13 December 2021
Catechesis: The Third Commandment
Know, therefore, that you must be concerned not only about hearing, but also about learning and retaining God’s Word in memory. Do not think this is optional for you and of no great important. Think that it is God’s commandment, who will require an account from you about how you have heard, learned, and honored His Word.—LC I:98
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Pastor Weedon,
I have stuggled with being a confessional Lutheran having been raised in the ELCA and spend my late teen years in pentcostal churches. The last few years I have been very tempted to leave all together for Eastern Orthodoxy.(Your resources on the subject have been very helpful and kept me from converting) But I find myself to continue to stuggle with Lutheranism particularly monergism. I have always heard pastors say "Good works are required, just not required to be saved". I have such a hard time with this because being a sinner the devil seems to weaponize this immediately against me. "Ok then, Jesus died for me and it is finished so I will just lock my door, put in a movie and eat potato chips until he comes back". I dont know if it is me personally or the devil but hearing that all I need for salvation is baptism and grace makes me leave it at that, with no desire to do more. No doubt a laziness of my flesh. I dont find good works naturally flowing from me. I have a new will that fights my old will. I desire to do good, to show mercy, to fight sin, to be like Jesus. But when I come to the cross roads of choosing between choosing church or sleep..prayer or TV..fighting or giving in to temptation..the thought comes again "your saved anyway, there is no reason to fight your old will so give in". My issue with Luthernism is that I find that two hours of church once a week and hearing a quick "your saved" message doesnt do much. It seems clear to me in scripture that Jesus wants more for us than to believe..but to love and be like him and to show mercy and to cooperate with our new wills and choose right over wrong. These things dont flow from me unless I fight my old ways and try my heart out. Sorry for the rambling, hope it made a bit of sense. Thought you may have a thought or two. Thank you again for all you do. The Word Endures has been a real blessing.
Dear Anon, I think much help is given if you become acquainted with the way the Lutherans of old dealt with this. They did NOT ever rest on monergism (true as it is), because (as Chemnitz warned) “lest the wontonness of the flesh drive out the Holy Spirit.” And so they certainly knew very well the danger of carnal security and constantly sought to teach the joys of justification without in any way allowing it to slip into “God loves to forgive; I love to sin; such a deal.” Rather, they’d point to the places in the Confessions where we learn that saving faith exists only in penitence and that without mortification of the flesh saving faith cannot last. By all means, fight the old ways. It’s a struggle that all Christians engage in by the Spirit’s power. But it never has an ending in this life. The weeds keep cropping up in our hearts and we must go on weeding till the day of death.
Thank you for taking the time to answer. Your comments made a lot of sense to me! I have defiantly noticed a some differences in the way our Lutheran "fathers" have described things vs how many do today in American Lutheranism. Maybe not in the beliefs but defiantly the speech and areas of focus.
Post a Comment