L05–II. 1. The Golden Rule: misconception #1

      This continues from Part L04 (Table of Contents in Part L01) in a series on the instruction of the Law by C. F. W. Walther and Martin Luther. — Rather than spend time on the first part, to love God above all things, Walther focuses on love for neighbor. In this segment, he addresses the first of two misconceptions on the "Golden Rule" (Matt. 7:12) — From Lehre und Wehre, vol. 7 (Nov. 1861), p. 335 ff.:

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II. What is the proper understanding of these words: You shall love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself?

      1. “Love your neighbor as yourself” means: “Whatever you want men to do to you, do to them.”

• “There are two main misconceptions about this commandment”
• “First of all,… it is customary in common life to say: Every man is his own neighbor, which some of the Church Fathers (and even some Lutheran theologians have followed them in this…) express thus: …love begins with oneself.”
• “Our self-love should therefore be the pattern for our love for our neighbor; just as we love ourselves, so sincerely, so fervently, so actively and so constantly, we should also love our neighbor”

What Luther says on the true contents of the Ten Commandments and Christian freedom:

• “Therefore, no one can tell you better than you yourself what to do, what not to do, what to say or what to wish for your neighbor.”
• “I understand the commandment to mean that it does not command us to love ourselves, but only to love our neighbor. First of all, because the love of self is first in all men and reigns supreme. Secondly, if God had wanted this order, he would have said thus: Love yourself, and then your neighbor as yourself. But now he says: Love your neighbor as yourself, that is, love him as you already love yourself without any commandment.”
• “Therefore you do not need a book to teach you how to love your neighbor. For you have in your heart the finest and best book, in which you will find described everything that all kinds of laws may teach you, and you need neither a doctor nor a teacher: just ask your own heart, and it will tell you that you should love your neighbor as yourself.”

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Many years ago, when I was under treatment by psychiatrists/psychologists and counselors for my mental state, much of the counsel was to avoid a lack of "self-esteem", that was the heart of mental and emotional problems. When I was brought back to my Christian faith, I saw all that worldly counsel for what it was, "hogwash". I already loved myself, as everyone does. — In the next Part L06, Walther addresses the second misconception of this teaching. 

L04–I:5, 6. Core of Ten Commandments, & Christian freedom: "because they want to"

      This continues from Part L03 (Table of Contents in Part L01) in a series on the instruction of the Law by C. F. W. Walther and Martin Luther. — Now Walther lays out what is left of the Law when the Ten Commandments, as given to the Jews alone, are voided for Christians. — From Lehre und Wehre, vol. 7 (Nov. 1861), p. 322 ff.:

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I. What part of the Law now binds everyone in the New Testament?

      5. What belongs to the natural law in the holy Ten Commandments? To love God and neighbor… and "whatever you want men to do to you, do that to them".

      6. True, believing Christians, … are no longer under the Law, …but …have become a law to themselves through faith and the new birth, and therefore keep and fulfill the law not as a law, but out of the impulse of their new nature in free love, not because they ought to, but because they want to.

What Luther says on the true contents of the Ten Commandments and Christian freedom:

• “Christ Himself also summarizes all the prophets and laws in this natural law, Matt. 7:12: Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
• “…if it were not naturally written in the heart, one would have to teach and preach the law for a long time before the conscience would accept it: it must also find and feel it in itself, otherwise no one would have a conscience.”
• “…it is more important to keep the day holy than to celebrate it.” (On the Third Commandment)
• “…thus Christ has also delivered us spiritually from the Law; not breaking and doing away with the Law, but transforming our heart, which before was unwillingly under it, doing it so much good, and making the law so sweet that it has no greater pleasure nor joy than in the law”
• A Christian “gladly helps and benefits everyone where he can, out of a free heart, before he even thinks of the law”

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In the next Part L05, Walther digs deeper into what it means, and does not mean, to love your neighbor.

