Day by Day with Martin Luther

Read: Job 12:1-15:35 1st Corinthians 15:29-58 Proverbs 21:30-31

“Was It Better Before?”

“ For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world”
[Acts 24:5]

This is the reason for the general complaint and cry that the Gospel is causing so much conflict, strife, and disturbance in the world, and that everything is worse since it came than it was before, when things moved along smoothly, when there was no persecution, and when people lived together like good friends and neighbors. So, this is what I say in reply to the idol talkers and grumblers: “things neither can, nor should run peacefully and smoothly. How could things run smoothly, when the devil is a mortal enemy of the Gospel? Do not hope for any peace and quiet so long as Christ and His Gospel are in the midst of the devil’s little kingdom on earth. If things in the Church are too smooth, and there is not a fight to keep the Gospel, then the devil is ruling that place, and not Christ. I am worried that this is taking place in our towns.”