Whew, there’s a lot here. TLDR: You can’t do it without God. Thanks be to God.

This week there are several citations of larger sections of the Bible. I will generally not be providing those longer passages.

Psalm 119:1-8

Happy are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord.
— Psalm 119:1 (NRSVue)

Verse 1 is cited twice in the Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article 6: Third Use of the Law. Once in Affirmative Thesis 1, and then in Affirmative Thesis 3 (FC, Ep 6.2, 6.4). The topic of the uses of the Law—whether there are two or three—is still a hotly debated question within Lutheranism, but mostly because the Formula declares this space a place where we can disagree with one another and still consider ourselves one group. These two citations are, however, aspects of agreement.

Affirmative Thesis 1 reminds us that Christians are not lawless. Part of what it means to be Christian is to follow God’s Law. As we live in the Spirit, we follow the Law.

Affirmative Thesis 3 reminds us that we still need the Law and the preaching of the Law because the old person in us lives as long as we do, and what the Spirit began in us is not completed until after our deaths. So the Law must be taught and preached so that people don’t invent a new law or fall back into their sinful ways.

I will praise you with an upright heart,
when I learn your righteous ordinances.
— Psalm 119:7 (RSVue)

Verse 7 is listed in a footnote in the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article 2: Free Will (FC, SD 2.15, n. 62) that lists the ten times in this psalm that the request for understanding and learning God’s Law is made. This is the first time.

The reason these times are called out here is that Psalm 119 is a great example of prayer for God’s instruction. Psalm 119 is thought to have been written by King David, who as one of the good kings of Israel (cough, cough) prayed for God to give him understanding. So we, too, are encouraged through scripture itself to ask God for this wisdom and give thanks for the enlightenment that comes from the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not all too human?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will receive wages according to their own labor.
— 1 Corinthians 3:4-8 (NRSVue)

Verses 4 thru 8 are cited through editorial insertion in the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (Tr 11) as one of two places where Paul describes the structure of the Church. In this passage, Paul gives all position of authority in the Church to Jesus, and Jesus alone. The ministers of the Church, like Peter, do not have places of prominence over other members of the body of Christ, thus reshaping the authority Peter has over the Church, which Peter acknowledges as true in 1 Peter 5:3. Therefore, the Pope cannot have prominence in the Church nor authority over it.

Verse 7 is partly quoted in the Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article 2: Free Will, Affirmative Thesis 3 (FC, Ep 2.6) as counterpoint to the Lutheran idea that God works through people proclaiming the gospel to bring others into the faith. The counterpoint is that the Spirit is necessary. I can go out an proclaim the gospel constantly, but without the Spirit, it would all be wasted effort. People need both other people to proclaim the gospel using words and the movement of the Spirit to be converted. Both are necessary.

Verse 8 is cited twice in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. First in Article 4: Justification (AP 4.366ish), where verse 8 is quoted to show that rewards do follow good works, but in the next life. Those rewards will be given based on the good works and the challenges we go though in this life. Later, in Article 21: The Invocation if the Saints (AP 21.29), verse 8 is quoted again, but this time to show that the good works and challenges of life are for the individual and cannot be shared with others as a way of spreading out the rewards that follow.

Mathew 5:21-37

Verses 20 thru 26, which is a large section and so not quoted here, are referenced, as noted last week, in a footnote to The Large Catechism, Part 1: The Ten Commandments, The Fifth Commandment (LC 1.182, n. 95), which lets us know that this passage from Matthew was read every year in Luther’s time on the Seventh Sunday After Pentecost, and that we still have sixteen sermons from Luther on this passage.

Beyond these factoids, Luther hints at his understanding of the commandment not to kill by referring to Jesus’ own expansion of this commandment even down to anger. But Luther also points out that some people do have authority from God based on their station in life. Parents, for example, are called to respond with reproof when their children break the Commandments as a reflection of God’s reproof.

Another large section of Matthew 5, which includes this pericope and more, verses 21 thru 48, are cited in the Formula of Concord, Article 5: Law and Gospel, in both the Epitome (FC, Ep 5.8) and Solid Declaration (FC, SD 5.10).

