Martin Luther Continues…

No, my dear friends, that is no good. 

Use medicine; take potions which can help you; fumigate house, yard, and street; shun persons and places where your neighbor does not need your presence or has recovered, and act like a man who wants to help put out the burning city. 

What else is the epidemic but a fire which instead of consuming wood and straw devours life and body? 

You ought to think this way. 

“By God’s decree the enemy has sent us poison and deadly offal.  Therefore, I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it.

 I shall avoid persons and places where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.

 If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me, and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. 

If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely, as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God.” 

Mankind has faced plagues for hundreds of years. We should be wiser now than our ancestors were then. We have more medical knowledge. However, it appears that common sense didn’t get any better. 

Do not be one of those Luther speaks of. 

Mask up, wash, clean, sanitize, distance yourself. We are Christians. Live like it!

For more on this topic search out- David Fink March 30:2020

https://villageanglican.church/village-blog-desmos/2020/3/30/martin-luther-on-how-not-to-tempt-god-during-a-plague

Prayer- Lord forgive us where we have failed to be sensible. We ask you hear our prayer. We humble ourselves before you and cling to your promise that you will lift us up. ((from James 4:10, NIV) Amen.

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