L03–I:3, 4. New Testament vs. Reformed on the Law (Why Reformed don't use Luther's Catechism)

      This continues from Part L02a (Table of Contents in Part L01) in a series on the instruction of the Law by C. F. W. Walther and Martin Luther. — In the following statements # 3 and #4, Walther introduces us to "the New Testament way" of presenting the Ten Commandments. This is an eye-opener on where the power of the Ten Commandments lies and it sheds light on the Old Testament (OT) ceremonial and ecclesiastical laws. This answered my own questions on why Luther changed the OT wording on some of the Ten Commandments! Now I have a renewed desire to learn from Luther's Small Catechism! — Why do the Reformed not use Luther's Small Catechism? Find out in this segment. — From Lehre und Wehre, vol. 7 (Nov. 1861), p. 321 ff.:

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I. What part of the Law now binds everyone in the New Testament?

      3. Not only everything else [apart from the natural law] in the Old Testament, but also everything in the holy Ten Commandments that relates solely to the Old Testament covenant people and to their particular constitution and household, namely to their particular ceremonial or ecclesiastical [i.e. Sabbath keeping, circumcision, etc.] laws, as well as to their police or civil laws, has lost its power to bind the consciences in the New Testament and has been abolished by Christ; therefore we do not find the Ten Commandments quoted anywhere in the New Testament in the Old Testament form, but in a New Testament form. … The only reason why the Reformed insist that the holy Ten Commandments should also be included in the Christian catechism entirely in the form in which Moses received them from God and gave them to the Jews [in Exodus 20], is therefore lack of a proper understanding of the Law; while the New Testament way in which the Lutheran Catechism presents the holy Ten Commandments is a glorious testimony to the pure knowledge and deep understanding of Luther and the Lutheran Church regarding this matter.

      4. Neither the holy Ten Commandments nor any Old Testament law binds Christians because they were revealed by God through Moses, for as a written law they were imposed only on the separated people of the old covenant, the Jews.

What Luther says about Moses's Ten Commandments, and the Old Testament:

• “…but we will not have him [Moses] for our lawgiver. For we have law enough in the New Testament. Therefore we will not have him in our conscience, but will keep it pure in Christ alone.”
• “…the Ten Commandments are given to the Jews alone, and not to the Gentiles.”
• “With this passage [Acts 15:10] (as Paul with his) St. Peter also lifts the whole of Moses with all its laws from the Christians.” 
• “For Moses is a teacher of the Jewish people; therefore his words are all directed to the Jews alone.”
• “Dear Christians, you have heard that when they [i.e. Reformed] come in with their Moses and want to bind your consciences with his laws, say to them: Dear Lord, put your glasses on your noses and look at the text correctly.”

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Franz Pieper, although not mentioning Walther's 1861 essay, taught what Walther and Luther taught, Christian Dogmatics I, 532 [EN]:

“Not even the Ten Commandments in the form in which they were given to the Jews (Exodus 20) are binding on all men, but only the Ten Commandments as set down in the New Testament, as we have them, e. g., in Luther’s Catechism.”

Pieper's footnote references the same writing of Luther, “Against the Heavenly Prophets in the Matter of Images and Sacraments”, that Walther had on pages 331-334 ([StL 20, 146-153; Am. Ed. 40, p. 92-98]). — In the next Part L04…

L02a: Luther on Slavery: "revolting"; "inequality"?

      This continues from Part L02 (Table of Contents in Part L01) in a series on the instruction of the Law by C. F. W. Walther and Martin Luther. — Although the subject of Slavery has been dealt with previously at some length, I was struck by the following comment in my recent reading on "Natural Law". It came from Prof. Roland Ziegler's essay on “Natural Law in the Lutheran Confessions” in the 2011 CPH book Natural Law: A Lutheran Reappraisal (Internet Archive copy) and it caused me to stop and research it.  He stated, footnote #27, p. 78:

“As  revolting  as  it is to  our  modern  sensibilities,  for  the  reformers  the  right  to  individual  freedom  grounded  in  the  fact  of self-possession  (as opposed  to  forms  of slavery  of serfdom)  was  not  part  of natural  law. Thus,  Luther's  critique  of the  demands  of the  peasants  in the  Peasants’  Revolt  in  1525.”

