The following is my translation of C. F. W. Walther’s sermon for the Epistle Reading for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, Ephesians 4:1–6, as found in his Amerikanisch–Lutherische Epistel Postille (1882), pgs. 401–405. Square brackets indicate my own additions and notes.
Introduction
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and in love. Amen.
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus!
So long as there have been true believers and zealous confessors of the truth, so long the accusation has been made against them again and again that they are enemies of peace and of unity. Already we read in the case of the great prophet of the Old Testament, Elijah, that when his ruler, King Ahab, met with him, Ahab immediately cried out angrily against Elijah, “Are you the one who disturbs Israel?” [1 Kings 18:17]. And we hear the same thing in the time of the New Testament. When Paul, the once great herald of the Gospel, was brought before the court of the Roman governor Felix, then the accusation against him was worded in this way: “We have found this man to be harmful, who stirs up uproar among all the Jews in the entire world.” [Acts 24:5] When we go further into the time of the Apostles, we read that the confessing Christians were not only declared to be enemies of public peace and order by the heathen power-holders, but that Christians were often declared to be disturbers of the peace and unity even by Christians. Thus, among others, Athanasius, the brave confessor and defender of the divinity of Christ, had to spend twenty years in exile because was accused as an enemy of Church peace. Furthermore, three hundred years ago, after a long time of corruption, when the man of God, Luther, once again proclaimed the pure Gospel and openly bore witness against the soul-endangering errors which had crept in, then he also had to bear the shame of being counted everywhere as a disturber of the Christian Church, even among those who wanted to be friends of the Gospel. And what must we, finally, also experience in this our time? We too are accused that we willfully tear apart the body of Jesus Christ and hinder unity to which each Christian is so earnestly admonished in God’s Word, because we do not want to take part in a newly established so-called Evangelical Church Union.
Now, it is certainly true my hearers, that if orthodox Christians were justly accused of being enemies of Christian unity, then it would be a sad case for them. For indeed, the entire Holy Scripture, the Old and the New Testaments, are full of the most earnest admonitions toward peace and unity. For the chief content of the Lord’s high priestly prayer for His Church is this: “I pray not only for them (namely, My disciples) but also for all those who will believe in Me through their word. So that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in Me and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, so that the world believe that You have sent Me.” [John 17:20–21] Therefore, Paul also exhorts Timothy, “Pursue peace with all who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.” [2 Timothy 2:22] Indeed, in the epistle to the Hebrews it says, “Pursue peace toward everyone, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” [Hebrews 12:14] Thus, eternal salvation is denied to all those who do not pursue peace toward everyone.
Nevertheless, my beloved, although it may appear from this as if the orthodox Christians would have to lower their eyes with deep shame under the accusation that they are enemies of peace and unity, yet this is nevertheless nothing other than a mere appearance. The unity which the Lord implored His Father for His Church and to which the holy apostles so earnestly admonish the churches which they founded, is something entirely different than what customarily bears this beautiful name. For even Christ Himself, the eternal Prince of Peace, was accused before Pilate of being a disturber of the peace of the Church. His accusers cried out, “He has stirred up the people by teaching here and there in the entire Jewish land.” [Luke 23:5] But just as little as orthodox Christians are intent upon creating and promoting a false peace, so they demonstrate great zeal for the establishment and promotion of true unity. But wherein this unity consists, that our epistle reading for this Sunday tells us; from now we will seek to learn it. May the God of peace and unity grant us His light and His grace to this end.
Text – Ephesians 4:1–6
Therefore, I, a prisoner in the Lord, admonish you that you walk as is befitting to your call with which you were called, with all humility and meekness, with patience, and bearing with one another in love, and being diligent to maintain the unity in the Spirit through the bond of peace. One body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the single hope of your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father (of us) all, who is over you all, and through you all, and in you all.
Outline
The epistle just read is divided into two parts. In the first part, the holy Apostle Paul admonishes in general that Christians ought to walk as is befitting to their calling with which they have been called, with all humility and meekness and patience. In the second part, he admonishes them in particular that they ought to be diligent to maintain the unity in the Spirit. Now, since the first admonition was already addressed to you on the Sunday before last, therefore let us direct our attention above all to the second part of today’s text. Accordingly, I set before you now:
The true unity of true Christians or of the true Christian Church;
I will show you herein:
- Of what [true unity] consists;
- Upon what [true unity] rests; and finally
- By what means [true unity] is preserved.
