Luther’s Advice for Proud Preachers and Teachers

Martin Luther:

If, however, you feel and are inclined to think you have made it, flattering yourself with your own little books, teaching, or writing, because you have done it beautifully and preached excellently; if you are highly pleased when someone praises you in the presence of others; if you perhaps look for praise, and would sulk or quit what you are doing if you did not get it—if you are of that stripe, dear friend, then take yourself by the ears, and if you do this in the right way you will find a beautiful pair of big, long, shaggy donkey ears.

Then do not spare any expense! Decorate them with golden bells, so that people will be able to hear you wherever you go, point their fingers at you, and say, “See, see! There goes that clever beast, who can write such exquisite books and preach so remarkably well.” That very moment you will be blessed and blessed beyond measure in the kingdom of heaven. Yes, in that heaven where hellfire is ready for the devil and his angels.

—Martin Luther, LW 34:287-288.

HT: Timothy George, Reading Scripture with the Reformers, p. 164.

 

Luther’s Saying: “Justification Is the Article by Which the Church Stands and Falls”

In the past we’ve looked at the origins of the TULIP acronym, whether Bunyan really said the “Run, John, run” poem, and Luther’s quote about the importance of defending the smallest truth at the very point at which the Devil is attacking.

So what about the phrase attributed to Luther than justificatio est articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae—”justification is the article by which the church stands and falls.”

From what I’ve been able to find, the first use of this exact phrase was by Lutheran theologian Balthasar Meisner who said that it was a “proverb of Luther” (Anthropôlogia sacra disputation 24, [Wittenberg: Johannes Gormannus, 1615]). [Source: Arthur Carl Piepkorn / Jack Preus]

In 1618 Reformed theologian Johann Heinrich Alsted wrote articulus iustificationis dicitur articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae (in Theologia scholastica didacta [Hanover, 1618], p. 711)— “The article of justification is said to be the article by which the church stands or  falls.” [Source: Alister McGrath]

We don’t have record of Luther using the exact phrase, but very close: quia isto articulo stante stat Ecclesia, ruente ruit Ecclesia—“Because if this article [of justification] stands, the church stands; if this article collapses, the church collapses.” (WA 40/3.352.3) [Source: Alister McGrath]

Luther certainly expressed the same thought in numerous ways, but this is the closest I’ve seen to the famous quote.

(Thanks to Carl Trueman for the translations.)