Luther on Family, State, and Church

By: Rev. Jack Cascione

On October 31, 2002, we celebrate the 485th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation.

One of Luther's great contributions was the proper relationship between family, state, and church.  In Sixteenth Century Europe the highest authority was the Pope and the Church.  Then came the State including occupations, and then came the family.  Luther said the Bible teaches the reverse order.

First comes the family, then comes the State including occupations, and then comes the church.

The following quotations are from Luther on the family, State, and Church are as profound today as they were in the Sixteenth Century.


In the first place, He has entrusted His Word to parents, as Moses often declares: "Tell your children these things." In the second place, He has given it to the teachers in the church, as Abraham says in Luke 16:29: "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." Where there is a ministry, we should not wait for either an inward or an outward revelation. Otherwise all the orders of society would be confused. Let the clergyman teach in the church, let the civil officer govern the state, and let parents rule the home or the household. These human ministries were established by God.
Therefore we must make use of them and not look for other revelations. LW2:83

One must note, however, that the Lord also speaks to us through human beings.  When parents give orders to their children, the tasks may seem insignificant and unimportant in their outward appearance; yet when the children obey, they are obeying not so much men as God." LW2:271

Thus when the government, by virtue of its office, calls citizens into military service in order to maintain peace and to ward off harm, obedience is shown to God. For the Lord tells us (Rom. 13:1): "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities." But someone will say: "Obedience is dangerous, for I may be killed!" My answer is: "Whether you kill or are killed is immaterial, for you are going as the Lord has told you. It is, therefore, a holy and godly deed even to kill an adversary, provided the government commands it.

You must have the same conviction about the general call, when you are called to the ministry of teaching: you should consider the voice of the community as the voice of God, and obey. LW 2:272

Thus every person surely has a calling.  While attending to it he serves God.  A king serves God when he is at pains to look after and govern his people.  So does the mother of the household when she tends her baby, the father of a household when he gains a livelihood by working, and a pupil when he applies himself diligently to his studies. LW3:128

This life is profitably divided into three orders: (1) life in the home; (2) life in the state; (3) life in the church.   To whatever order you belong-whether you are a husband, an officer of the state, or a teacher of the church-look about you, and see whether you have done full justice to your calling and there is no need of asking to be pardoned for negligence, dissatisfaction, or impatience. But if you have conducted your affairs in such a manner that there is no need of saying: "Forgive us our trespasses," then by all means go out into the desert, and occupy yourself with those showy and difficult works. LW3:217

God has appointed three social classes to which he has given the command not to let sins go unpunished. The first is that of the parents, who should maintain strict discipline in their house when ruling the domestics and the children. The second is the government, for the officers of the state bear the sword for the purpose of coercing the obstinate and remiss by means of their power of discipline. The third is that of the church, which governs by the Word. By this threefold authority God has protected the human race against the devil, the flesh, and the world, to the end that offenses may
not increase but may be cut off. Parents are the children's tutors, as it were. Those who are grown up and are remiss the government curbs through the executioner. In the church those who are obstinate are excommunicated. LW3:279

Accordingly, the three celestial hierarchies about which the asinine sophists prattle so much are nothing else than the life in the household, in the state, and in the church. Those who live outside these three orders live in a self-elected kind of life which, throughout the prophets, God rejects and condemns. LW4:23

Every pastor would have taught the Word of God in his parish; and the church would have felt satisfied with the Word, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, absolution, and solace in death and life. Then everyone would have done his duty in his civil and household activities, whether he was a servant or a master, an officer of the state or a subject. Those monstrous papistic abominations would never have crept into the church. LW4:181


For they are without the Word. For God speaks with us and deals with us through the ministers of the Word, through parents, and through the government, in order that we may not be carried about with any wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14). Children should listen to their parents, citizens to the government, a Christian to the pastor and the ministers of the Word, a pupil to his teacher. LW5:71

For you will be assailed in the household, in the state, and in the church. LW5:143

But the following definition is truer and is complete: "Marriage is the lawful and divine union of one man and one woman. It has been ordained for the purpose of calling upon God, for the preservation and education of offspring, and for the administration of the church and the state." LW5:189

This respect toward the king is memorable, for one must conclude that the state is an ordinance of God, just as marriage and the church are from God, and whatever good is done in those stations is divine and has been obtained from God by the prayers of the godly. LW7:143

We know that there are three estates in this life: the household, the state, and the church. If all men want to neglect these and pursue their own interests and self-chosen ways, who will be a shepherd of souls? Who will baptize, absolve, and console those who are burdened with sins? Who will administer the government or protect the common fabric of human society? Who will educate the young or till the ground? Yet these duties, which have been commanded and approved by God, have been scorned and cast aside in the papacy, and the devil has foisted those monstrous acts of the monks upon men with horrible fury.  LW7:312

Thus God could rule the church through the Holy Spirit without the ministry, but He does not want to do this directly. Therefore He says to Peter: "Feed My sheep (John 21:16). Go, preach, baptize, absolve." In the state He says to the magistrate: "Watch, defend, use the sword, etc." Therefore Paul calls the apostles "fellow workmen with God" (1 Cor. 3:9). To be sure He alone works. But He does so through us.  LW8:94

For there must be ministers of the church to teach the Word. The ministry is necessary; one cannot do without it. Not all can devote themselves to the Holy Scriptures. The requirement of this life demands that there be craftsmen, smiths, and potters, as Sirach 38:24 ff. testifies. Without all these a city is not built. Not all should leave the fields, household management, the helms of states, and the other duties of common life. Therefore certain days have been designated for sacred assemblies. On these days the laity comes together to hear the Word of God. Here indeed the eyes must be red, and the teeth must be white.  LW8:269


October 23, 2002