18 May 2009

Luther: Intellectual Self-Love

Good words for a pride-prone phd student.

Nothing pleases a man so much as self-love, when he has a passion for his own wisdom. The cupidity of a greedy man is as nothing compared with a man's hearty pleasure in his own ideas. (sermon preached Jan 17, 1546, in LW 51:377)

The devil so rides these people [the "wise" of Matt 11:28] that all they want from the Holy Scriptures and God's Word is a big name and their own praise and honor, and they want to be more than other people. But here we ought to say: Dear heavenly Father, speak thou, I am willing to be a fool and a child and be silent; for if I were to rule with my own understanding, wisdom, and reason, the cart would long since have been stuck in the mire and the ship would long since have been wrecked. (sermon preached Feb 15, 1546, the last sermon he ever preached; in LW 51:388).

I find myself rebuked.

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