# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1858_S129
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Lehre und Wehre.

Volume IV.    May 1858.    No. 5.

(Submitted.)
On the Divisions in the Lutheran Congregations Here.
(Conclusion.)

B. How great the sin of self-willed divisions and separations is — whose filthy source must be regarded as unbelief in the divinity of the holy preaching office, in the divine bond between pastor and congregation — appears in part, in general, from the fact that through it the calling of Christians and the kingdom of Jesus Christ as a whole are endangered, and in part, in particular, that the holy preaching office, and God's will and order within it, are profaned. — The kingdom of grace of the Lord Christ on earth is a kingdom of peace, for he is the Prince of Peace, he has directed our feet into the way of peace (Luke 1:79). At his birth the angels sing: Peace on earth, not only because he has reconciled us with his heavenly Father, but also because he has established peace among us ourselves, so that the members of his spiritual body, the citizens of his kingdom, should live with one another in peace and unity. He has left behind, as it were in a testament, the peace and unity of his own, for he says John 14:27: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." (13:14) "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another." Whoever, therefore, wishes one day to be Christ's fellow heir must not overthrow this testament of love and peace.— God the Lord has called Christians by grace into his kingdom and to be his children, not that they should live in discord and disunity, but unanimously, as companions of one house, children of one Father, servants of one Lord, 1 Corinthians 7:15: "God has called us to peace"; Ephesians 4:1: "Walk worthy of the calling wherewith you are called"; verse 3: "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace"; Colossians 3:15: "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in one body"; 1 Peter 3:8: "Be all of one mind, and know that you are called to this." Do we not indeed all have, as one Father in heaven, so also now one mother on earth, the Chris-

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