# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 02 22_S97
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall not now nor ever pass away."

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.

Volume 4.

St. Louis, Mo., February 22, 1848.

No. 13.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at the annual subscription price of one dollar for subscribers living out of town, who are required to pay it in advance and to bear the postage. — In St. Louis, each single number is sold for 5 cents.

Only letters containing communications for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, however, which concern business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

Sermon,

delivered on the 20th Sunday after Trinity, 1847, in the Lutheran Trinity Church at St. Louis, Mo.

I. N. J.
Grace be with you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In Him, our dear Savior, heartily beloved hearers! "Avoid every appearance of evil," says St. Paul in the fifth chapter of his first epistle to the Thessalonians. These words lay upon every Christian a great and important duty. According to them he is to avoid not only evil itself, but also the appearance of evil. It is thus not enough that a Christian be conscious of no evil in his own actions; he is obligated also to see to it that through his actions others are not led to think something evil of him. It is not enough that a Christian walk rightly before God's eyes and be able to say, God, who sees into the heart, knows that I mean no evil by it; a Christian must also walk blamelessly before the eyes of men. He, too, therefore sins against God who does something which God has indeed not expressly forbidden, but by which he becomes to his neighbor an offense and a stumbling block. According to this law of love Christ himself acted, though he was infinitely exalted above all suspicion of men. On one occasion he indeed first proved that he and his disciples were not obliged to give the tribute money, but — he adds, turning to Peter — "Lest we should offend them, take that piece, and give it for me and thee." So then Paul too followed in this his Lord and Master, and says to those who had attended the pagan sacrificial feasts: "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. Give no offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Greeks, nor to the church of God. Therefore, if food make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, that I make not my brother to offend. But if your brother is grieved because of your food, then you are already not walking according to love."

O how many there may be, accordingly, who do not walk according to love! How many ask only after their freedom, but not after whether they may not, perhaps, through the use of it, become to their neighbor an offense and a stumbling block! Let us therefore all take well to heart the apostle's admonition: "Avoid every appearance of evil."

But precious as this duty is, my beloved, it is nevertheless likewise an important Christian duty not at once to put a bad construction upon an evil appearance which another gives, but rather to excuse him, to speak well of him and to turn everything to the best, and not to break the staff before one has thoroughly inquired into everything and is compelled and constrained to do so. For it happens not seldom that an evil appearance falls even upon the best of Christians, either through no fault of his own at all, or because even a good Christian at times, out of weakness, walks incautiously. Therefore Christ calls to us in that same Gospel: "Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" This word St. Paul likewise repeats, and says: "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more."

O how many injuries, how many sighs, how much unrest, how much quarreling and strife one would spare oneself; how many sins of unlovingness, of backbiting and of slander there would be fewer of in a congregation, and how much more edifying, lovely and inviting Christian fellowship in general would be, if everyone always thought of those words of Christ and of Paul, and of the saying of the prophet Zechariah: "Let none of you imagine evil in his heart against his brother"! Say for yourselves, does it not also do us good, when we have given an evil appearance, to hear that others interpret it in the mildest way, and excuse and defend us against fault-finders? Certainly! Well then, whatsoever we would that men should do to us, let us also do the same to them.

Yet, my beloved, just as there are Christians who give an evil appearance and are nevertheless true Christians, so, on the other hand, there are still more Christians who indeed have a good appearance and yet are un-Christians; and these are the false-seeming Christians of whom St. Paul writes: "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." It is of such false-seeming Christians that our Gospel for today speaks; let me now, for the examination and warning of us all, sketch their picture from God's Word.

Text: Matthew 22:1–14.

In the text that has been read, Christ compares his kingdom of grace on earth to a wedding feast, and the Gospel of his grace to the invitation to it. The whole falls into two parts. In the first part Christ shows, by his parable, how most of the Jews despised the Gospel that had already been proclaimed to them through the prophets, and how, after he himself, the Son of God, had come, they would in the end even put him to death. In the second part Christ then shows how God, after punishing the Jews, would have the Gentiles called into his kingdom of grace, and how, though a great multitude of Gentiles would follow the invitation of the Gospel and outwardly turn to Christianity, many wicked ones would also be found among the good. For he compares the wicked to a guest who indeed appears at the wedding, but without a wedding garment. By this Christ portrays none other than the false-seeming Christians. Let me, then, today dwell on the second part of the Gospel, which most nearly concerns us, and now set before you:

Concerning False-Seeming Christians;
1. I will sketch for your examination the picture of a false-seeming Christian in this life, and