CONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

CONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTY
in this life except wat I see will be needful, advantageus, and
we for my neighbour, since by faith I abound in all good thgs
in Chrit.
Thus from faith flow forth love and joy in the Lord, and from love a
cheerful, willing, free spirit, disposed to serve our neighbour voluntarily,
without taking any account of gratitude or ingratitude, praise or blame,
gain or loss. Its object is not to lay men under obligations, nor do it
ditinguish between friends and enemi, or look to gratitude or
igratitude, but mt freely and willingly spends itslf and its goods,
whether it loses them through ingratitude, or gains goodw For thus
did its Father, ditributing all things to all m abundantly and freely,
making His sun to rise upon the just and the unjust. Thus, too, the child
do and endures nothing except from the free joy with whi it delights
through Christ in God, the Giver of suc great gifts.
You see, then, that, if we recognize those great and precious gifts, as
Peter says, which have been given to us, love is quikly diffused in our
hearts through the Spirit, and by love we are made free, joyful, allpoerful,
active workers, victors over all our tribulations, servants to our
nighbour, and nevertheless lrds of all things But, for thos who do not
recognise the good thngs given to them through Christ, Christ has been
born in vai; such pers walk by works, and w never attain the taste
and feeling of these great things Therefore just as our nighbour i in
ant, and has need of our abundance, so we to in the sight of God wre
in want, and had need of His mercy. And as our heavely Father has
freely hlped us in Christ, s ought we freely to hep our neighbour by
our body and works, and each sould become to othr a sort of Christ, so
that w may be mutually Christs, and that the same Christ may be in all
f us; that is, that we may be truly Christians.
Who then can cprehend the ri and glory of the Chritian lfe?
It can do all things, has all things, and is in want of nothing; is lrd over
sin, death, and he, and at the same time is the obedient and useful
srvant of all. But alas! it i at this day unknow throughout the world; it
i nither preached nor sought after, so that we are quite ignorant about
our own name, why we are and are called Christians. We are certainly
36