Affirmative Thesis 7 of the Epitome cites this large block of Matthew 5 as Jesus reclaiming the Law and reinterpreting it “spiritually,” making it impossible for humans to fulfill the Law, but rather point us to the reality of God’s judgment and how often and regularly we break it. Jesus takes the commandments and makes them impossible to follow so that no one can be self-righteous.

The passage in the Solid Declaration is almost word-for-word the same as Affirmative Thesis 7, but recognizes that such an honest, spiritual encounter with the Law may drive people to despair. So here we have the to extremes: self-righteousness and despair. For those who are driven to despair, we proclaim the gospel. For those basking in their own self-righteousness, we push them to repent. Those who are driven to despair have at least been honest about their unworthiness and may be ready to hear the gospel. Those who are self-righteous need more time with the Law so they can realize their unworthiness and repent.

But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment, and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council, and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.
— Matthew 5:22 (NRSVue)

Verse 22 is quoted in the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article 11: Election (FC, SD 11.85). The quote is a kind of snide remark, but the section of discussion is interesting. In this part of Article 11, the reformers in Germany after Luther’s death were wrestling with a real question. If God wants everyone to be saved, why are some people condemned? They turn to Paul in Romans 9:17, who lifts up Pharaoh in the story of Exodus to answer the same question. God tried through Moses multiple times to tell Pharaoh what he should do to be saved. After being rejected all those times, “God withdrew his hand from him” (FC, SD 11.85).

God wants all people to be saved, but each person has the free will to reject God. When we reject God consistently, God will leave us to our own devices—which is the worst possible judgment.

[Jesus said,] “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
— Matthew 5:31-32 (NRSVue)

Verses 31 thru 32 are cited in a footnote to The Large Catechism, Part 1: The Ten Commandments, The Ninth and Tenth Commandments (LC 1.306, n. 122), where Luther notes that divorce was known in Jesus’ day, because Herod married his brother’s wife while his brother was still alive. Luther then exclaims that this wouldn’t happen today because divorce is forbidden. And then goes right on to talk about how people did break up engagements so they could get married instead. The divorce being forbidden comment is where the footnote comes. This passage is listed with several other passages.

Verse 32 by itself is cited through editorial insertion in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article 23: The Marriage of Priests (AP 23.63) along with several other passages to show that perpetual celibacy is not in the Bible, and that breaking the wedding vows to become a monk or nun is against scripture.

Verse 32 also comes up in a footnote to the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (Tr 78, n. 69) in the listing off of the ways the church courts were falsely deciding issues around marriage. They had apparently decided that even if you were the wronged party, you could not remarry because of this passage and its parallels in the other two synoptic Gospels. Melanchthon calls them out on misuse of scripture and misappropriation of power.

Verses 33 thru 37, another chunk of text not quoted here, are cited in a footnote in The Large Catechism, Part 1: The Ten Commandments, The Second Commandment (LC 1.65, n. 56) to ask the question,

“why swearing is forbidden in the gospel, yet Christ, St. Paul, and other saints often took oaths. The explanation is briefly this: We are not to swear in support of evil (that is, to a falsehood) or unnecessarily; but in support of the good and for the advantage of our neighbor we are to swear.”
Large Catechism, Part 1: The Ten Commandments,
Lines 65-66

You could have some fun with this. Here are the other citations in the footnote for your entertainment: Matthew 26:63-64, Galatians 1:20, and 2 Corinthians 1:23—passages where Jesus makes an oath and Paul makes two separate oaths.

TheoThru

Once you move past the literal reading of the Bible, scripture becomes much more interesting. Luther and others were pushing back at literal readings carried over into life without any thought given to the meaning. Luther starts to make room in the divorce issue by arguing that marriage is a property of the state—that the government sets the bounds for who can lawfully marry—and that there are circumstances under which remarriage after divorce is okay.

Luther and those who followed him read Jesus’ reframing of the commandments in the Sermon on the Mount as a spiritualizing of the commandments to help us focus on God’s righteous judgment. It carries over into how Luther explains the commandments in the Small Catechism and becomes a key point for proclaiming the fullness of the gospel, which is both God’s Law and God’s Promise.