God no longer requires the feet or hands or any other member; He requires only the ears ...
For if you ask a Christian what the work is by which he becomes worthy of the name "Christian" he will be able to give absolutely no other answer than it is the hearing of the Word of God, that is, faith.
Therefore, the ears alone are the organs of a Christian.
Luther, LW 29: 224. (Thanks to Bayer, Martin Luther's Theology, p. 21)
4 comments:
What if you're deaf?
Sign language. Ears are a metaphor the passive character of faith.
Luther was wrong. Our whole bodies are to be involved in on the life of repentance. All this saying of Luther does is to centralize the Christian faith as one of intellectual assent which St. James says, the evil ones are able to do. Even our Lord said, "Blessed are they who hear the word of the Father and DO IT."
Chris,
Luther was asserting his central teaching here: that we are wholly righteous before God by means of His Word. This same faith, which is what Luther means when he speaks of ears or hearing, transforms the whole man so that with his whole being, he does good works. As Luther himself writes
Faith is also a very mighty, active, busy thing which at once renews a man, gives him a second birth, and introduces him to a new manner and way of life, so that it is impossible for him not to do good without ceasing. For as naturally as a tree bears fruit, good works follow faith.
Luther, WA 10.3.285
Post a Comment