PRAYER FROM LUTHER’S PRAYERS: SIXTH SUNDAY

OF EASTER
Lord God, I have indeed transgressed your commandments. I
have been impatient in reverses and trials. I am
unsympathetic and unmerciful. I do not help my neighbor. I
am unable to resist sin. I do not tire of doing wrong. Dear
Lord, pour out your grace to me and give me your Holy Spirit
so that I may be obedient and keep each of your
commandments. Help me to be at odds with the world and to
give my heart and soul to you. Amen.

FROM LUTHER’S SMALL CATECHISM:

The Close of the Ten Commandments:
What then does God say about all these commandments?
God says the following: “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.”

What is this?
God threatens to punish all who break these
commandments. Therefore we are to fear his wrath and not
disobey these commandments. However, God promises
grace and every good thing to all those who keep these
commandments. Therefore we are to love and trust him
and gladly act according to his commands.

O God, from whom all good things come: Lead us by the

inspiration of your Spirit to think those things which are
right, and by your goodness help us to do them; through your
Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
GOSPEL: John 15:9-17
[Jesus said:]: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved
you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you
will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father’s
commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these
things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy
may be complete.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I
have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay
down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you
do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any
longer because the servant does not know what the master is
doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made
known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed
you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father
will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am
giving you these commands so that you may love one
another.”
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN ?
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you;
continue yet in my love.
John xv. 9.
Such is the devil’s desire and delight that he strives for
nothing else but to shatter love among the Christians and to
cause hate and envy. For he well knows that through love
Christendom is built up and restrained.
That is why Christ exhorts us so earnestly that we should
above all things hold fast to love, and mentions both the
Father and Himself as the noblest and most perfect example.
My father (He means to say) loves Me so dearly that he sets
all His power and might in Me. Now He lets Me suffer, but
all that I do and suffer He takes to Himself as if it were done
unto Him, and He will raise Me out of death into life, and
make Me a Lord over all things, and will glorify His divine
majesty in Me. So (says He) love I you. For I do not leave
you in your sins and death, but I give My body and My life
for you, to help you out of them and lay on you My purity,
My sanctity, My dying, and My resurrection, and all things
which I have in My power. Therefore continue ye in My love
towards one another. And though for My sake you are hard
pressed and sorely tempted to fall away from Me, hold fast
and endure; let My love be stronger, greater, and mightier
than the suffering and pain which you feel.
Therefore we should follow this example of Christ and
learn to practice this command among one another, each
according to his ability.
Exposition of John xv. W.A 45. 686 f.
Taken from the book:
Day by Day We Magnify Thee
by Martin Luther
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