Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.  1 Peter 2:12

.....This is now the sense of the Apostle, when he says, Dear brethren, I admonish you as strangers and as pilgrims.  Since, then, you are one with Christ, form one household, and His goods are yours, your injury is His injury, and He takes as His own all that you possess; therefore you are to follow after Him, and conduct yourselves as those who are no more citizens of the world.  For your possessions lie not upon the earth, but in heaven; and though you have already lost all temporal good, you still have Christ, who is more than all else.  The devil is the prince of this world and rules it; his citizens are the people of this world; therefore, since you are not of the world, act as a stranger in an inn, who has not his possessions with him, but procures food, and gives his gold for it.  For here it is only a sojourning, where we cannot tarry, but must travel further.  Therefore we should use worldly blessings no more than is needful for health and appetite, and therewith leave and go to another land.  We are citizens in heaven; on earth we are pilgrims and guests.....
                                                                                                                           Martin Luther

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