# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1911 06 13_S186
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

186

for Christ, will hereafter learn that much is not on their account which God has credited to other, more diligent Christians in the book of recompense, so that they may there receive an unspeakable reward of grace. For every gift, every sacrifice of time, every errand, every care, every little sigh of prayer for God's kingdom will there one day shine as a gleaming jewel in the crown of honor, and, says St. Paul, he who sows bountifully shall reap bountifully. But the lazy, indifferent, undecided Christians in name only, who make good use of Christ's church with its means of grace but will bring no honest sacrifice for it, will not only come away empty of such a reward of grace, but in the end, as those who would not gather with Christ and thereby hindered his kingdom, will not only not be in Christ's eternal kingdom of joy, but will be banished to where all Christ's enemies sigh in woe and lamentation over their lost life. For Christ's terribly earnest verdict stands: "He that gathereth not with me scattereth!"

Walther, Light of Life, p. 233ff.

"Through the Mercy of God!"

Rom. 12.

O you Christians and children of God, how great is the mercy of God that has come upon us and that we have recognized! God has, before himself, declared us — lost and condemned sinners — righteous out of grace, for Christ's sake, without, indeed against, our own work and merit, solely through faith, by which we rely on his gracious word. And such faith God has worked in us without any doing of our own. And he has grafted us into Christ, so that Christ's life and power are active in us for a new life in sanctification, in which we go to meet eternal life. And so that it may be clear and fully known that all this is nothing but mercy and an eternal abyss of mercy, God reveals to us that he chose us for all this already from eternity and firmly ordained it, solely out of grace, for Christ's sake, and not for the sake of anything that might have distinguished us above others. Yes, how great is the mercy of God that has come upon us and that we have recognized!

And through this his mercy, with reference to this his mercy that has come upon us and that we have recognized, God now exhorts us to present our bodies, our bodily life, as a sacrifice that is living, active, busy, diligent, and holy, coming from a believing and thankful child's heart, and thus well-pleasing to the God who loves us. This shall be our reasonable, our spiritual, our soul's worship of God. And we are not to make ourselves like this poor world, which knows nothing and wants to know nothing of the mercy of God, in all our doing and dealing and acting and conduct and thinking and striving; rather we, to whom sin and thus worldliness indeed still cling heavily, are to change and be transformed daily and continually, and that from within, through the renewing of our mind. And so it shall come to pass that in everything we do, we always first test and carefully search out what in each case is the will of God, which always aims only at the good, at what is pleasing to God, and at the perfect, the wholly right.

O children of God, does this exhortation of God not find a joyful response in your hearts? Surely it does!

And how is it now? How shall we conduct ourselves in accordance with this exhortation in fellowship with other Christians, in the Christian congregation? Paul says this to each of us through the grace of the apostolic office given to him. And let us now hear it.

None of us in a Christian congregation should think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but each should be careful to think soberly, to keep the right measure in his thinking, according to the measure of faith God has assigned to each — that is, the measure of the joy and power and ability, flowing from faith in Christ, to accomplish something in the congregation. For in this we Christians differ from one another. For just as we have many members in one body, and the members do not all have the same function and task, so we, though many, are one body in Christ in the congregation, but toward one another, in mutual relation, we are members of one another. And so we have different gifts, according to the grace given to us. If someone has, for example, "prophecy," the gift of God-inspired and powerful speech, he should make such use of it as is like and corresponds to his faith, to the measure of the joy and power and capacity of faith granted to him. Likewise, he should remain wholly sober and humble and know exactly what and how much has been given to him. He should not let himself be, as it were, intoxicated by such a gift, so that he thinks himself beyond the measure allotted to him and undertakes and attempts things not given to him. Thereby he would make himself useless to God and men. And if someone in the congregation has an office, namely the office of preaching, he should faithfully attend to this office, both in teaching and in admonishing. And if someone has received the gift of giving, of sharing both spiritual and material goods, he should do it simply, moved only by true love, not for his own honor. And if it is given to someone that he should govern — as an elder in the church, or a teacher in the school, or fathers and mothers in the home — let him do it carefully and with zeal. And if it is given to someone that he can show mercy to the poor and the sick and the needy in the congregation, let him do it with cheerful delight.

In general — within the congregation and outside the congregation to which we happen to belong: love shall govern us in our whole being and doing, the love that we have so richly experienced and recognized from God. And this love shall be without falsehood and unfeigned. This certainly does not exclude, but rather includes and requires, that we hate and rebuke what is evil in our neighbor and cling to what is good and seek to lead him toward it. Brotherly love among us Christians shall be heartfelt, and we should consider that the bond that unites us in Christ is more intimate and firmer than all the bonds of blood kinship. Each should regard the other more highly than himself and, in