Five Minutes a Day with Luther - 05-25-2013

[Five Minutes with Luther]

FIVE MINUTES A DAY WITH LUTHER

** Now available in book form: http://lcmssermons.com/about5mins.php **


May 25

Gal 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the
flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall
from the Spirit reap eternal life.

* * *

Paul adds a similitude and an allegory. And this general
statement about sowing he applies to the particular matter of
nourishing and maintaining the ministers of the Word, saying:
"the one who sows to the Spirit," etc., that is to say, He that
cherishes the teachers of God's Word, does a spiritual work and
shall reap everlasting life. Here rises a question, whether we
deserve eternal life by good works. For so Paul seems to say so
in this place. But it is very necessary, following the example
of Paul, to exhort the faithful to good works, that is, to
exercise their faith by means of their works. For if faith is
not followed by works, it is manifest that such faith is not
true faith. Therefore the Apostle says: "the one who sows to
the flesh," that is to say, he that gives nothing to the
ministers of God's Word, but only feeds and cares for himself,
that man shall of the flesh reap corruption, for the goods of
the wicked shall waste away, and they themselves also at length
shamefully perish. Although this nourishing the ministers of
the Church is but a corporal thing, yet notwithstanding, Paul
calls it a sowing to the Spirit. On the other hand, when men
greedily scrape together what they can, and seek only their own
gain, he calls it a sowing to the flesh. He declares those who
sow to the Spirit blessed both in this life and in the life to
come; and the others who sow to the flesh, to be both accursed
in this life and in the life to come.

Now then the ceaseless shower
Of Gospel blessings send,
And let the soul-converting power
Thy ministers attend.
On multitudes confer
The heart renewing love,
And by the joy of grace prepare
For fuller joys above.

---
Cuda.
aka Pastor Robin Fish
It isn't whether we win or lose, it is "Do we stand faithfully?"

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