Luther s Large Catechism Ten Commandments Overview What is a catechism? The term catechism comes from a Greek word, katacheo (κατηχεω), which means to report, to tell, to inform. Catechetical instruction is found in Paul s epistles, and by the time of Second Clement (around 150 A.D.) it is used specifically to describe the instructions given to Christian converts. By the middle ages, the word catechism described not only the act of instructing, but also the content or doctrine involved in that teaching, and also the summary of the instruction in a poster or textbook. Since medieval education often proceeded through a method of questioning, catechisms were often written in question-and-answer forms. Why did Luther write the Catechism? The material used the Large Catechism originated as sermons by Martin Luther on the basic texts of Christian teaching. Luther had been on an official series of visits to various country parishes and was disturbed by how poorly trained and educated the clergy were, and, using these sermons as a base, produced the Large Catechism in 1528-1529. It is not for trivial reasons that we constantly treat the catechism and strongly urge others to do the same. For we see to our sorrow that many pastors and preachers are very negligent in this respect and despise both their office and this teaching itself. some because of their great and lofty learning, others because of sheer laziness and gluttony, behave in this matter as if they had nothing to do but live off the fat of the land all their days, as they used to do under the papacy......such shameful gluttons and servants of their bellies would make better swineherds or dogkeepers than spiritual guides and pastors. [Martin Luther s Preface to the Large Catechism, tr. Robert H. Fischer, pg. 2]
The Importance of the Ten Commandments in the Catechism This much is certain: those who know the Ten Commandments perfectly know the entire Scriptures and in all affairs and circumstances are able to counsel, help, comfort, judge, and make decisions in both spiritual and temporal matters. They are qualified to be a judge over all doctrines, walks of life, spirits, legal matters, and everything else in the world. Moreover, what is the whole Psalter but meditation and exercises based upon the First Commandment? Before Luther, a typical medieval catechism included the Lord s Prayer, Creed and Ten Commandments (in that order). The focus of these catechisms was on achieving perfection in order to become more godlike. We participate in our own salvation through our good works and loving acts. The focus is always on the human. Therefore, medieval catechisms follow this order: The Creed regulates faith by showing us what to believe. The Lord s Prayer gives us hope. The Ten Commandments show us how to turn our hope into love. The person is purified by loving, by practicing acts of love, by doing good things. Luther breaks this structure by focusing instead on God s promise... what God has done for us. The question isn t about perfection or imperfection, good or bad, sin and grace. Rather, it is always about whether the person is believing or unbelieving. And the focus is always on God s work in our lives, not our work to reach God. Therefore, Luther s Catechism puts the Ten Commandments first, then the Creed, and then the Lord s Prayer: Ten Commandments help us recognize our illness and sickness, show us how we are alienated from God through sin. More importantly, the commandments show us what we should do. The Creed shows us God s gift to us through creation through Jesus in the Holy Spirit. Now we know this, we can go back and do the Ten Commandments, not because we are trying to go to heaven, but in thanksgiving for what God has done for us. God s promise allows us to see the Ten Commandments not only as law, but also as promise. The Lord s Prayer follows, because since we are human, we are weak, and we pray that God will give, preserve, and increase in us the Ten Commandments and all that stands in our way... all that hinders us. We pray for strength to believe and to do what God asks us to do.
The phrase "Ten Commandments" is generally used to refer to similar passages in Exodus 20:2 17 and Deuteronomy 5:6 21. Exodus 20:2-17 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 1 2 3 4 5 67 8 9 You shall not covet your neighbor s house; You shall not covet your neighbor s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Deuteronomy 5:6-21 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. You shall not murder. Neither shall you commit adultery. Neither shall you steal.
