Mat 5:21 | Luther | STEP | V.21. Ye have heard that it was said to them of olden time, Thou shall not kill; and whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment. Here he takes up several of the Ten Command merits, to explain them properly, and shows how the Pharisees and Scribes gave no further explanation of them and attached no further significance to them than lies in the mere words, as referring to external gross works. So, in the first place, in this fifth commandment they saw nothing more than the word kill, that means strike dead with the hand; and they let the people stop short with that, as if nothing further were here forbidden, and as if besides a convenient shield were provided, so that they would not be guilty of the killing, though one handed over another person to death. So, when they delivered Christ to the heathen Pilate, they would not defile their hands with blood, that they might continue to be pure and holy; and they were so strict, that they would not even go into the palace of the judge; and yet it was they alone who caused his death, and forced Pilate against his will that he had to kill him. Yet they acted as if they were entirely clean and innocent, so that they even blamed the apostles in regard to it, and said: “You intend to bring this man’s blood upon us;” as though they should say: It was not we, but the heathen, that killed him. So we read about king Saul in . He disliked David, and would gladly have killed him; but as he wanted to be holy, he thought he would not kill him himself, but send him among the Philistines, that he might be killed there, and his hand not be defiled with his blood. See, that is the beautiful Pharisee holiness, that can make itself clean, and stay pious, if it only does not slay with its own hand, although the heart is sticking full of wrath, hatred and envy, and secret evil and murderous designs, and the tongue besides full of cursing and blasphemy; just as is the case with the holiness of our papists, who have become real masters in this business; and, that their holiness may not be rebuked nor they be bound by the words of Christ, they have come handsomely to his assistance, and have deduced twelve counsels from his words, that Christ has not commanded all this as necessary, but has left it at the option of every one to be observed as good advice, whoever wishes to merit something special above others; that it is instruction altogether superfluous, that one can easily dispense with. But if you ask them for what reason they have invented these recommendations, or how they prove them, they say: Why, if one should teach thus that would mean nimis onerativum legis christianae, that is, Christian people would be too heavily burdened; as those at Paris have openly and boldly written against me. Yes, truly, a beautiful reason and a grievous burden, that a Christian should be friendly towards his neighbor, and not let him be in need, as every one wishes to be treated. And because they think it too burdensome, it must not be said to have been commanded, but left at every one’s option to be clone or not as one may choose; but he who cannot or will not do it shall not be burdened with it. Thus we are to twist the mouth of Christ, master his words, and make out of them whatever we please. But he will not allow himself to be deceived in this way, nor will he recall his sentence that he has here pronounced saying: whosoever has not a better piety, shall find heaven shut against him, and be damned, and as follows afterwards, also, he shall be deserving of hell fire who says to his brother, Thou fool; from which we may easily conclude whether it was recommended or commanded. And here they have also discovered a little gloss, to help their lies, and thus they say, it was indeed commanded to refrain from anger and spite in the heart, but not from the tokens of wrath, that is, as we say in German, to forgive, but not to forget, and to have the idea that you will not be angry or do anything bad, and yet withhold all kindness from your neighbor and bestow upon him no good word or token of friendship. Here ask of God himself and Christ, why he did not withhold this kindness from those who crucified him, reviled and most shamefully blasphemed him, but prayed for them and said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, although they were the most shameless villains, who deserved the fiercest wrath and punishment. Yes, if he had been angry at us in that way, who were his enemies and practiced all manner of idolatry and ungodliness, he would have had to stay up there in heaven and not shed his blood and die for us, but say after the manner of this little gloss: I will forgive, indeed, but I will not forget. Meanwhile we should all have continued to be the devil’s own, and no man could have escaped going to hell. In short, it is absolutely a disgraceful, cursed little gloss, and in fact a sin and a shame, that any one in Christendom has dared to teach this, in the face of such a clear and open text; yet they have daubed all their books full of these lies, and are trying now besides brazenfacedly to defend them. But hereby we are to see and recognize our Pharisees and hyprocrites, with their great sanctity, which they profess with many special works, but at the same time without hesitation transgress the commands of God and also teach others to do the same; as Christ here and elsewhere depicts them. It is indeed true, that one must be angry, if those do it whose duty it is, and if the anger does not go farther than to rebuke sin and what is evil; as, when one sees another sin, admonishes and warns him, that he may refrain from it, etc. That is a Christian and brotherly, yes, a fatherly anger. For you see in the case of pious parents, that they do not punish their children in such a way that they mean to do them harm or injury, but that badness may be repressed and evil averted; so also the powers that be are to be wrathful and punish. Here it is indeed right that one should have no anger in his heart, and yet must show signs and tokens of anger, since both the word and the fist are rough and sharp, but the heart remains sweet and friendly and knows of no spite. In short, it is the anger of love that wishes harm to no one, but is a friend of the person, whilst hostile to the sin, as even nature may teach every one. But it will not do to abuse this as a shield, and hide and dress up under it spite and envy in the heart against our neighbor; as those knavish saints do and teach. So Jesus now takes up this command, and means to say this: You have thus heard from the Pharisees how Moses commanded, and of old it was thus taught: Thou shalt not kill, etc. Therewith you tickle yourselves and deck yourselves out, take on airs as those who diligently teach, and observe the laws of God as they are taught from Moses, and were received by them of olden time; you take your stand and insist upon it: There is Moses, he says, Thou shalt not kill. You hold on to that word, and won’t let it mean anything else than just as it sounds in the plainest sense, so that the simple-minded must say: “It is true; that’s the way it stands in the book;” thus you darken the word with your continual bawling and your foul glosses, so that one does not see what the words really contain and mean. For do you think that he is speaking only of the fist where he says: Thou shalt not kill? What does he mean by you? Not only your hand, foot, tongue, or any other single member; but all that you are, body and soul. Just as when I say to any one: You shall not do this; I speak not with the fist, but with the whole person. Yes, even if I should say: Thy fist shall not do it, I mean not the hand alone, but the whole person to whom the hand belongs; for the hand alone would do nothing if the whole body with all its members did not cooperate. Therefore, Thou shalt not kill, is as much as to say: You may find as many ways to kill as you have members of the body, by your hand, tongue, heart, by signs and gestures, by angrily looking at any one, by begrudging him his life, by your eyes or even by your ears — if you don’t like to hear him spoken of, that all means killing. For then your heart and all there is about you is so disposed that you would be glad if he were already dead, and although meanwhile your hand is quiet, your tongue is silent, your eyes and ears are muffled, yet your heart is full of murder and manslaughter.

Matthew 5:21

_V.21. Ye have heard that it was said to them of olden time, Thou shall not kill; and whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment.

Here he takes up several of the Ten Command merits, to explain them properly, and shows how the Pharisees and Scribes gave no further explanation of them and attached no further significance to them than lies in the mere words, as referring to external gross works. So, in the first place, in this fifth commandment they saw nothing more than the word kill, that means strike dead with the hand; and they let the people stop short with that, as if nothing further were here forbidden, and as if besides a convenient shield were provided, so that they would not be guilty of the killing, though one handed over another person to death. So, when they delivered Christ to the heathen Pilate, they would not defile their hands with blood, that they might continue to be pure and holy; and they were so strict, that they would not even go into the palace of the judge; and yet it was they alone who caused his death, and forced Pilate against his will that he had to kill him. Yet they acted as if they were entirely clean and innocent, so that they even blamed the apostles in regard to it, and said: “You intend to bring this man’s blood upon us;” as though they should say:

It was not we, but the heathen, that killed him. So we read about king Saul in 1 Samuel 18:25. He disliked David, and would gladly have killed him; but as he wanted to be holy, he thought he would not kill him himself, but send him among the Philistines, that he might be killed there, and his hand not be defiled with his blood.

See, that is the beautiful Pharisee holiness, that can make itself clean, and stay pious, if it only does not slay with its own hand, although the heart is sticking full of wrath, hatred and envy, and secret evil and murderous designs, and the tongue besides full of cursing and blasphemy; just as is the case with the holiness of our papists, who have become real masters in this business; and, that their holiness may not be rebuked nor they be bound by the words of Christ, they have come handsomely to his assistance, and have deduced twelve counsels from his words, that Christ has not commanded all this as necessary, but has left it at the option of every one to be observed as good advice, whoever wishes to merit something special above others; that it is instruction altogether superfluous, that one can easily dispense with.

But if you ask them for what reason they have invented these recommendations, or how they prove them, they say: Why, if one should teach thus that would mean nimis onerativum legis christianae, that is, Christian people would be too heavily burdened; as those at Paris have openly and boldly written against me. Yes, truly, a beautiful reason and a grievous burden, that a Christian should be friendly towards his neighbor, and not let him be in need, as every one wishes to be treated. And because they think it too burdensome, it must not be said to have been commanded, but left at every one’s option to be clone or not as one may choose; but he who cannot or will not do it shall not be burdened with it. Thus we are to twist the mouth of Christ, master his words, and make out of them whatever we please. But he will not allow himself to be deceived in this way, nor will he recall his sentence that he has here pronounced saying: whosoever has not a better piety, shall find heaven shut against him, and be damned, and as follows afterwards, also, he shall be deserving of hell fire who says to his brother, Thou fool; from which we may easily conclude whether it was recommended or commanded.

And here they have also discovered a little gloss, to help their lies, and thus they say, it was indeed commanded to refrain from anger and spite in the heart, but not from the tokens of wrath, that is, as we say in German, to forgive, but not to forget, and to have the idea that you will not be angry or do anything bad, and yet withhold all kindness from your neighbor and bestow upon him no good word or token of friendship. Here ask of God himself and Christ, why he did not withhold this kindness from those who crucified him, reviled and most shamefully blasphemed him, but prayed for them and said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, although they were the most shameless villains, who deserved the fiercest wrath and punishment. Yes, if he had been angry at us in that way, who were his enemies and practiced all manner of idolatry and ungodliness, he would have had to stay up there in heaven and not shed his blood and die for us, but say after the manner of this little gloss: I will forgive, indeed, but I will not forget. Meanwhile we should all have continued to be the devil’s own, and no man could have escaped going to hell. In short, it is absolutely a disgraceful, cursed little gloss, and in fact a sin and a shame, that any one in Christendom has dared to teach this, in the face of such a clear and open text; yet they have daubed all their books full of these lies, and are trying now besides brazenfacedly to defend them. But hereby we are to see and recognize our Pharisees and hyprocrites, with their great sanctity, which they profess with many special works, but at the same time without hesitation transgress the commands of God and also teach others to do the same; as Christ here and elsewhere depicts them.

It is indeed true, that one must be angry, if those do it whose duty it is, and if the anger does not go farther than to rebuke sin and what is evil; as, when one sees another sin, admonishes and warns him, that he may refrain from it, etc. That is a Christian and brotherly, yes, a fatherly anger. For you see in the case of pious parents, that they do not punish their children in such a way that they mean to do them harm or injury, but that badness may be repressed and evil averted; so also the powers that be are to be wrathful and punish. Here it is indeed right that one should have no anger in his heart, and yet must show signs and tokens of anger, since both the word and the fist are rough and sharp, but the heart remains sweet and friendly and knows of no spite. In short, it is the anger of love that wishes harm to no one, but is a friend of the person, whilst hostile to the sin, as even nature may teach every one. But it will not do to abuse this as a shield, and hide and dress up under it spite and envy in the heart against our neighbor; as those knavish saints do and teach.

So Jesus now takes up this command, and means to say this: You have thus heard from the Pharisees how Moses commanded, and of old it was thus taught: Thou shalt not kill, etc. Therewith you tickle yourselves and deck yourselves out, take on airs as those who diligently teach, and observe the laws of God as they are taught from Moses, and were received by them of olden time; you take your stand and insist upon it: There is Moses, he says, Thou shalt not kill. You hold on to that word, and won’t let it mean anything else than just as it sounds in the plainest sense, so that the simple-minded must say: “It is true; that’s the way it stands in the book;” thus you darken the word with your continual bawling and your foul glosses, so that one does not see what the words really contain and mean. For do you think that he is speaking only of the fist where he says:

Thou shalt not kill? What does he mean by you? Not only your hand, foot, tongue, or any other single member; but all that you are, body and soul.

Just as when I say to any one: You shall not do this; I speak not with the fist, but with the whole person. Yes, even if I should say: Thy fist shall not do it, I mean not the hand alone, but the whole person to whom the hand belongs; for the hand alone would do nothing if the whole body with all its members did not cooperate.

Therefore, Thou shalt not kill, is as much as to say: You may find as many ways to kill as you have members of the body, by your hand, tongue, heart, by signs and gestures, by angrily looking at any one, by begrudging him his life, by your eyes or even by your ears — if you don’t like to hear him spoken of, that all means killing. For then your heart and all there is about you is so disposed that you would be glad if he were already dead, and although meanwhile your hand is quiet, your tongue is silent, your eyes and ears are muffled, yet your heart is full of murder and manslaughter.