6th Sunday after Trinity - Devotion in semi-Exile

Lection for 6th Sunday after Trinity 
1 Samuel 2:18-36      Acts 15:22-41

It is my hope and prayer that you are enjoying this excursion into Luther’s Large Catechism. Today we continue the “first part” on the Ten Commandments, specifically, the “The Ninth and Tenth Commandments.”

OK, read what Luther says.

          [First Part:] The Ten Commandments

The Ninth and Tenth Commandments

292 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.”

“You shall not covet his wife, man-servant, maid-servant, cattle, or anything that is his.”

293 These two commandments, taken literally, were given exclusively to the Jews; nevertheless, in part they also apply to us. The Jews did not interpret them as referring to unchastity or theft, since these vices were sufficiently forbidden in commandments above. They thought they were keeping the commandments when they obeyed the injunctions and prohibitions contained in them. God therefore added these two commandments to teach them that it is sinful and forbidden to covet our neighbor’s wife or property, or to have any designs on them. 294 Especially were these commandments needed because under the Jewish government man-servants and maid-servants were not free, as now, to serve for wages according to their own choice; with their body and all they had they were their master’s property, the same as his cattle and other possessions. 295 Moreover, every man had power to dismiss his wife publicly by giving her a bill of divorce and to take another wife. So there was a danger among them that if anyone took a fancy to another’s wife, he might on any flimsy excuse dismiss his own wife and estrange the other’s from him so that he might legally take her. They considered this no more a sin or disgrace than it is now for a master to dismiss his servants or entice his neighbor’s from him.

296 Therefore, I say, they interpreted these commandments correctly (though they also have a broader and higher application) to forbid anyone, even with a specious pretext, to covet or scheme to despoil his neighbor of what belongs to him, such as his wife, servants, house, fields, meadows, or cattle. Above, the seventh commandment prohibits seizing or withholding another’s possessions to which you have no right. But here it is also forbidden to entice anything away from your neighbor, even though in the eyes of the world you could do it honorably, without accusation or blame for fraudulent dealing.

297 Such is nature that we all begrudge another’s having as much as we have. Everyone acquires all he can and lets others look out for themselves. 298 Yet we all pretend to be upright. We know how to put up a fine front to conceal our rascality. We think up artful dodges and sly tricks (better and better ones are being devised daily) under the guise of justice. We brazenly dare to boast of it, and insist that it should be called not rascality but shrewdness and business acumen. 299 In this we are abetted by jurists and lawyers who twist and stretch the law to suit their purpose, straining words and using them for pretexts, without regard for equity or for our neighbor’s plight. In short, whoever is sharpest and shrewdest in such affairs gets most advantage out of the law, for as the saying has it, “The law favors the vigilant.” 300 This last commandment, then, is addressed not to those whom the world considers wicked rogues, but precisely to the most upright — to people who wish to be commended as honest and virtuous because they have not offended against the preceding commandments. To this class the Jews especially claimed to belong, as many great nobles, lords, and princes do now. For the common masses belong much farther down in the scale, where the Seventh Commandment applies, since they are not much concerned about questions of honor and right when it comes to acquiring possessions.

301 This situation occurs most frequently in lawsuits in which someone sets out to gain and squeeze something out of his neighbor. For example, when people wrangle and wrestle over a large inheritance, real estate, etc., they resort to whatever arguments have the least semblance of right, so varnishing and garnishing them that the law supports them, and they gain such secure title to the property as to put it beyond complaint or dispute. 302 Similarly, if anyone covets a castle, city, county, or other great estate, he practices bribery, through friendly connections and by any other means at his disposal, until the property is taken away from the owner and legally awarded to him with letters patent and the seal of the prince attesting that it was acquired lawfully.

303 The same thing happens in ordinary business affairs, where one cunningly slips something out of another’s hand so that the victim is helpless to prevent it. Or, seeing an opportunity for profit — let us say, when a man because of adversity or debt cannot hold on to his property, nor yet sell it without loss — he hurries and worries him until he acquires a half or more of it; and yet this must not be considered as illegally acquired, but rather as honestly purchased. Hence the sayings, “First come, first served,” and “Every man must look out for himself while others shift for themselves.” 304 Who is ingenious enough to imagine how much he can acquire by such specious pretexts? The world does not consider this wrong, and it does not see that the neighbor is being taken advantage of and forced to sacrifice what he cannot spare without injury. Yet no one wishes this to happen to himself. From this it is clear that all these pretexts and shams are false.

305 This was also the case in ancient times with respect to wives. They knew tricks like this: If a man took a fancy to another woman, he managed, either personally or through others and by any of a number of ways, to make her husband displeased with her, or she became so disobedient and hard to live with that her husband was obliged to dismiss her and leave her to the other man. That sort of thing undoubtedly was quite prevalent in the time of the law, for we read even in the Gospel that King Herod took his brother’s wife while the latter was still living, and yet posed as an honorable, upright man, as St. Mark testifies. 306 Such examples, I trust, will not be found among us, except that someone may by trickery entice a rich bride away from another, for in the New Testament married people are forbidden to be divorced. But it is not uncommon among us for a person to lure away another’s man-servant or maid-servant or otherwise estrange them with fair words.

307 However these things may be, you must learn that God does not wish you to deprive your neighbor of anything that is his, letting him suffer loss while you gratify your greed, even though in the eyes of the world you might honorably retain the property. To do so is dark and underhanded wickedness, and, as we say, it is all done “under the hat” so as to escape detection. Although you may act as if you have wronged no one, you have trespassed on your neighbor’s rights. It may not be called stealing or fraud, yet it is coveting — that is, having designs upon your neighbor’s property, luring it away from him against his will, and begrudging what God gave him. 308 The judge and the public may have to leave you in possession of it, but God will not, for he sees your wicked heart and the deceitfulness of the world. If you give the world an inch, it will take a yard, and at length open injustice and violence follow.

309 Let these commandments therefore retain their general application. We are commanded not to desire harm to our neighbor, nor become accessory to it, nor give occasion for it; we are willingly to leave him what is his, and promote and protect whatever may be profitable and serviceable to him, as we wish that he would do to us. 310 Thus these commandments are directed especially against envy and miserable covetousness, God’s purpose being to destroy all the roots and causes of our injuries to our neighbors. Therefore he sets it forth in plain words: “You shall not covet,” etc. Above all, he wants our hearts to be pure, even though as long as we live here we cannot reach that ideal. So this commandment remains, like all the rest, one that constantly accuses us and shows just how upright we really are in God’s sight.