# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1859_S108
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

108 On the Care Most Necessary for a Preacher in His Conduct.

Psalms 110 and 111, but especially 1 Corinthians 15. He expounded the whole chapter very extensively in the excellent sermons he delivered in the year 1534. (Walch 8, 1145; Erlangen 51, 70.) The portion from verse 35-57 he expounded in the years 1544 and 1545 in four mighty sermons. (Walch 8, 1408; Erlangen 19, 104.) He begins the first of these sermons with the following words: "At this time it is our custom in our church to preach and consider the article of our Christian faith concerning the resurrection of the dead, as indeed it is right and proper that at this season this same article should be pressed and treated. For since we have, on the Easter festival, preached and heard the article of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is fitting that, after preaching on the Easter festival, we should now hear the article of the resurrection of the flesh, that is, of our own resurrection.

For our Lord Jesus Christ has begun the resurrection in his own body, but the resurrection will not be complete unless we too are raised. Just as his suffering and death are not complete unless we too afterward come and suffer and die with him — as St. Paul says: he fills up in his flesh what is still lacking of the afflictions of Christ (Colossians 1:24) — so too his resurrection is not complete or whole unless we too afterward come and rise from the dead. He is our head; we are the members of his body (Ephesians 5:29-30). Therefore, after the resurrection of Christ, one must also preach concerning our own resurrection, since the two belong together, so that it may be a complete resurrection. This same article St. Paul presses very mightily in this chapter."

Accordingly, every Lutheran preacher should make it a rule, after Easter, to set aside at least four sermons for the exposition of this chapter, and in doing so to use either these four sermons, or, if one divides the whole chapter into four fairly equal sections, also the more extensive exposition — in such a way that at one time one treats this or that part, at another time more extensively. I can assure every preacher who follows this advice, from my own experience and that of others, that this chapter will then become ever dearer and more indispensable to him and to his hearers.

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(Submitted by Pastor Brohm.)
On the Care Most Necessary for a Preacher in His Conduct.

The apostle Paul speaks a word which, to be taken to heart, is of high importance for all Christians in general, but especially for the preachers of the Gospel. Let us give no one any occasion of offense, that our ministry be not blamed,