Wicked Life Bad; False Doctrine Worse

Preachers should be angels, that is, God’s messengers, and should lead a heavenly life; they should be constantly engaged with the Word of God. Then they are sure not to preach the doctrine of men. It is a very preposterous thing to be God’s messenger and not to deliver His message. . . . And indeed, more depends on the preacher’s message than on his life. If he leads a wicked life, he hates himself; but if he delivers a false message and presents it as God’s message, he misleads and harms everyone who listens to him and creates idolatry among the people. Then they honor lies instead of the truth, men instead of God; then they worship the devil in the place of God.

This is why there is no more terrible plague, calamity, and misfortune on earth than a preacher who does not preach God’s Word. Unfortunately, the world is now full of such preachers. Yet they imagine that they are doing well and are pious. However, they are doing nothing but murdering souls, blaspheming God, and establishing idolatry. It would be far better for them to be robbers, murderers, and the worst rogues; then they would at least know that they are doing wrong.

Martin Luther

What Luther Says, p. 1124

Compiled by Ewald M. Plass

“My Doctrine Is... His That Sent Me”

[Since material and secular things] do not pertain to the soul and the future life and are subject to reason, a man may speak of them at home in whatever way he pleases and may say: This is mine. But in the ministry, where God’s Word is concerned, what Christ says here must obtain: that no one should preach a doctrine unless he has the confidence and conviction that he is not preaching doctrine which is his own...

Well, then, let everybody see  to it that he is sure when he is called on to speak of matters pertaining, not to matters secular but to conscience and salvation, that one may know where to leave his soul when he departs for another life and that every preacher and hearer then can say: I have not invented this doctrine; it is no explanation, interpretation, or teaching of my own; it is His who has sent me.

Everybody in Christendom should be convinced that the ministers, preachers, and teachers, yea, all who deliver the Word, are certain that their message is not their own but are sure that it is God’s Word, or that if they doubt that it is God’s Word, they will be quiet and not open their mouths until they are sure that it is indeed the Word of God. A man is a man and soon dies; his words and all his thoughts die with him, as is written in Ps. 146:4... The word of a mortal man is also mortal. If a man cannot have life eternal through his message and teaching, he should be quiet and hear nothing but the Word of God; for without God’s Word there is no life... for only the Word of God remains forever.

...Therefore a Christian, whether he is preacher or hearer, must be sure that he is speaking or hearing, not his own word but God’s Word; otherwise it would be better if he had never been born, and preacher and hearer together must go to the devil.

Martin Luther

What Luther Says, pp. 1111-1112