Now the welfare of a city does not consist solely in accumulating vast treasures, building mighty walls and magnificent buildings, and producing a goodly supply of guns and armor. Indeed, where such things are plentiful, and reckless fools get control of them, it is so much the worse and the city suffers even greater loss. A city’s best and greatest welfare, safety, and strength consist rather in its having many able, learned, wise, honorable, and well-educated citizens. They can then readily gather, protect, and properly use treasure and all manner of property. – Martin Luther, “To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany that they Establish and Maintain Christian Schools” (1524) – Annotated Luther, vol. 5, page 255
I used this quotation from Martin Luther a few months ago to reflect on the Lutheran understanding of the value of education. Yet it is all too frequently relevant for other reasons. It is a powerful glimpse into what is sometimes called “two realms” thinking. This is the Lutheran understanding of the role of government. The realm of life that government oversees is to provide quality of life for all people. To do this, God has assigned it a clear hierarchy of tasks. Alongside allowing the gospel to be preached, these tasks must be attended to in this order of priority:
1. Protection from one another: People will naturally take advantage of one another and even hurt one another. This is the nature of sin (selfish self-interest). Because of this, the first role of a government is to keep citizens safe from one another.
2. Basic needs are met: none should starve or die for lack of shelter. The poorest in a society must have enough to survive.
3. Quality education and other services: we see this in the quote above. A quality education benefits the whole society; it also enables Christians to understand the Christian message in greater depth
4. Finance: once these other concerns are met, then treasure and wealth can properly be gained, understood, and used effectively for everyone’s benefit.
5. Defense: as can be seen in the quote above, things such as guns, city walls, and other defensive measures can be helpful protections provided that they remain in the service of the other priorities of government.
So long as a government attends to this issues with this hierarchy of importance, it is fulfilling its role for society. If it does this, the church need not address issues of this realm of existence. However, if it does not fulfill this duty or fails to keep the priorities in proper perspective and order, then matters change. The failure to address these concerns is a matter for the church to address. There are two reasons for this:
1. God cares for the welfare of all people, and the need to be concerned with that welfare is a matter of faithfulness to God’s Word. The church must then insist that the welfare of all is attended to.
2. To fail to address these concerns is to push social issues into the realm of spiritual issues and the church’s ability to preach the gospel. People who are frightened or hungry cannot hear the fullness of the message of Christ’s presence with us because they are focused on urgent physical needs. Moreover, people who are overly focused on treasure or weapons are unable to properly hear properly the breadth of the message of the humble outsider Jesus who is the Prince of Peace.
While there are certainly ways that the political and religious situation of 1520s Germany differs from our context today, I think there is great value in the insights Martin Luther had that do still speak to us today, and call on us as the church of today to maintain a public voice when the values of the world around us cause suffering rather than mutual benefit.