Collected Works of Martin Luther

by Martin Luther

  Of the Sixth

  Chastity, purity and modesty, in works, words, demeanor and thoughts; moderation in eating, drinking and sleeping; and everything that furthers chastity.

  Here belong all the teachings about chastity, fasting, sobriety, moderation, prayer, watching, laboring and everything by which chastity is preserved.

  Of the Seventh

  The Seventh Commandment

  Poverty of spirit, charity, willingness to lend and give of one’s possessions, and a life free from greed and avarice. Here belong all the teachings about avarice, unrighteous wealth, usury, guile, deceit, injury and hindrance of one’s neighbor in temporal things.

  Of the Eighth

  The Eight Commandment

  A peaceful, wholesome tongue, that injures no one and profits every one, that reconciles those that are at enmity, apologizes for those that are slandered and takes their part; in short, truthfulness and simplicity in speech. Here belong all the teachings about talking and keeping silent in matters which concern one’s neighbor’s honor and rights, his cause and his salvation.

  Of the Last Two

  The Ninth and Tenth Commandments

  That entire chastity and utter despising of temporal desire and possessions, which are perfectly attained only in the life to come.

  In all these works we see nothing else than the love of others — that is, of God and of one’s neighbor — which seeketh not its own, but what is God’s and its neighbor’s [1 Cor. 13:5], and surrendereth itself freely to every one to be his, to serve him and to do his will.

  Thus you see that the Ten Commandments contain, in a very brief and orderly manner, all the teaching that is needful for man’s life; and if a man desires to keep them, he has good works or every hour of his life, and has no need to choose him other works, to run hither and thither, and do what is not commanded12.

  All this is evident from the act that these commandments teach nothing about what a man shall do or not do or himself, or what he shall ask of others, but only what he shall do and not do for others — God and man. From this we are to learn that their fulfilment consists in love toward others, not toward ourselves; for in his own behalf man already seeks and does and leaves undone too much. He needs not to be taught this, but to be kept from it. Therefore he lives best who lives in no wise for himself, and he who lives for himself, lives worst; for so the Ten Commandments teach. From them we learn how few men lead good lives; nay, as man, no one can lead a good life. Knowing this, we must learn next whence we shall get the power to lead good lives and to keep the Commandments13.

  THE CREED

  DIVISION OF the Creed

  The Creed is divided into three parts14, according to the Creed three Persons of the holy and divine Trinity who are therein mentioned. The first part belongs to the Father, the second to the Son, the third to the Holy Ghost; for the Trinity is the chief thing in the Creed, on which everything else depends.

  Two Ways of Believing

  We should note that there are two ways of believing. One way is to believe about God, as I do when I believe that what is said of God is true; just as I do when I believe what is said about the Turk, the devil or hell. This faith is knowledge or observation rather than faith. The other way is to believe in God, as I do when I not only believe that what is said about Him is true, but put my trust in Him, surrender myself to Him and make bold to deal with Him, believing without doubt that He will be to me and do to me just what is said of Him. I could not thus believe in the Turk or in any man, however highly his praises might be sung. For I can readily believe that a man is good, but I do not venture on that account to build my faith on him.

  True Faith

  This faith, which in He or death dares to believe that God is what He is said to be, is the only faith that makes a man a Christian and obtains from God whatever it will. This faith no false and evil heart can have, for it is a living faith; and this faith is commanded in the First Commandment, which says, “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods.” Wherefore the word in is rightly used; and it is diligently to be noted that we may not say, “I believe God the Father,” or “about the Father,” but “in God the Father, in Jesus Christ, in the Holy Ghost.” This faith we should render to no one but to God. Therefore we confess the divinity of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost, when we believe in them even as we believe in the Father; and just as our faith in all three Persons is one and the same faith, so the three Persons are one and the same God.

  The First Part of the Creed

  The First Article

  I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

  This means —

  I renounce the evil spirit, all idolatry, all sorcery and misbelief.

  I put my trust in no man on earth, nor in myself, my power, my learning, my wealth, my piety, nor anything that I may have.

  I put my trust in no creature in heaven or on earth.

  I dare to put my trust only in the one absolute, invisible, incomprehensible God, Who made heaven and earth, and Who alone is over all creatures.

  On the other hand, I am not afraid of any wickedness of the devil and his company, or my God is above them all.

  Even though I be forsaken or persecuted by all men, I still believe in

  God.

  I believe, even though I am poor, unwise, unlearned, despised or in need of everything.

  I believe, even though I am a sinner. For this faith of mine must and shall soar above everything that is and everything that is not — above sin and virtue and all else — so that it may remain simply and purely a faith in God, as the First Commandment constrains me.

  Nor do I ask of Him a sign, to tempt Him. [Luke 11:16]

  I trust constantly in Him, however long He tarry, and do not prescribe the goal, the time, the measure or the manner of His working, but in bold, true faith I leave all to His divine will.

  If He is almighty, what can I lack that He cannot give me and do for me?

