The Place of Works2 - by Kathy Walzer

[joseph]

The Place of Works – Serving our Neighbor as Christ
Deacon Kathy Walzer

“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to
all.”

Last time, we began to look at how works fit into the life and freedom
of a Christian – leading us to despair in our efforts and helping us
to rely solely on Christ and his grace given to us through his death
on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension to the
right hand of God. We finish our discussion of the place of works
this week in showing how Christian freedom and faith operate in
serving one another and our neighbors.

Luther said that faith “is the source and substance of all
righteousness.” Through faith we have an abundance of riches in
Christ, having all we need and the surplus is to serve the needs of
our neighbors. From faith flow love and joy which enable us to serve
others freely without concern for their gratitude or ingratitude,
praise or blame, gain or loss, or even whether they are a friend or an
enemy. In the body of Christ, the stronger serves the weaker,
thinking only of the advantage of the other. We have the freedom to
serve others because of the riches of grace that God has poured out
upon us. “We live in Christ through faith and in our neighbor through
love.” The love of Christ has set us free to serve our neighbor.

Cheerful, loving, and willingly service are the fruit of faith, and of
having put on Christ Jesus. Any work not done in faith is neither
good nor Christian. But in faith, we can become as Christ to our
neighbor. Because of God’s mercy to us, we can show compassion and
love to others.

Through faith, we can even submit to the will of others in the freedom
of love, as long as they require nothing contrary to God’s will.
Luther counsels gentleness to those weak in faith and their
understanding of works, until they can be better taught. Likewise, he
counsels firm resistance to those who teach works-righteousness to
others. And to those “for whom nothing can be so well said that will
not spoil it by misunderstanding it”, Luther adds an addendum to his
treatise. For those who rely on ceremonies for their salvation,
Luther counsels patient teaching and admonition. For those who
despise all ceremonies and flaunt their freedom, he reminds them that
we do not despise works, only the false estimation of works (the
mistaken notion that we become righteous through them). We live in
Christ as free people, but to our neighbors as servants of all, for
Christ’s sake.