"Revolting"? Ziegler used a strong word to describe modernists' mindset on slavery. He even seemingly included himself, stating "our modern sensibilities". With a statement like this, I wanted to find out exactly what Luther said on the institution of Slavery, The background to this is the peasants' Third Article which one may be tempted to think of as exhibiting a Christian attitude in their pleas, referencing several Bible verses (see p. 12). Then came Luther's answer and oh!… did I get the definitive Luther, and Christian, response to "our modern sensibilities":

“You [peasants] assert that no one is to be the serf of anyone else, because Christ has made us all free. That is making Christian freedom a completely physical matter. Did not Abraham [Gen. 17:23] and other patriarchs and prophets have slaves? Read what St. Paul teaches about servants, who, at that time, were all slaves. This article [of the peasants], therefore, absolutely contradicts the gospel. It proposes robbery, for it suggests that every man should take his body away from his lord, even though his body is the lord’s property. A slave can be a Christian, and have Christian freedom, in the same way that a prisoner or a sick man is a Christian, and yet not free. This article would make all men equal, and turn the spiritual kingdom of Christ into a worldly, external kingdom; and that is impossible. A worldly kingdom cannot exist without an inequality of persons, some being free, some imprisoned, some lords, some subjects, etc.; and St. Paul says in Galatians 5 that in Christ the lord and the servant are equal.” (AE 46, 39; StL 16, 66; WA  18:326.14–327.10)

Did Luther really say that?… beyond declaring that the peasants' demand to be a contradiction to the gospel, he went a step further and spoke of the worldly kingdom:

"A worldly kingdom cannot exist without an inequality of persons"

Inequality is necessary in the world? I was struck when reading Luther's forceful Biblical teaching that refutes all modernist theologians of today who would teach that Slavery, as an institution, was sinful. There is perhaps no more direct writing of Luther on this subject than when he addressed the peasant demands against their rulers. 

      If there was ever a statement of Luther against Communism and Socialism, this is it. All Christians would do well to study this to overcome the rhetoric of the world, the wisdom of the world today. Walther, in his writing against Communism and Socialism reported on the above statement of Luther where he "tells the peasants the truth, and shows by name that they have no right to call themselves Christians if they want to overcome violence by force and take the sword that God has not given them." — The series on Walther's teaching of the Law continues in Part L03.

L02–I:1, 2. What part of the Law now binds everyone? Natural law.

      This continues from Part L01 (Table of Contents in Part L01) in a series on the instruction of the Law by C. F. W. Walther and Martin Luther. — Walther organizes his essay into a question and answer format. There are four questions, the following is his first Thesis I question: 

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I. What part of the Law now binds everyone in the New Testament?

      1. The law that binds everyone, even in the New Testament, is solely the natural law originally written in the hearts of all people.

      2. Therefore the holy Ten Commandments, which God once revealed through Moses from Mount Sinai, as well as all other laws contained in the Old Testament, insofar as they contain the natural law, are binding on everyone.

What Luther says about the Natural Law, and the Ten Commandments and their relationship to Natural Law: 

• “So it is not only the law of Moses: Thou shalt not murder, commit adultery, steal [i.e. the Ten Commandments], etc., but also the natural law written in everyone's heart, as St. Paul teaches in Romans 2:1.”
• “Now where the law of Moses and the natural law are one, the law remains and is not abolished externally, but becomes spiritual through faith, which is nothing other than fulfilling the law, Rom. 3:28.”
• “For this reason, the image and the Sabbath, and all that Moses set more and above the natural law, because it has no natural law, is free, void and abolished, and is given only to the Jewish people in particular.”
• “Now where the law of Moses and the natural law are one, the law remains and is not abolished externally, but becomes spiritual through faith, which is nothing other than fulfilling the law, Rom. 3:28. For this reason, the image and the Sabbath, and all that Moses set more and above the natural law, because it has no natural law, is free, void and abolished, and is given only to the Jewish people in particular: no different than if an emperor or king made special laws and ordinances in his country, such as the Sachsenspiegel in Saxony, and yet the common natural laws prevail and remain throughout all countries, such as honoring parents, not murdering, not committing adultery, serving God, etc.”
• “Why then do we keep and teach the Ten Commandments? Answer: Because the natural laws are nowhere so finely and neatly written as in Moses.”

