neither give nor take anything from you? Who would wish that? But this is precisely what he will do to us, if this is what we do to our neighbor without sufficient cause.
To the third question I reply that all the goods we have are from God and they are not given to us to retain and abuse, but rather to dispense. Therefore when a person retains, when he should not retain, or abuses them, then by this act itself they are no longer his, even if he has them in his power, but rather belong to the Lord, who is God. We, however, are all his servants, etc.
This is one of the introductory sermons to a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments which Luther preached from June, 1516 to February 24, 1517 in the parish church in Wittenberg. (Cf. Fife, op. cit., pp.
232–235). Along with the three following pre-Reformation sermons it breathes the spirit of Luther's "theology of the cross," which he summed up in a statement occurring in a fragment of a sermon on St.
Martin's Day, Nov. 11, 1515: Unum praedica: sapientiam crucis!—"Preach one thing: the wisdom of the cross!" (WA 1, 52).
Text in Latin; WA 1, 63–65.
[The Psalter says], "who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth" [Ps. 113:5–6]. And again: "Though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly; but the haughty he knows from afar" [Ps. 138:6].
How wonderful is this God above all other gods! He sees what is remote and far off; the others, however, see only what is right next to them. He does not recognize what is close to him; they do not recognize what is remote from them, just like the rulers of this world. Therefore it is the true nature of humility to retire far off from God and from all that is God's. On the other hand, it is the true nature of pride to approach as close as possible to God and all that is God's, as Isa. 58 [:2] says of the proud Jews:
"They delight to draw near to God." And both of these things are clearly disclosed in those two men in the Gospel, the Pharisee and the publican. But whatever is to be like God and the being of God, which is life, wisdom, power, righteousness, riches, beauty, and all good, must conform with the rule of the Apostle in Rom. 12 [:16]: "Associate with the lowly"; no matter how humiliating and difficult it may be for the rich man to put himself on the same level with any beggar who comes along, for the virgin to identify herself with a harlot, the chaste woman with an adulteress, the wise man with a fool, the strong man with a weakling, the living person with a dead one, the beautiful with an ugly one, the superior with an inferior one. If you say, I can not do it; very well, then erase this statement: "Who is like unto the Lord our God … who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth!" [Ps. 113:5–6]. How will it ever happen that the proud will do this? My answer is that they will do this only through this one word:
"Take what belongs to you and go" [Matt. 20:14], or through this other saying: "What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?" [I Cor. 4:7].
This drawing away from God and drawing near to God occurs in two ways, that is, inwardly and outwardly, or through acknowledging God and not acknowledging God. Acknowledging God results in drawing away in fear and reverence, and this is humility, in which a man recognizes his own nothingness and leaves all good to God, not daring to claim anything for himself. Not acknowledging God results in drawing away from God in contempt and security, and this is pride. Thus, for example, an utter pauper in the presence of a prince flees into a corner. The one who flees recognizes and reverences the majesty of the prince; but another turns his back and draws far away because he despises the prince.
So, learn here the characteristics of a proud man.
In the first place, he asks nothing of God. He imagines that he has no need of anybody and so he thinks that he does not even need God. He is rather sufficient to himself; for if he felt any lack in himself, he would plead with God and have need of him. If he removes the necessity for God and attributes to him only contingency, he is laying aside his own deficiency and ascribing sufficiency to himself. The truly humble person is the opposite. He despairs of being sufficient of himself. He fervently longs that there be a God and prays for what he lacks; indeed, he gives the glory to God, and so he is justified. But it is a very good thing that the Lord did not pass over in silence the hypocritical words of the proud. For they too