suffer and bear all their weakness and sin; will gladly instruct them in a spirit of meekness, when they have fallen; as St. Paul not only teaches here, but also proves by deed. For he bore with the Galatians in their weakness, though they had fallen so grievously; likewise with other congregations besides, which the false apostles had perverted, when they turned with heart and earnestness and amended. So also he received the incestuous man again, 2 Cor. 2. 5. sqq. Likewise the servant Onesimus, whom he converted to the faith at Rome in prison, he reconciled again with his master, from whom he had run away, Philem. v. 10. sqq. Thus he has proved well by his own example the very thing which he teaches here and elsewhere, how one ought to help up again those who have fallen: yet only such as are willing to be counselled, that is, who acknowledge from the heart their error, sin and fall, and amend themselves again; but on the other hand he dealt most sharply with the false apostles, who were obdurate, and would defend their doctrine as though it were not erroneous but right: "Would to God, saith he, cap. 5, 12., that they were even cut off which trouble you!" Likewise v. 10: Whosoever troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be." Likewise cap. 1, 8: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, etc., let him be accursed."

And there is no doubt that there were many who defended the false apostles against St. Paul, and said: They had the Spirit just as well, and were servants of Christ, who taught the Gospel, as St. Paul. Though they did not agree with him in all the articles of doctrine, he ought not on that account to pronounce such a judgment upon them; seeing that by being so stiff he accomplished nothing else than that he only confused the Christian congregation, and rent their fine unity, etc.

But he lets such fair words trouble him not at all, but goes freely on, condemns and curses the false apostles, calls them, without any fear, troublers of the congregations and perverters of the Gospel of Christ; exalts on the other hand his doctrine so high, and wills that everything shall yield to it and give place, be it unity of love, apostles, angels from heaven, or whatever it may finally be, etc.

Therefore let those who would be faithful pastors learn diligently from this teaching of St. Paul how they are to deal with those who have fallen. Dear brethren, saith he, if a man be overtaken, embitter him not further, nor afflict him, reject him not nor condemn him; but help him to amendment, refresh or instruct him, (for so the Greek word means,) and what the devil has spoiled in him by his craft and the weakness of the flesh, that bring back again to amendment by your meekness. For the kingdom wherein ye are called is not a kingdom wherein men are to terrify and torture consciences, but to set them right and comfort them. Wherefore, where ye see a brother who is terrified on account of his sin which he has done, run quickly to him, reach him the hand, that he may rise again from his fall, comfort him with sweet, loving words, receive him with a motherly heart. But these hardened and obdurate ones, who without fear in all security continue and persist in sins, rebuke and chastise hard; but again, those who are overtaken by some fault, who are sorry for their fall, and are come into sorrow thereover, them ye that are spiritual shall help up, and instruct them, and that in a spirit of meekness. Not with great sharpness and severity; as in former times certain confessors were wont to do, who were so skilled that, when they should refresh and revive the troubled, weak hearts with a sweet, loving word of comfort, they gave them nothing else but mere vinegar and gall to drink, as the Jews did to Christ on the cross.

From this it may be sufficiently understood that the forgiveness of sins is not to avail when one errs in doctrine, or sins against the first table, and moreover will contend for it as right, as the Sacramentarians pretend; but when one oversees himself, falls into a sin, and is nevertheless sorry, etc., then one is not to condemn another, nor to scold with great wrath and fury; as the prophet Ezekiel says of the shepherds of Israel (cap. 34, 4.), that they ruled the flock of God with severity and hardness; but when a brother has fallen, his pastor or another brother shall comfort him in a spirit of meekness. Then he that has fallen shall suffer himself to be told, believe what is said to him from God's Word, and receive it as God's comfort. For Christ will not have those who are of a broken heart cast away, but helped up, as the 146th Psalm v. 8 says: They cost Him too much, namely His life and blood, therefore we also should receive such with meekness, help them and heal them. Therefore we do not deny forgiveness, neither to the Sacramentarians, nor to other godless factions; but from the heart we are glad to forgive them what they have blasphemed against Christ, and will also gladly forget all that they have laid upon us with violence and wrong; yet on this condition, that they do penance, cease from their godless doctrine, wherewith they have confused the Christian congregations, and walk henceforth in the right way. But where they persist in their error, it is in vain that they beg of us that we should forgive them and bear with them.

Thus, in short, we will not let this matter be made so small for us; for He to whom it belongs is a great Lord. Once indeed He was small, namely, when He lay in the manger; but however lowly He then ever was, He was nevertheless so great and glorious that the angels worshipped Him, and had to praise and confess Him a Lord above all lords. Therefore we neither can nor will suffer that His Word be injured or removed in a single article. For in the articles of faith nothing ought to seem to us small and trifling, in which we might yield or give way in anything, or could do so.

The forgiveness of sins belongs to those who are weak and frail in faith and life, and yet acknowledge their sins and pray for forgiveness: but for those who pervert the doctrine, it does not belong; for they do not acknowledge their sin, but with all their might defend it, as though they were not sins, but the pure divine truth and righteousness, and thereby bring it about, if one does not withstand them, that we lose the true forgiveness of sins; for the Word which proclaims and brings us forgiveness of sins, that they pervert and falsify. Therefore, if they are in earnest about their unity, they will first become one with us in Christ, that is, they will acknowledge their sin, and desist from their error, and then there shall surely be no lack of a meek spirit on our side. But if it be lacking, then they may justly complain of us.

And whoever looks diligently at the words of the Apostle and considers them, sees clearly that he does not speak of heresy or sins against the doctrine, but of much smaller and lighter sins, into which man falls, not from deliberate malice, but from weakness." (Opp. Hal. VIII. 2781. ff.)