Vocation
Introduction
Family
Church
Government
ARTICLE XVI
Political Order
Note: To clearly move away from the Anabaptists and other radical reformers, the Augsburg Confession states very plainly that Lutherans support the role of government. Christians have the freedom and the duty to participate in proper political order. The Lutheran understanding of God’s work in the Church and in the world has come to be known as the doctrine of the two kingdoms. Here Melanchthon articulates the distinction between the kingdom of Christ, which is spiritual and a matter of faith and the righteousness of Christ, and the kingdom of the world. Lutheranism confesses firmly that Christ came to set up no particular external government. God has, can, and will work through a variety of political organizations and forms to enact His will in the world. The Church, as Church, is not to interfere, as Rome clearly and often did, with the rule of the state. Today the Roman Catholic Church no longer makes grand claims of possessing all authority in both the realms of the Church and secular authority. (See also AC XVI.)
53 The adversaries accept Article XVI without exception. In it we have confessed that it is lawful for the Christian to hold public office, sit in judgment, determine matters by the imperial laws and other laws currently in force, set just punishments, engage in just wars, act as a soldier, make legal contracts, hold property, take an oath (when public officials require it), and contract marriage. Finally, we have confessed that legitimate public ordinances are good creations of God and divine ordinances, which a Christian can safely use. 54 This entire topic about the distinction between the spiritual kingdom of Christ and a political kingdom has been explained in the literature of our writers. Christ’s kingdom is spiritual [John 18:36]. This means that the knowledge of God, the fear of God and faith, eternal righteousness, and eternal life begin in the heart. Meanwhile, Christ’s kingdom allows us outwardly to use legitimate political ordinances of every nation in which we live, just as it allows us to use medicine or the art of building, or food, drink, and air. 55 Neither does the Gospel offer new laws about the public state, but commands that we obey present laws, whether they have been framed by heathens or by others. It commands that in this obedience we should exercise love. Carlstadt was crazy to impose on us Moses’ judicial laws. 56 Our theologians have written more fully about these subjects. They have done so because the monks spread many deadly opinions in the Church. They called holding property in common the governance of the Gospel. They said that not holding property, or not acquitting oneself at law, were evangelical counsels. These opinions greatly cloud over the Gospel and the spiritual kingdom and are dangerous to the commonwealth. 57 For the Gospel does not destroy the state or the family, but rather approves them and asks us to obey them as a divine ordinance, not only because of punishment, but also because of conscience.
58 Julian the Apostate, Celsus, and very many others objected to Christians that the Gospel would tear states apart because it forbade legal remedy and taught certain other things ill-suited to political association. Origen, Nazianzus, and others wonderfully worked on these questions. However, they can be easily explained if we keep this in mind: The Gospel does not introduce laws about the public state, but is the forgiveness of sins and the beginning of a new life in the hearts of believers. Besides, the Gospel not only approves outward governments, but also subjects us to them (Romans 13:1). In a similar way we have been necessarily placed under the laws of seasons, the changes of winter and summer, as divine ordinances. 59 The Gospel forbids private remedy. Christ instills this often so that the apostles do not think they should seize the governments from those who held otherwise, just as the Jewish people dreamed about the kingdom of the Messiah. Christ did this so that the apostles might know they should teach that the spiritual kingdom does not change the public state. Therefore, private remedy is prohibited not by advice, but by a command (Matthew 5:39; Romans 12:19). Public remedy, made through the office of the public official, is not condemned, but is commanded and is God’s work, according to Paul (Romans 13). Now the different kinds of public remedy are legal decisions, capital punishment, wars, and military service. 60 Clearly, many writers have thought wrongly about these matters. They were in the error that the Gospel is an outward, new, and monastic form of government. Also, they did not see that the Gospel brings eternal righteousness to hearts, while it outwardly approves the public state.
61 It is also a most empty myth that Christian perfection consists in not holding property. For Christian perfection does not consist in contempt for public ordinances, but in the inclinations of the heart, in great fear of God, and in great faith. Abraham, David, and Daniel, even in great wealth and while exercising public power, were no less perfect than any hermits. 62 But the monks have spread this outward hypocrisy before the eyes of the people. They have done this so that the things in which true perfection exists could not be seen. How they have praised holding property in common, as though it were evangelical! 63 But these praises are very dangerous, especially since they are very different than the Scriptures. Scripture does not command that we hold property in common. The Law of the Ten Commandments, when it says, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15), distinguishes rights of ownership and commands each one to hold what is his own. Clearly Wycliffe was speaking madness when he said that priests were not allowed to hold property. 64 There are countless discussions about contracts. Good consciences can never be satisfied about them unless they know the rule that it is lawful for a Christian to make use of public ordinances and laws. This rule protects consciences. It teaches that contracts are lawful before God just to the extent that the public officials or laws approve them.
Wise King Solomon
65 This entire topic about public affairs has been clearly set forth by our theologians. Very many good people working in the state and in business have declared that they have been greatly benefited by it. Before, troubled by the opinion of the monks, they doubted whether the Gospel allowed these public offices and business. As a result, we have repeated these things so that outsiders may also understand that the doctrine we follow does not wreck the authority of magistrates and the dignity of all public ordinances. Rather, they are strengthened even more. Previously the importance of these matters was greatly clouded over by those silly monastic opinions. They preferred the hypocrisy of poverty and humility to the state and the family. The latter have God’s command, while this Platonic community ‹monasticism› does not.