  If He is Creator of heaven and earth and Lord of all things, who will take anything from me, or harm me? [Rom. 8:28] Nay, how shall not all things rather serve me and turn out to my good, if He to Whom all things are obedient and subject wishes me well?

  Because He is God, He can do the thing that is best for me, and knows what that thing is.

  Because He is Father, He wills to do what is best for me, and to do it with all His heart.

  Because I do not doubt, but put my trust in Him, I am assuredly His child. His servant and His heir forever, and as I believe, so will it be done unto me. [Matt. 8:13]

  The Second Part

  The Second Article

  And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

  This means —

  I believe not only that Jesus Christ is the true and only Son of God, begotten from eternity in one eternal, divine nature and substance; but also that all things are made subject to Him by His Father, and that in His humanity He is made Lord of me and of all things which, in His divinity, He, with the Father, has created.

  I believe that no one can believe in the Father or come to the Father by his own learning, works or reason, nor by anything that can be named in heaven or on earth, save only in and through Jesus Christ, His only Son — that is, through faith in His name and lordship. [John 14:6]

  I firmly believe that for my sake He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, without human or fleshly work, without bodily father or seed of man, to the end that so He might purify my sinful, fleshly, unclean, damnable conception, and the conception of all who believe in Him, and make it spiritual through His own and His almighty Father’s gracious will.

  I believe that for me He was born of the pure Virgin
Mary, without harm to her bodily and spiritual virginity, in order that, by the mercy of His Father, He might make my sinful, damnable birth, and the birth of all who believe in Him, blessed and harmless and pure.

  I believe that He bore His cross and passion for my sin and the sin of all believers, and thereby has consecrated all sufferings and every cross, and made them not only harmless, but salutary and highly meritorious.

  I believe that He died and was buried to slay entirely and to bury my sin and the sin of all who believe in Him, and that He has destroyed bodily death and made it altogether harmless, nay profitable and salutary.

  I believe that He descended into hell to overthrow and take captive the devil and all his power, guile and wickedness, for me and for all who believe in Him, so that henceforth the devil cannot harm me; and that He has redeemed me from the pains of hell, and made them harmless and meritorious.

  I believe that He rose on the third day from the dead, to give to me and to all who believe in Him a new life; and that He has thereby quickened us with Him, in grace and in the Spirit, that we may sin no more, but serve Him alone in every grace and virtue.

  I believe that He ascended into heaven and received from the Father power and honor above all angels and all creatures, and thus sitteth on the right hand of God — that is, He is King and Lord over all that is God’s, in heaven and hell and earth. Therefore, He can help me and all believers in all our necessities against all our adversaries and enemies.

  I believe that He will come again from heaven at the last day, to judge those who then are living and those who have died meanwhile, and all men, all angels and devils must come before His judgment-seat and see Him in the flesh; that He will come to redeem me and all who believe in Him from bodily death and all infirmities, to punish our enemies and adversaries eternally, and to redeem us eternally from their power.

  The Third Part

  The Third Article

  I believe in the Holy Ghost, a Holy Christian Church, a communion of saints, a forgiveness of sins, a resurrection of the body, and a life everlasting. Amen.

  This means —

  I believe not only that the Holy Ghost is one true God, with the Father and the Son, but that no one can come to the Father through Christ and His life, sufferings and death, and all that has been said of Him, nor attain any of His blessings, without the work of the Holy Ghost, by which the Father and the Son teach, quicken, call, draw me and all that are His, make us, in and through Christ, alive and holy and spiritual, and thus bring us to the Father; for it is He by Whom the Father, through Christ and in Christ, worketh all things and giveth life to all.

  I believe that there is on earth, through the whole wide world, no more than one holy, common15, Christian Church, which is nothing else than the congregation16, or assembly of the saints, i. e., the pious, believing men on earth, which is gathered, preserved, and ruled by the Holy Ghost, and daily increased by means of the sacraments and the Word of God.

  I believe that no one can be saved who is not found in this congregation, holding with it to one faith, word, sacraments, hope and love, and that no Jew, heretic, heathen or sinner can be saved along with it, unless he become reconciled to it, united with it and conformed to it in all things.

  I believe that in this congregation, or Church17, all things are common, that everyone’s possessions belong to the others and no one has anything of his own; therefore, all the prayers and good works of the whole congregation must help, assist and strengthen me and every believer at all times, in life and death, and thus each bear the other’s burden, as St. Paul teaches. [Gal. 6:2]

  I believe that in this congregation, and nowhere else, there is forgiveness of sins; that outside of it, good works, however great they be or many, are of no avail for the forgiveness of sins; but that within it, no matter how much, how greatly or how often men may sin, nothing can hinder forgiveness of sins, which abides wherever and as long as this one congregation abides. To this congregation Christ gives the keys, and says, in Matthew xviii, “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.” [Matt. 18:18] In like manner He says, in Matthew xvi, to the one man Peter, who stands as the representative of the one and only Church [Matt. 16:19], “Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 18

  I believe that there will be a resurrection of the dead, in which, by the same Holy Ghost, all flesh will be raised again — that is, all men, in flesh, or body, the good and the wicked; and, therefore, the self-same flesh which has died, been buried, mouldered and been destroyed in many ways shall return and become alive.