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This last statement was such an eye-opener for me as I struggled with the way Luther's Small Catechism treated the Ten Commandments. Why did Luther reword the commandments? Why not leave them the way they were written in Exodus 20? Do Luther's explanations follow the meaning of the Ten Commandments or do they alter them? These questions filled my mind, so much so that I wondered "Why study the Small Catechism? Why not just read the Ten Commandments?" But then Luther explains that the Ten Commandments do speak to the Natural Law. We will learn further about this aspect in the next blog Part L03 on "the New Testament way", not the Reformed way. But before that, an Excursus Part L02a presents a particularly controversial human practice that brought one of Luther's more striking responses.

L01: Walther (and Luther) on the Law; everyone bound by "natural law"

      It has been universally acknowledged that the lectures of C. F. W. Walther that were assembled into the book The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel (or Law & Gospel) were an American masterpiece on the subject. Even Dr. Robert Kolb acknowledged this (p. 54) while at the same time being critical. So when I ran across a brief essay without an author's name in the 1861 Western District convention report (text DE, EN) on the subject of "the Law", I wondered that it was Walther who authored this piece. Why? Because the old Missouri Synod recognized that it was highly favored to have such a spiritual leader as Walther. (I am identifying the author as Walther until someone can provide evidence to the contrary.) And he was the obvious choice to handle this subject. What better teacher can there be to teach "the Law" than one who, since the days of Martin Luther, best distinguished it from the Gospel? (One can certainly rule out Artificial Intelligence to do the job!) — 

      Because of its importance, I have uploaded the original German text of this Western District essay to the Internet Archive here. After researching this short essay, it was discovered that a much expanded version was published later that same year (1861) in Lehre und Wehre, in 2 parts (November and December). The expanded portion was filled entirely with quotations from Luther's writings. There are 26 references to Luther.

      Upon reading this essay, one is immediately introduced to the subject of "natural Law". This was also the subject of a book of essays compiled and published by CPH in 2011 with the title Natural Law: A Lutheran Reappraisal (Internet Archive copy). These were authored by an eclectic group that amazingly included ELCA and NALC (Marianne?) writers, ones who cannot teach a "Lutheran Reappraisal" because of their deviation from Lutheran doctrine in critical areas (e.g. Forde). There may be informative essays by some authors, such as Prof. Roland Ziegler on “Natural Law in the Lutheran Confessions” (p. 65 ff.), and Dr. Korey Maas, who stated (p. 226):

"A culture hostile to Christianity was, and is, incredibly unlikely to assent to any truth claim predicated on peculiarly Christian presuppositions".

But one can better avoid spiritual confusion when one rather learns first from the father of the Missouri Synod, and the Reformer, Martin Luther. — We begin our learning in the next Part L02. (The full text file will be available at the end of this series.) 

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L01—This introduction: Walther and Luther on the Law

L02—Part I: 1., 2. What part of the Law now binds everyone? Natural law.

   L02a Excursus: Luther on Slavery: "revolting"; "inequality"?

L03—Part I: 3., 4. Reformed vs. New Testament on the Law (Why Reformed don't use Luther's Catechism)

L04—Part I: 5., 6. Core of Ten Commandments & Christian freedom: "because they want to"

L05—Part II: 1.  The Golden Rule: misconception #1

L06—Part II: 2.  The Golden Rule: misconception #2

L07—Part II: 3. Love is the master of all commandments

L08—Part III: 1. Law, the unchangeable will of God, indelibly written in the heart of every man

L09—Part III: 2., 3. Law shows our sin, even for true Christians

   L09a Excursus: False charges by LCMS: Walther a Pietist? (Eggold–Piepkorn–Pelikan; Wohlrabe,  McCain)

L10—Part IV: 1. Preaching of repentance from the law precedes that of Justification; Eggold's 2nd criticism 

L11—Part IV: 2., 3. Proper distinction of Law from Gospel