# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1861_S341
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report on the Law. 341

should not give to everyone, but only to friends, because one should love
only friends and hate enemies. Against this Christ says: Thou shalt give
to everyone — that is, not only to your friends, but also to your enemy —
and exclude no one in his need and want, be he friend or foe. His words
show this plainly and clearly, where he says, v. 47: If ye give or do good
only to your friends, what great thing have ye done? Do not the ungodly
and the publicans also do the same, and give to their friends?.. Second,
such "everyone" does not mean the man who otherwise has enough, or can
have enough; for there are (especially in this age) beyond all measure many
wicked rogues who make themselves out to be poor, needy, and beggarly,
and deceive people — whom Master Hans ought to be allowed to hand his
alms, with rope and sack, were the authorities not so lazy and slack, and
did they not set up the gallows along the roads so entirely in vain and
let them stand idle. So too there are now far more lazy people than
before, who, being fresh, healthy, and strong, could well work, serve, and
support themselves, but instead rely on the fact that Christians and
pious people give gladly. And where giving does not suffice or does not
provide enough, they make up the rest by stealing — indeed, even by
taking openly and publicly, in the courtyard, in the street, even in
houses.. It is not to such people that Christ has here commanded us to
give, but only to the needy in your own city, or around you, as Moses
also teaches, Deut. 24:14 — those who cannot work, serve, or support
themselves, or whose honest labor and service does not suffice. Here one
should help, give, and lend, be it friend or enemy. This a Christian can
indeed do, and it is not so hard for him, especially where the rulers
tolerate foreign beggars and vagrants or unknown and lazy people dwelling
among them. Third, if a Christian is to give, he must first have; what he
does not have, he cannot give. And if he is to give again tomorrow, or the
day after, or a year from now (for Christ commands me to give as long as
I live), then he cannot give away everything today. Therefore, when the
Lord Christ commands us to give, he surely commands it of those who have,
and who are able to give. Otherwise the saying goes: [buy] me in hand.
But the monks have escaped this commandment most cunningly. Some, indeed,
had nothing to give up, and sought only their belly in the monastery
(indeed, in the kitchen). Some there were who gave away everything in a
single day; but every one of them took in return, for it, an everlasting
provision, and had it given to them for their whole life long and so
long, until they had received more than the world itself possesses. Yes,
that is a fine bargain: a penny for a thousand guilders — that is, very
cheap indeed. Against this St. Paul teaches the Corinthians, 1 Ep. 8:13,
14, that he does not desire them to give in such a way that they
themselves suffer hardship while those to whom they give live in comfort.
No — our Lord Christ does not desire that, with my goods, I should make
myself a beggar and the beggar a lord; rather, I am to take up his need
and, so far as I am able, help him,