The Ten Commandments of God [as presented in Martin Luther s Large Catechism] 1. You shall have no other gods before me. 2. You shall not take the name of God in vain. 3. You shall keep the Sabbath day holy. 4. You shall honor father and mother. 5. You shall not kill. 6. You shall not commit adultery. 7. You shall not steal. 8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 9. You shall not covet your neighbor s house. 10. You shall not covet his wife, man-servant, maid-servant, cattle or anything that is his. [The Large Catechism of Martin Luther, tr. Robert H. Fischer, Fortress Press, 1959] The first: You are to have no other gods besides me. The second: You are not to take the name of God in vain. The third: You are to hallow the day of rest. The fourth: You are to honor father and mother. The fifth: You are not to kill. The sixth: You are not to commit adultery. The seventh: You are not to steal. The eighth: You are not to bear false witness against your neighbor. The ninth: You are not to covet your neighbor s house. The tenth: You are not to covet his wife, male or female servants, cattle, or whatever is his. [The Book of Concord, ed. Robert Kolb & Timothy Wengert, tr. James Schaaf, Augsburg Fortress, 2000] Although most of us have encountered the the Ten Commandments from a primarily Christian and Jewish perspective, they exist, in differing shapes in forms, in other faith traditions. For example, both Islamic and Samaritan versions exist. What s more, versions vary significantly within Christianity. Lutheran and Roman Catholic versions are very similar. However, Anglican, Reformed, Orthodox and Evangelical versions differ in that they consider the injunction to not make for yourself an idol a separate commandment (the Second), and combine both covet injunctions into the Tenth Commandment (see chart on next page). In fact, the numbering of the commandments was an key point of departure between Luther and rival reformers such as Zwingli and Calvin. These reformers used the prohibition of idols to justify the destruction of religious icons, images, symbols and monuments (such as in defacing religious statues or stripping churches of all artwork and symbols). Luther rejected this notion, instead insisting that the prohibition of idols was an expansion of the First Commandment that applied only to the ancient Israelites. The false idols issue also played an important role in debates and discussions about Holy Communion. Zwingli and others held that to insist that Christ was really present in the bread and wine made the bread and wine an idol, and thus against the commandment. Luther, who didn t consider the prohibition against false idols as a commandment, rejected Zwingli s view and continued to insist on Christ s real presence in Holy Communion.
COMMANDMENT Jewish (Talmudic) Anglican, Reformed, and other Christian Orthodox Lutheran, Catholic I am the Lord your God 1 preface 1 1 You shall have no other gods before me 2 1 You shall not make for yourself an idol 2 2 Do not take the name of the Lord in vain 3 3 3 2 Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy 4 4 4 3 Honor your father and mother 5 5 5 4 You shall not murder/kill 6 6 6 5 You shall not commit adultery 7 7 7 6 You shall not steal 8 8 8 7 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor 9 9 9 8 You shall not covet your neighbor's wife 10 10 10 9 You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor 10 The heart of the matter is the heart. Luther views all of God's commandments in the light of the First Commandment. It is "to illuminate and impart its splendor to all the others. In order that this may be constantly repeated and never forgotten, therefore, you must let these concluding words run through all the commandments, like the clasp or the hoop of a wreath that binds the end to the beginning and holds everything together." [par. 326, pg. 53] However, to say that this commandment is the heart of the matter is not to have said everything, unless one makes clear what this commandment means. In this case, Luther's explanation is one of the most famous in all of his theology. "It is the trust and faith of the heart alone that make both God and an idol." [par. 2, pg. 9] Faith, then, is the heart of the matter for all the commandments. Fearing God's wrath and loving God's mercy are simply more traditional expressions that Luther uses to make the same point. It is about trusting God above all things. [Wengert, Martin Luther and the Ten Commandments in the Large Catechism] Natural Law. Luther insisted that the Old Testament renditions of the Ten Commandments refers to the natural law of God written on all human hearts. Those parts that belonged to the specific situation of the Israelites, such as the prologue ( I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt ) had nothing directly to do with Christians. Luther wrote that the Third Commandment ( You are to keep the Sabbath day holy ) did not apply to Christians literally. We do not keep the Sabbath Day holy -- God s Word makes every day of the week holy for a Christian. So why all this fuss about a Sabbath day, whether it is Saturday or Sunday? Instead, Luther urges the reader to concentrate on the commandment s original purpose not only to provide real rest for tired bodies, but also to give people an opportunity to rest in God s Word. [par. 84, pg. 20]