I. [What does true unity consist of?]
“Be diligent to maintain the unity in the Spirit through the bond of peace.” These words of our text are frequently declared in our days as a watchword by those who founded or who profess allegiance to a so-called Church Union. They imagine that with these apostolic words, the apostolic divine seal has been clearly stamped upon their union. “Be diligent to maintain the unity in the Spirit through the bond of peace.” These words are often therefore now called out against orthodox Christians who do not want to take part in the newly founded Church Union, and people imagine that these words are rebuking and condemning words for them.
However, just as in our day people deal with many other passages of Scripture, so also they deal with this passage. They do not examine it carefully, and therefore they misunderstand and misuse it.
For what is, properly, the unity which people strive to establish through the so-called Church Union? It is nothing other than an external, bodily, earthly, visible unity. While Christians in their hearts and inner being are believing differently, thinking differently, and are disposed differently, people want to establish a unity that consists in this: that they might carry out certain godly works (for example, the work of missions and Bible distribution), that at least call themselves brothers and sisters (although they are not yet such in the heart), that they have one external Divine Worship together, that they externally appear together at one altar, and that they unite themselves in the acceptance of certain ceremonies. Whoever will not take part in this merely external union, he is declared to be an enemy of Christian unity, and it is said to him, “Have you not read what the holy apostle writes: ‘Be diligent to maintain the unity’?
Nevertheless, my beloved, the holy apostle writes not only this; but says much more: “Be diligent to maintain the unity in the Spirit.” It is therefore, not merely the external unity to which the holy apostle here admonishes, but rather “the unity in the Spirit.” The true unity of true Christians, or of the true Christian Church, consists therefore in an inner unity, in an invisible unity, in a heart-unity, mind-unity, soul-unity, Spirit-unity. Therefore, the apostle immediately continues with the words, “One body and one Spirit, just as you also were called to the single hope of your calling.” The true unity of true Christians or of the Christian Church therefore does not consist in this, that they like dead stones are externally fitted together into a lifeless house, but rather like living members of a living body, which is breathed through and perfused by one Spirit, namely, of the Holy Spirit. That unity of Christians therefore also consists in this, that however different their earthly calling and estate may be, nevertheless they stand in a single calling with regards to heaven, which they all hope for, because it belongs to all of them without distinction. In such unity once stood the first Christian congregation in Jerusalem, of whom it is written, “The multitude of believers was of one heart and one soul.” [Acts 4:32]
Do not allow yourselves therefore to be deceived, my beloved, when, for example, the Roman Church proudly boasts of her unity under the mighty government of her visible head [i.e., the pope], and when she with malicious joy points out the disunity which prevails within so-called Protestantism. Do not allow yourselves to be deceived by the external unity which has been brought about here and there in our days through the Church Union. All of this mere external unity is not that of which the Holy Scripture speaks and to which it so earnestly admonishes. All external unity without inward unity of the Spirit is nothing other than a unity of corpses in the cemetery; however, as much as it glitters before men, yet it is nothing before God; it is an appearance, indeed, in it is a certain sign of spiritual death.
II. [What does true unity rest upon?]
Nevertheless, my beloved, since we have now first briefly seen wherein the true unity of true Christians or the true Christian Church consists, so let us now secondly also seek to know upon which it rests.
The foundation upon which men commonly build the unity of the Church and upon which in particular the unity of the Church of the Union rests is that everyone is allowed to believe as he holds it to be right, that one tolerates the most diverse beliefs in the Church and covers the difference of these beliefs with the mantle of love, that one does not dispute against the false doctrine but rather remains silent even concerning the most obvious corruptions of the Word of God. As proof that this is therefore right, people cite, among other things, the words of our text: “Be diligent to maintain the unity in the Spirit, through the bond of peace.” The bond of peace, however, they say is nothing other than love, the true unity therefore rests upon love. But this is a great error. The apostle does not say “Be diligent” to create or to make, but rather, “to maintain,” that is, to keep and preserve “the unity in the Spirit.” Therefore, according to our text, the true unity cannot be made by the bond of peace, nor by love, nor can rest it upon it. Far from it! Rather, it must already be there beforehand; but if it is already there, then it ought to be maintained and cultivated through the bond of peace and love.
But what true unity really and solely rests upon, this our text says when it goes on further to say: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father (of us) all, who is over you all, and through you all, and in you all.”
