Von der Beharrlichkeit im Guten und Bösen
The Danger of Stagnation
The author contrasts the value of beginning a good path with the vital necessity of remaining on it, while warning against the compounding danger of persisting in evil.
It's good to be becoming; it's even better to remain. It's bad to be becoming; it's even worse to remain. The master of the house holds to that, and so do I.1 The master of the house says: becoming a merchant is good, but staying one is even better. How many a man abandons the game!2 Getting rich is good, but staying rich is even better. How many a man has misfortune scatter in a single day what good fortune barely gathered over many years! Becoming a great man is good, but staying one is even better. Haman was one too—but for how long? Becoming guilty is bad, but remaining so is even worse.3 The wicked man borrows and doesn't pay back. Ps.✦ 37:21. Falling into disgrace is bad; staying there is even worse.4 A good name is as precious as life itself.✦ Whoever loses it is civilly dead.5 I say: becoming a Christian is good; remaining one is even better. Ah, how many have fallen away! Let your first concern be that you become something good; your second, that you may remain the good you've become.
Watchfulness in the Spiritual Life
A call to vigilance against the many enemies of the soul and the fragility of grace, emphasizing that falling away from God is the ultimate tragedy.
There must be care—real care. You're walking a slippery path and carrying your treasure in earthen vessels (1 Cor. 4:7).✦ 4:7—how easily you can slip, break the little jar, and spill the balsam!✦ Ah, how many enemies you have, and how powerful they are! Satan spits fire and tries out his thousand tricks on you.6 The world trips you up with a thousand evil examples.7 Flesh and blood has its little lure-pipe too—one people gladly hear played.8 My advice to you is this: watch and pray. Lose this one thing, and everything is lost. What good is it to me that I've become a Christian if I don't remain one? It's better never to have become one than not to have stayed one. A more bearable judgment will fall on a pagan than on a Christian who has fallen away. So help me, my God, to take care that I keep what I have! I'll say one more thing: becoming godless is bad; staying that way is even worse. Falling away from the highest Good is bad enough as it is.9 Never to be reunited with the highest Good is far worse still.
Restoration and the Refusal of Grace
The author offers compassion for those who stumble, while distinguishing between the act of falling and the hardened refusal to rise again through God's grace.
You've sinned. I have pity for you. To err is human. After all, I'm as near to falling as you are.✦ That I stand is the work of God's hand. I offer you my hand and will pull you back out of the pit you've fallen into. You refuse; I can no longer have pity for you.10 Wanting to remain in sin is devilish. It isn't falling that damns you, but staying down.11 Ah, my God, do not let me fall; and if I do fall, reach out your hand of grace from on high and lift me up again.
Read the original Latin
Werden ist gut, bleiben noch besser. Werden ist bös, bleiben noch böser.
Damit hälts der Hause, ich auch. Der Hause spricht: ein Kaufmann werden ist gut, bleiben noch besser. Wie mancher verläuft das Spiel! Reich werden ist gut, bleiben noch besser. Wie manchem zerstreut das Unglück in einem Tage, was das Glück in vielen Jahren kaum zusammen getragen! Ein großer Mann werden ist gut, bleiben noch besser. Haman wars auch, aber wie lange? - Schuldig werden ist böse, bleiben noch böser.
Der Gottlose borgt und bezahlt nicht Ps. 37, 21. In Unglimpf gerathen ist böse, bleiben noch böser. Ein guter Name ist so köstlich als das Leben. Wer ihn verliert, ist bürgerlich todt. Ich spreche: ein Christ werden ist gut, bleiben noch besser. Ach wie mancher ist abgefallen! Laß deine erste Sorge sein, daß du was gutes werdest; deine andre, daß du bleiben mögest, was du gutes worden bist.
Sorge Sorge muß da sein. Du gehst auf einem schlüpfrigen Wege und trägst deinen Schatz in irdischen Gefäßen 1 Cor. 4, 7; wie leicht magst du gleiten, das Krüglein zerbrechen, den Balsam verschütten! Ach wie viel sind deiner Feinde und wie mächtig sind sie! Satan speit Feur, und versucht an dir seine Tausendkünste. Die Welt ärgert dich mit tausend bösen Exempeln. Fleisch und Blut hat auch sein Lockpfeiflein, das man gern spielen hört. Ich rathe dir, wache und bete.
Dies eine verloren, alles verloren. Was hilfts mir, daß ich ein Christ geworden bin, wenn ich's nicht bleibe? besser nie geworden als nicht geblieben. Ueber einen Heiden wird ein erträglicher Gericht ergehen als über einen abgefallenen Christen. Drum mein Gott hilf mir doch sorgen, daß ich behalte was ich habe! Noch eins sage ich: Gottlos werden ist bös, bleiben noch böser. Von dem höchsten Gut abfallen ist ja bös genug. Mit dem höchsten Gut nimmer wieder vereinigt werden, ist noch viel ärger.
Du hast gesündigt. Ich trage Mitleid mit dir. Fehlen ist menschlich. Bin ich doch dem Fall so nahe als du. Daß ich stehe, macht Gottes Hand. Ich biete dir die Hand und will dich wiederum aus der Grube ziehen, darein du gefallen bist. Du willst nicht, ich kann kein Mitleid länger mit dir tragen. In Sünden verharren wollen ist teuflisch.
Das werden verdammt dich nicht, sondern das bleiben. Ach mein Gott laß mich nicht fallen; und so ich falle, reich mir deine Gnadenhand aus der Höhe, und richte mich wieder auf.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.37.21 — The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous is generous and gives.
- ↩Eccl.7.1;Prov.22.1 — A good name is better than fine oil, and the day of death than the day of one's birth. Prov.22.1 — A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.
- ↩2Cor.4.7 — But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the surpassing power belongs to God and not from us.
- ↩1Cor.4.7 — For who makes you different? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?
- ↩1Cor.10.12 — So let the one who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
Notes
- 1 ↩Early modern 'der Hause' = householder / master of the house (Hausherr), not 'house' as building.
- 2 ↩'verläuft das Spiel' in early modern German can mean deserting the venture/game or letting it run to ruin; rendered as abandoning the game in light of the become/remain pattern.
- 3 ↩'Schuldig' can mean morally guilty or financially indebted. Rendered as 'guilty' for the chapter's moral frame; the following section's borrowing/debt imagery may support 'indebted' as a secondary sense.
- 4 ↩Unglimpf = ill repute / disgrace / loss of honor; rendered as disgrace to keep the social-honor sense of the following sentences about a good name.
- 5 ↩bürgerlich todt means dead in civil/social standing—ruined in reputation and public life—not physical death.
- 6 ↩Tausendkünste: literally 'thousand arts/skills'; rendered as 'thousand tricks' for the devil's many devices without losing the sense of craft and cunning.
- 7 ↩ärgert here carries older religious force of giving Ärgernis (offense/stumbling), not mere annoyance; 'trips you up' keeps that scandal/stumbling sense in plain English.
- 8 ↩Lockpfeiflein: diminutive of Lockpfeife, a decoy/bird-call whistle used to lure; keeps the concrete hunting image rather than flattening to generic 'temptation.'
- 9 ↩höchsten Gut: classical Christian name for God as the supreme Good, not a created good.
- 10 ↩Du willst nicht is bare refusal without an explicit object; rendered as refusal of the offered rescue, which the preceding sentence supplies.
- 11 ↩Early modern German uses bare infinitives as nouns: das Werden (becoming/falling into sin) versus das Bleiben (remaining in it). The contrast continues the chapter's theme of perseverance in good and evil; 'remaining' means staying in sin, not mere physical staying put.
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