For Luther, the Ten Commandments were: 1) Natural laws given to all people, not just the Hebrews. They find their full meaning through Jesus Christ, and so are distinguished from Levitical law and Jewish custom. 2) The law in the Ten Commandments is identical with the law of love. They were about serving the neighbor and not about making the person right in their relationship to God. 3) The Commandments are tied to God s work in all creation. This work is all about God creating a trustworthy world. It is through this understanding of God s work, not our own, that we are able to become engaged in the world. We follow the commandments not in order to purify ourselves or makes us right with God, but in celebration and freedom. Faith, which is God s gift in us, sets us free to engage the world out of Thanksgiving with the Ten Commandments as our guide. How Luther Orders the Commandments. As he explains the Ten Commandments, Luther divides them into two main parts: The First, Second, and Third Commandments deal with God s relationship with us. The Fourth through Tenth Commandments deal with our relationships with each other. Two Uses of the Law. One of the themes that is carried throughout Luther s Large Catechism, and particularly his explanation of the Ten Commandments, is how the commandments are law and how that law works on us. The First Use of the Law is a civil use. It provides order in the world, gives society the guidance it needs to support the maintenance of peace and justice in a harsh and imperfect world. The main function of this law it protect from harm all those whom God loves particularly, the most vulnerable. The Second Use of the Law is spiritual. In particular, the Ten Commandments reveal our sin, and confront us with how, and how often, we have broken our relationship with God. The Law forces us to examine the extent to which we are ensnared - both individually and collectively - in sin, through patters of self-serving, exploitation, abuse, and shame. The Second Use of the Law shows us the brokenness of our relationship with God and our inability to do nothing to bring upon our own salvation. Thus, the only thing we can do is trust in God s grace through Jesus Christ. Only God, through Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, can restore our relationship and deliver us from sin. This why Luther begins and ends his discussion of the Ten Commandments with a clear demand for faith. For the fulfillment of these commandments are only in the Work of the Holy Spirit, who through the Word of God gives us faith in Christ, and thus in him, the fulfillment of the commandments.
Law and Gospel vs. Law and Promise. The terms Law and Gospel have been for years held up as complimentary yet opposing terms. The Law convicts us, but the Good News of Jesus Christ (Gospel) restores, redeems us and renews us. However, Luther mentions Law and Promise throughout his writings much more than he does Law and Gospel. For Luther, both the Law (such as the Ten Commandments) and the Promise (that God so loved the world that he sent his only Son to pay for our sins) are Gospel. Both Law and Promise are Good News. For Luther, the Word of God implies both command and promise. In the case of the commandments, every prohibition ( Do not use my name in vain! ) implies that God wants us to put that name to good use ( in every need we are to call on God in prayer, praise and thanksgiving). The commandments are not busy work; they reveal the best that God intends for humanity. How to Use the Ten Commandments. Luther says there is enough in the commandments to practice for a life or more. As we read and study the them, the Holy Spirit is present. Therefore, I beg these lazy-bellies and presumptuous saints, for God s sake, to get it into their heads that they are not really and truly such learned and great doctors as they think. I implore them not to imagine that they have learned these parts of the Catechism perfectly, or at least sufficiently, even though they think they know them ever so well. Even if their knowledge of the Catechism were perfect (though that is impossible in this life), yet it is highly profitable and fruitful daily to read it and make it the subject of meditation and conversation. In such reading, conversation, and meditation the Holy Spirit is present and bestows ever new and greater light and fervor, so that day by day we relish and appreciate the Catechism more greatly. [par. 9, pg. 3] Did you know? The Small and Large Catechisms, along with the Smalcald Articles, are the only parts of the Book of Concord (the definitive confessions of the Lutheran Church) actually penned by Luther.