# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 12 22_S105
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...purchased with blood, has been dishonored and desecrated, as though Christ, through his suffering and death, had earned for us frivolity, disorder, and license of the flesh.

No — first of all, the Third Commandment, in its spiritual sense, was given not only to the Jews but to all people, and it remains in force until the Last Day. The specific outward form in which this commandment is to be fulfilled — the appointed day, the appointed ceremonies of time and place contained in this commandment — were indeed given only to the Jews; but the Third Commandment has a kernel that still concerns Christians as well. Entirely in keeping with the Gospel, Luther therefore explained it thus: "We should fear and love God, that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it." No one who wishes to be saved is exempt from this.

The Christian Church is not free from the use of the divine Word; she must see to it that it is preached, kept holy, gladly heard, and learned within her. If Christians wish to remain a Christian Church, they should come together to carry on God's Word, to pray in common, to praise and thank God, and to use the holy Sacraments in common. If Christians did not do this, they would be despising the Word and Sacrament, which alone sanctifies them, and they could not obtain the promise of Christ: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Yet to those same Colossians whom the Apostle admonishes not to let their conscience be troubled over particular days, that same Apostle nevertheless commands: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teach and admonish one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs of grace, and sing to the Lord in your hearts." From this, then, Christians have not been set free.

"Yes," you say, "this is true, but did not the Apostle himself say that no one should trouble his conscience over particular festival days?" Without doubt; no one should believe that God binds us to any particular day by laws and commandments. But God commands Christendom not only to hear his holy Word; he also calls to her through the holy Apostle: "I am not a God of disorder but of peace; let all things be done honestly and in order!" But how would it be possible for things to be done honestly and in order in the Church of God, if Christians did not appoint a certain day or days on which to lay aside the works of their earthly calling and come together to practice God's Word and prayer in common? What would become of a church if no day were appointed, and one held Christian assembly, Sacrament, and preaching today while another did so tomorrow? The church would be laid waste and thrown into disorder; instead of every day, no day at all would become a Christian Sabbath. So the Church has likewise not been set free from a Christian order in her assemblies.

But finally another says: I have, by God's grace, so much knowledge, so much faith, and so much zeal that I have no need of a particular day; I keep Sabbath every day; why then should I let the yoke of a special day be laid upon me? — If you, O Christian, are indeed as strong as you suppose, well for you! — then thank God for his great grace. But consider: you still have flesh and blood, there is still something in you that needs to be driven, awakened, and encouraged; therefore you ought not to feel secure, and for your own sake alone you should not despise so excellent a means as the public observance of Sunday. But even granting that you yourself truly had no need of this means, many others in the Christian congregation do need it; there are children, there are the simple and the weak, there are the slothful — yes, there are the fallen — who have great need that a special day be set aside, on which one lays aside one's earthly daily labor in order to hear and read God's Word diligently and without hindrance, to pray and sing, to admonish, rebuke, comfort, and encourage one another. May you then exclude yourself from this? May you, by your example, mislead others who need it into despising this means of edification? May you cause offense to even the least of those who believe in Christ? Must you not do everything possible, not only that you yourself be strong in faith, but that ever more be brought in through public preaching and the weekly public confession made every Sunday? Consider, O Christian, what the Apostle here impresses upon your heart; he says: "All things are lawful for you, but not all things are profitable." Hear then, you strong Christian: I grant you, according to God's Word, that you have the right to keep Sabbath every day and to set apart no particular day for it; but this would not be profitable — you would thereby tear apart Christian love, harmony, and fellowship; you would thereby hinder the edification of the Church; you would thereby become the cause that many never come to knowledge at all, or fall away again and lose God's grace. From this service of love toward one's neighbor, then, the Christian is likewise not free.

It is certainly my duty, my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, to withhold nothing from you of all this, including what belongs to the treasure of Christian freedom; but I must also warn everyone not to misunderstand this precious freedom. The believing Christian is free from all law — that is true. "For the righteous no law is given," says St. Paul; that means: upon the justified there lies no more curse and no more compulsion of the Law. Now when false Christians hear this, they suppose that through the Gospel the Christian has thereby obtained a greater freedom to do something sinful or to omit something good. But never! Christ has indeed, through the Gospel, freed his Christians from the curse and compulsion of all laws, but not so that one might freely do whatever one pleases; on the contrary, through the Gospel Christ changes the hearts of men, so that without the compulsion of the Law they do much more good, with a willing, joyful, and cheerful heart, out of love for God, and in thanks and praise for his grace. True Christians are, through faith, different people — a people who do not ask after the Law, who are not first compelled by the fact that it is written, "Thou shalt, thou shalt!" No, out of the free impulse of the love poured out in their hearts, they do all manner of good wherever they can. And so it is also with the observance of Sunday: a Christian well knows that it is free, but for that very reason he keeps it all the more willingly and joyfully; he lets no one compel or drive him to it, but keeps it out of love for the Word of God, out of love for order, out of love for his weak neighbor. In the grace of the New Testament he keeps Sunday holy, unforced, just as any believer of the Old Covenant kept his Sabbath.

So finally we must here draw the conclusion: whoever despises and neglects the observance of the Lord's Day thereby does not act as a Christian, not as a believer; for of such a one it must be said: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, I think on these things." The old strictness of the Sabbath is indeed not to prevail on the Christian Sunday; still less should works of necessity and works of love be forbidden among Christians in Pharisaic holiness. But whoever, out of greed or a desire to please men, without necessity attends to the works of his calling on Sunday and without necessity neglects preaching and the public worship service; whoever on this day pursues worldly pleasure and, instead of conversation about divine things, seeks worldly entertainment — such a one thereby reveals contempt for the Word of God, contempt for Christian discipline and order, and contempt for his weak neighbor, whom he offends; he sins against God, against his neighbor, against himself, and against the whole Christian congregation.

Consider what Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath, did. He preached to the people who listened to him, either in the open air or in the synagogues; afterward his disciples, eager for salvation, would come to him, and to them he would then expound his sermon further in conversation and repeat it, or, upon receiving an invitation, he would pay a visit to friend and foe alike and there teach, admonish, comfort, and rebuke. If we wish to be Christians, let us here too follow Christ. Let us hear God's Word on the days of the Lord with a humble, hungry, and thirsty heart, and