  I believe that after the resurrection there will be an eternal life for the saints and an eternal death or sinners; and I doubt not that the Father, through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, with and in the Holy Ghost, will bring all this to pass — that is the meaning of Amen, “It is assuredly and certainly true.”

  Hereupon follows

  THE LORD’S PRAYER

  THE PREFACE

  The Preface and Preparation for offering the Seven Petitions to God: Our Father Who art in heaven.

  This means —

  O Almighty God, Who in Thy boundless mercy hast not only granted us permission, but by Thine only beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, hast bidden and taught us through His merit and mediation to look to Thee as Father and call Thee Father, though Thou mightest in all justice be a stern Judge of us sinners, who have sinned so often and so grievously against Thy divine and gracious will, and thus have angered Thee: Put in our hearts, by this Thy mercy, a comfortable confidence in Thy fatherly love, and make us feel and taste the sweetness of childlike trust, so that we may joyfully name Thee Father, and know Thee and love Thee, and call upon Thee in all our necessities. Have us in Thy keeping, that we may remain Thy children, and not be guilty of making Thee, dear Father, a terrible Judge, and ourselves Thine enemies, and not Thy children.

  It is Thy will that we not only call Thee Father, but that all of us together call Thee our Father, and thus offer our prayers with one accord or all: Grant us, therefore, brotherly love and unity, that we may know and think of one another as true brethren and sisters, and pray to Thee, our one common Father, or all men and for every man, even as one child prays or another to its father.

  Let no one among us seek his own things or forget before Thee the things of others; but, all hatred, envy and dissension laid aside [Phil. 2:4], may we love one another as good and true children of God, and thus say with one accord not “my Father,” but “our Father.”

  Moreover, since Thou art not a father according to the flesh nor upon earth, but art in heaven, a spiritual Father, Who diest not and art not weak, but unlike an earthly father who cannot help himself, whereby Thou showest us how immeasurably better a Father Thou art, and teachest us to hold as nothing in comparison with Thee all earthly fatherhood, fatherland, friends, goods, flesh and blood: Grant us, therefore, O Father, that we may also be Thy heavenly children; teach us to think only of our souls and of our heavenly inheritance, that our temporal fatherland and earthly lot may not deceive and hold and hinder us, and make us altogether children of this world, so that with real and true cause we may say, “Of our heavenly Father,” and may be truly Thy heavenly children.

  The First Petition: Hallowed be thy Name. The

  This means —

  The First Petition

  O Almighty God, dear heavenly Father, in this wretched vale of sorrows Thy Holy Name is so much profaned, blasphemed and put to shame, given to much which is not for Thine honor, abused in many things and made a cloak for sin, so that even a shameful life may well be called a shaming and dishonoring of Thy Holy Name:

  Grant us, therefore, Thy divine grace, that we may be on our guard against everything which doth not serve to the praise and honor of Thy Holy Name. Help us, that all witchcraft and sorcery may be done away. Help us, that all conjuring of the devil or of creatures by Thy Name may cease. Help us, that all false beliefs and superstitions may be rooted out. Help us, that all
heresy and false doctrine which disguise themselves with Thy Name may come to naught. Help us, that no false pretence of truth and piety and holiness may deceive any man. Help us that none may swear or lie or deceive by Thy Name.

  Protect us against all false confidence pretending to rest upon Thy Name. Protect us against all spiritual pride and the vainglory of worldly honor or reputation. Help us in all our necessities and weaknesses to call upon Thy Holy Name. Help us in anguish of conscience and in the hour of death not to forget Thy Name. Help us with all our goods and in all our words and works to praise and honor Thee alone, and not thereby to make or seek to make a name for ourselves, but only for Thee, Whose alone are all things. Preserve us from the shameful vice of ingratitude.

  Grant that by our good works and life all other men may be stirred up to praise, not us, but Thee in us, and to honor Thy Name [Matt. 5:16]. Help us, that our evil works or weaknesses may give no one occasion to stumble and dishonor Thy Name or to cease from praising Thee. Keep us, that we may not desire any temporal or eternal blessing which is not to the honor and praise of Thy Name, and if we pray for such things, give Thou no ear to our folly. Help us so to live that we may be found true children of God, that Thy Fathername may not be named upon us falsely or in vain.

  To this petition belong all the psalms and prayers in which we praise, honor, thank and sing to God, and here belongs the whole Hallelujah.

  The Second Petition: Thy Kingdom come.

  The Second Petition

  This means —

  This wretched life is a kingdom of all sin and wickedness, under one lord, the evil spirit, the source and head of all wickedness and sin; but Thy kingdom is a kingdom of every grace and virtue under one Lord, Jesus Christ Thy dear Son, the Head and Source of every grace and virtue. Therefore help us, dear Father, and be gracious unto us. Grant us above all things a true and constant faith in Christ, a fearless hope in Thy mercy despite all the fearfulness of our sinful conscience, and a thorough love to Thee and to all mankind. Keep us from unbelief and despair and revengefulness.