LESSON: PSALM 86:8-15

If many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. Romans 5:15

At times God suffers a man to experience fear and distress, pain and sorrow. He suddenly finds himself in a world which seems to have no God. A man loses his sight; he becomes lame; he develops dropsy. God even lets him die like the widow’s son in this Gospel. All men are God’s creatures, and He can do with them as He pleases.

Why does God create or suffer such situations? He is resorting here to extreme measures to keep us ever mindful of His goodness. John reports that on one occasion Jesus and His disciples came upon a man who was “blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him’” (John 9:1-3).

He means to say, “God wants to be praised in this blind man. God sees that the treasures of the whole world do not move us. Hence, He must take some drastic action. Out of pure grace, He sets a blind man before our eyes so that we come to realize what a precious gift we possess in the gift of sight. And since we do not recognize His goodness and grace in something advantageous, we are compelled to note it and recognize it from something disadvantageous.”

This man was born blind so that men might come to their senses and declare, “Merciful God, what a precious gift and what a blessing it is to have a healthy body and a fresh countenance!” But no one takes it to heart in this way.

SL 11:1649 (7)

PRAYER: Grant us grace at all times, heavenly Father, to interpret Your blessings for what they are, acts of Your grace and mercy, so that we may both acknowledge Your mercy and grace and return You due thanks for it, in and through Christ our Savior. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 5:127-139.

LESSON: MATTHEW 6:24-34

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. James 1:22

In this Gospel we see how God separates the Christians from the heathen. The Lord does not offer this doctrine to the heathen because they do not accept it; this doctrine is given to Christians. But He does not regard those as His Christians who hear the Word only to learn and recite it by heart, like many of the religious do with the psalter.

The devil also hears the Word of God and the Gospel in this way; in fact, he knows it better than we do. He could also preach it just as well as we do if he wanted to do so. But the Gospel is a doctrine of such a kind that it always aims at becoming a living force in men’s lives. It must result in action, strengthen men, and comfort them, make them courageous and bold.

Therefore, those who hear the Gospel only to obtain an external knowledge of it, so that they may be able to discourse learnedly about the wisdom of God, should not be numbered among true Christians. The only real Christians are those who actually put into practice what the Gospel teaches. You will not find so many of these. We see many who are hearers of the Word but not so many who are doers.

May God grant us His grace that we may always become doers of His Word so that His Gospel does not remain only in our ears and on our tongues, but that it may really reach our hearts and then burst forth in active works of love to our neighbor.

SL 11:1614 (1-2, 35)

PRAYER: Lord God, heavenly Father, we praise and thank You for the precious gift of Your Word and Gospel in which You reveal all that it is necessary for us to know and believe for our faith and life as Christians. Bestow Your Holy Spirit upon us in rich measure that we never become merely hearers of Your Word, but actual doers of the same, for Christ our Savior’s sake. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 5:102-117.

LESSON: 1 THESSALONIANS 2:11‒13

As the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead. James 2:26

We prove the genuineness of our love as Christians by works of love. Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). James declares, “Faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:26). His meaning clearly is: If your life is so arranged that it is not of service to others, that you are living for yourself alone without any consideration for your neighbor, your faith is certainly nothing. In such a case, you are not doing as Christ has done for you. You do not really believe that Christ has done you any good at all, for if you did, you would be compelled by an inner necessity to do good to your neighbor. This is also what Paul means in the celebrated passage in Corinthians: “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2).

We do not say all this to suggest that faith is not enough to obtain righteousness for you before God, but because in a Christians life these two, faith and love, must always be attached to each other and never separated. There are presumptuous people who think that they can separate them. They want to believe without loving. They despise their neighbor and still want to have Christ. This is a false and wrong view. So we say: faith is everything and saves, so that a man requires nothing more for his salvation.

But faith is never inactive or lazy. It is always very busy, but it works for the good of the neighbor and not for self. It needs nothing for itself, for it already has all things in Christ. If this is not how faith reacts, there is something wrong with it. Its reaction must be love.

SL.XI.1583,23
AE 79:68-97

PRAYER: Preserve us, O God, against the error of errors that we are saved by works of righteousness which we ourselves have performed. Keep us ever firm and steadfast in the conviction that we are saved only by God’s grace, through faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.