Behold, the true unity of true Christians or of the true Christian Church rests upon this, that they confess one Lord, namely, Jesus Christ, that they bear one faith in their hearts; that they are baptized with one baptism and are children of one God and Father. Where this foundation has been laid, there the unity rests upon a true foundation. But where this foundation is lacking — where one person confesses this and the another confesses something else; where one believes this and the another believes that; where one regards baptism as a mere empty ceremony and the other as a means of grace, namely as the washing of regeneration; in short, where there is not one faith and one confession — there all external unity is nothing other than a false unity, a mere appearance-unity, an empty comedy-play, nothing other than smoke and mirrors.
Therefore, just as earnestly as the holy apostles once insisted upon true inward unity, which rests upon one Lord, upon one faith, upon one baptism, upon one God and Father, so on the other hand they earnestly warned Christians of external unity with those who are not of one faith and confession with them. With great earnestness Paul writes, “Do not pull a foreign yoke with unbelievers. For what partnership does righteousness have with unrighteousness? What communion does the light have with the darkness? How does Christ agree with Belial? Or what part does the believer have with the unbeliever? — Therefore, ‘Come out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says the Lord, and ‘touch no unclean thing. Then I will receive you and be your Father and you shall be My sons and daughters,’ says the Almighty Lord.” (2 Corinthians 6[:14–15, 17–18]) Furthermore, the same apostle [Paul] calls out to Titus: “Avoid a heretical man when he has been admonished once and again.” [Titus 3:10] Indeed, in the first chapter of the epistle to the Galatians it says: “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a different gospel than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” [Galatians 1:8] And even the disciple of love himself, John, writes in his second epistle: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, then do not receive him into your house and do not even greet him. For whoever greets him makes himself a partaker in his evil works.” [2 John 10–11]
Far from God commanding us to maintain external unity with those with whom one is not united in faith and confession, it is rather earnestly forbidden in God’s Word and is an abomination before God. When, therefore, Luther once in the year 1529 would not give the hand of brotherhood to the heretic Zwingli, this was no lack of love, but rather faithfulness and obedience toward God and His holy Word. And when we still do not want to take part in the newly-established Church Union, this is not happening out of obstinacy, stubbornness, or hatred of peace and unity, but rather from love for the true unity which alone is pleasing to God, the unity which rests upon one faith and one confession.
III. [By what means is true unity preserved?]
Nevertheless, the question arises: Where this true unity exists, by what means is it preserved and maintained? Let me now answer this question in the third part.
For this purpose, the greatest variety of means have been proposed. Most think that the best means of preserving true unity is this: that one should have a supreme Church court which is to decide and arbitrate all disputes through its final pronouncement and to whose decrees each must unconditionally submit to for the sake of its office. Upon this rests the entire papacy. It is said, “How is it possible that ecclesiastical unity could be preserved if there were not a supreme judge in the Church, a pope together with his councils?” But what has come from this means, this the history of the Church teaches. The external unity has been maintained to some degree in this way, but the true inward unity has been lost.
However, the holy apostle prescribes an entirely different means in our text. He writes therein: “Be diligent to maintain the unity in the Spirit through the bond of peace.” The true means thus, according to the apostle, is “the bond of peace;” but what he understands beneath this we see from what precedes, where the apostle admonishes to humility, meekness, patience, and love. And so it is, my beloved, that when God has granted the unity of the Spirit upon the foundation of the unity of faith and confession, then one may not condemn the other, then one must not way everything among one another on the gold-scale [i.e., judge scrupulously], then one must rather be ready to overlook very much and to make grant allowance for weaknesses and deficiencies and cover them, then one must gladly yield to the other, then no one may seek to make a following for himself. Indeed, in this way and in no other way will the precious jewel of true unity be preserved and maintained.
Conclusion
Well then, my beloved hearers, the faithful God out of great mercy has granted this jewel to us also. For our Church and congregation is built upon the foundation: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism!” So let us then hear the admonition of the apostle in our text: “Be diligent to maintain the unity in the Spirit.” Let us indeed guard ourselves against false unity and false peace, as that of a venomous serpent with glistening, shimmering skin. But let us diligently cultivate the true unity of the Spirit, faith, and confession through mutual demonstration of humility, meekness, patience, and love, in a word, “through the bond of peace.” So shall the God of peace be with us. And when finally this time of dispute and conflict shall pass away, then we shall finally enter into the dwellings of eternal peace, where no battle and no dispute shall disturb our unity any more, where we shall all be perfectly one with the Father, Son, and the Spirit, and will praise and glorify Him with one mouth with all the angels and the elect unto all eternity. Amen.
PATTERN OF SOUND WORDS 