Gerhard and Walther

While you are pilgrims and strangers here on earth, and you will shortly have to depart, it then will not be appropriate for you to hang onto fleshly lusts and set your agenda on this temporal life. Instead, you should concentrate on eternal things and lead a good life here on earth so that you do not lose the kingdom of God.—Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis I:220.

Love is the true crown of all gifts, the true weight in the scale of all deeds. Where it is lacking, all works and the entire life of a person, are sinful, lost, and rejected before God.—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 238.