Martin Luther's Writings

I am very happy to see the publication of these sermons of mine on the three chapters of St. Matthew which St. Augustine calls "the Lord's Sermon on the Mount." May God grant His grace so that they may help to preserve and keep the true, sure, and Christian understanding of this teaching of Christ, because these are such common sayings and texts that are used so often throughout Christendom. I do not doubt that here I have presented their true, pure, and Christian meaning to my friends and to anyone else that is interested. It is beyond understanding how through his apostles the wicked devil has managed so cleverly to twist and pervert especially the fifth chapter, making it teach the exact opposite of what it means. Christ here deliberately wanted to oppose all false teaching and to open up the true meaning of God's commandments, as He emphasizes when He says (Matt. 5:17): "I have not come to abolish the Law." He takes it up piece by piece and tries to make it completely dear. Still the infernal Satan has not found a single text in the Scriptures that he has more shamefully distorted and into which he has imported more error and false teaching than this very one, which Christ Himself ordered and appointed in order to head off false doctrine. This is really the devil's masterpiece!

First, this fifth chapter has fallen into the hands of the vulgar pigs and asses, the jurists and sophists, the right hand of that jackass of a pope and of his mamelukes. Out of this beautiful rose they have sucked and broadcast poison, covering up Christ with it and elevating and maintaining Antichrist. According to them, Christ does not intend everything He teaches in the fifth chapter to be regarded by His Christians as a command for them to observe; but He gave much of it merely as advice to those who want to become perfect, to be kept by anyone who pleases. This in spite of Christ's angry threat that no one will enter heaven who abolishes even one of the least of these commandments (Matt. 5:19); and He explicitly calls them "commandments." On this basis they have thought up the twelve "evangelical counsels," twelve bits of good advice in the Gospel, which may be kept by anyone who pleases if he wants to attain a perfection higher and more perfect than that of other Christians. Thus they have not only made perfection as well as Christian salvation dependent upon works apart from faith, but they have even made these works optional. I call that forbidding true and fine good works—which is just what these vulgar asses and blasphemers accuse us of doing.
They cannot deny this, and no amount of covering or glossing over will help them as long as this fifth chapter of Matthew stands. Their books and glosses are in public view, as is the impenitent life, past and present, which they lead on the basis of this teaching of theirs. In their circles these twelve "evangelical counsels" are commonly taught: Do not requite wrongdoing! Do not avenge yourself! Offer the other cheek! Do not resist evil! Give your cloak along with your coat! Go the second mile! Give to everyone that asks! Lend to him who borrows! Pray for your persecutors! Love your enemies! Do good to those who hate! Do the other things that Christ teaches here! "All this," so they spew out, "is not commanded." And the jackasses in Paris frankly admit their reasons when they say: "Christian teaching would have much too hard a time of it if it were loaded down with things like this." In this way the jurists and sophists have been ruling and teaching the church till now, so that Christ with His teaching and interpretation has had to be their jester and juggler. Still they do no penance for this, but they eagerly defend it. They are trying to re-establish their cursed, shabby canons and to reinstate the crown on the head of their jackass of a pope. May God grant that I live to provide spangles and jewels for such a crown. Then, God willing, this jackass would be crowned right!

Dear brother, let this preaching of mine be of service to you, in the first place, against our squires, the jurists and sophists. I am referring especially to the canonists, whom they themselves call "asses"; and that is what they are. Thus you maypreserve in its purity the teaching of Christ in this chapter of Matthew, instead of their asinine cunning and devilish dung. In the second place there are the new jurists and sophists, the schismatic spirits and Anabaptists. From their crazy heads they are making new trouble out of this fifth chapter. The others go too far to the left when they keep nothing at all of this teaching of Christ, but condemn and obliterate it. In the same way these men lean too far to the right when they teach miserable stuff like this: that it is wrong to own private property, to swear, to hold office as a ruler or judge, to protect or defend oneself, to stay with wife and children. Thus the devil blows and brews on both sides so that they do not recognize any difference between the secular and the divine realm, much less what should be the distinctive doctrine and action in each realm. Thank God, we can boast that in these sermons we have clearly and diligently shown and emphasized this. Whoever errs or will err from now on, we are excused from all responsibility for him; for we have faithfully set forth our views for everyone's benefit. Let their blood be on their own head! We shall await our reward for this— ingratitude, hate, and all sorts of hostility. And we shall say, "Thank God!"

From these horrible examples of both the papistic and the schismatic jurists we learn and know what the devil has in mind, especially his intention to distort this fifth chapter of St. Matthew, and thereby to exterminate pure Christian teaching. So let every preacher or minister be urged and warned to keep faithful and diligent watch over the little flock entrusted to him, and to help preserve the right interpretation. So long as the devil lives and the world stands, he will not stop attacking this chapter. His aim is in this way to suppress good works altogether, as happened under the papacy; or to institute false good works and fictitious holiness, as he has now begun to do through the new monks or schismatic spirits. Even if both the papistic and the schismatic jurists and monks were to perish, he would still find or raise up others; for he has to have such a following. From the beginning of the world, his kingdom has been ruled by monks. Though they may not have been called "monk," yet their teaching and life have been monkish, that is, different and special and better than what God has commanded. For example, among the people of Israel there were the Baalites, the áÌÀîÈøÄéí, and the like; among the heathen there were the castrated priests and the vestal virgins. Therefore we can never be smug inhis presence. From this fifth chapter have come the pope's monks, who on the basis of this chapter have laid claim to a more perfect station in life than other Christians, and have maintained this claim until they are full of greed, pride, and finally every kind of devil. May Christ, our dear Lord and Master, who has opened up the true meaning for us, increase and strengthen it for us, and may He help us to live and act according to it. To Him be praise and thanks, with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen.