Lord of All, Servant of All

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. 1 CORINTHIANS 9:19

In the autumn of 1520, with a papal bull threatening excommunication already on its way to him, Luther wrote the gentlest of his great treatises. The Freedom of a Christian was sent to Pope Leo X with a letter, and it is short, calm and pastoral. It contains no abuse and little controversy. It is simply an explanation of what it means to be a Christian, and it rests on two statements that seem, at first, to contradict each other. A Christian, Luther says in effect, is a free lord over all things, subject to no one; and a Christian is a willing servant of all, subject to everyone. The whole Christian life, he believed, lies in holding both together.

Free in faith

The first statement concerns the inner person, the soul before God. Nothing outward can make the soul righteous or free: not fasting, not holy places, not priestly robes, not religious duties. Only one thing is needed for the Christian life, and that is the Word of God, the gospel of Christ. When the soul believes that Word, it receives everything the Word promises. It is united to Christ as a bride to her husband, and it shares in all He has.

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. JOHN 8:36

That is why the believer is lord of all. Not that he owns the world or commands it, but that nothing in it can harm his standing with God. Sin, death, the law and the devil have no claim on the one who belongs to Christ. Luther says the same in his Pentecost sermon, where he describes how the Spirit teaches the heart to cry out that Christ is Lord over all things, and asks, in the believer’s voice: “My Lord Christ, who takes my part, is lord over all things; what shall harm me?”

For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s. 1 CORINTHIANS 3:21–23

This freedom has a practical side that Luther loved to press. The Christian is free from man-made rules about food, clothing, days and seasons as ways of pleasing God. In his sermon on the appearing of the grace of God he attacks those who make holiness a matter of special garments, special diets and special times, and says of all such things: “In all these things, everyone is given freedom, if only they be used in soberness, or moderation.” Eat, drink and dress with thanks, he says, and guard only against excess.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. GALATIANS 5:1

Servant in love

But a Christian does not live only in his soul. He lives in a body, among other people, and here the second statement comes into play. Because he is already rich in Christ, he has no need to do good works to earn anything. He is therefore free to do them entirely for his neighbour’s sake. Luther’s memorable phrase in The Freedom of a Christian is that each believer should become, as it were, a Christ to his neighbour — giving himself to others as Christ gave Himself to him.

His Christmas sermon puts it in almost the same way. Having received Christ as your own, he says, “it follows that you will do good works by doing to your neighbour as Christ has done to you.” And he sums up the two sides of the Christian life in a few words: “He loves, we believe, thus both are united into one.” Christ loves us, and we receive Him by faith; our neighbour needs us, and we serve him in love.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant. PHILIPPIANS 2:5–7

This love is not vague. Luther is scathing about religious works that help no one: gold in the churches, bells, candles, masses said for the dead, while the poor man lies at the door. In the sermon on the appearing of grace he says simply: “Look to your neighbor. There you will find enough to do, a thousand kind offices to render.” The freedom of faith is not freedom from others. It is freedom for them.

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. ROMANS 13:8

Why both are needed

If we keep only the first statement, freedom becomes selfishness. If we keep only the second, service becomes slavery, a new law by which we try to earn God’s favour. Luther’s genius was to put faith first and love second, in the right order. Because I am free before God, I can serve my neighbour without fear or calculation. Because I serve my neighbour freely, my service is truly love and not a hidden bargain.

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. GALATIANS 5:13

A freedom misunderstood

Within five years of this treatise, many German peasants had taken up the language of Christian freedom and applied it to their bondage under their lords. They asked, among other things, to be freed from serfdom, since Christ had set all men free. Luther answered that they had confused spiritual and bodily freedom: the gospel frees the soul, he said, not the serf. There was truth in his distinction; the gospel is not a political programme. But it is hard not to feel that he drew the line too sharply and too quickly, and that he gave the lords far more benefit of the doubt than the peasants. A love that serves the neighbour cannot be indifferent to the chains on the neighbour’s body. Later Christians, reading Paul’s letter to Philemon, would see further than Luther did here.

The treatise itself remains one of the most beautiful short books in Christian literature. Few pages anywhere set out so simply how grace makes a person free, and how freedom makes a person kind.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. What outward religious habit have you treated as a way of earning God’s favour? Thank Him that in Christ you are free from it, and keep it only if it helps you love.

2. Pray through 1 Corinthians 3:21–23, and name the fears that have no final claim on you because you are Christ’s.

3. Ask, of one relationship in your life: “How can I be a Christ to this person this week?” Then do it.

4. Look for one neighbour whose outward needs you could meet — food, company, help with a burden — and meet it.

5. Consider whether your freedom has become an excuse for selfishness, or your service a hidden bargain with God. Ask Him to set both right.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You have made me free indeed, and nothing in heaven or earth can take from me what You have given.

Thank You that I need not earn Your love, and that all things are mine because I am Yours.

Now make me free to serve, as You took the form of a servant for me.

Let me be to my neighbour what You have been to me, gladly and without calculation, for Your name’s sake. Amen.