Martin Luther
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MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY<br />
PROF. M. M. NINAN<br />
They live in this world as if it were the only one, as if there were no God. They take the view that<br />
even if Christianity has anything to say about a future life, it has no relevance to the present.<br />
In the midst of our present existence God lays His mandate upon us, and His mandate is unvarying.<br />
In the final analysis, it is always a ministering love which He requires of us, whatever our station in<br />
this life. In love and service the preacher of the Word must work for the salvation of men through<br />
the Gospel.<br />
In love and service the ruler must administer law and justice, defend the country against attack,<br />
punish the offender. The strict enforcement of this latter might seem to be the antithesis of love but<br />
for all that it is the work of God’s love which the ruler performs for the good of society. If, for the<br />
sake of giving to his conduct the appearance of love, the ruler were to permit law and justice to be<br />
trampled under foot, or to let his country be overrun by an invader, he would be false to the task<br />
entrusted him by God: he would be false to love.<br />
Any use of power for its own sake is serving the devil. Power is a deadly temptation to selfishness<br />
and vainglory, and for that reason<br />
"He who would be a Christian ruler must put away the thought that he would rule and be mighty.<br />
For the mark of judgment is upon all life whose end is self-advancement, and upon all works which<br />
are not done in love. And these are done in love when their end is not the desire or advantage or<br />
honour or comfort of the doer, but the honour and advantage and good of others."<br />
<strong>Luther</strong> himself did not permit any war. He did not support the doctrine of Just War. Later<br />
<strong>Luther</strong>an theologians did propose that to allow military services.<br />
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