When I was a young pastor in Ontario, I rode the train into Toronto to attend classes at the graduate school of the University of Toronto. Most of the people on the train were regulars, because they commuted into town on a daily basis to work. I got to know one gentleman rather well over the months of my weekly commute. One day he arrived on the return train carrying a paperback copy of Martin Luther's Table Talk, in which Luther was recorded making all manner of off-color statements by his eager students. My fellow commuter wondered how it was possible that this outwardly Christian man could say such outrageous things. Luther is justly famous for the harsh language he launched against his opponents. Luther's harsh language must be understood in two significant ways. First, the European universities of the late medieval period were rough and tumble places in which extremely harsh invective was cast by everyone at any and all opponents. This was standard operating procedure; and was seldom taken seriously by those who flung such mud or those upon whom it was flung. So Luther is hardly unique in this regard. We should not so easily chide Luther based upon our "more pious" understandings of what it is appropriate to come out of our mouths.

 

Second, and more importantly, Luther had a strong sense of the priority of God's Word as the authority in the church. He recognized that if God was speaking, we humans had better be silent ( Rm 3:19), and that if God was to remain God for us, then those who contradict Him must come under condemnation. Those who teach contrary to God's Word are themselves cursing God and condemning His holy people to misbelief. False teaching is exactly the kind of leavening that pays enormous and tragic dividends in the future. The Bible is full of warnings against teaching things that are not in harmony with God's Word and that God's representatives are required to teach the divine truth for the sake of those who hear them. The Apostle says, for example, "Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers" ( 1Ti 4:16). The truthfulness of the teaching is related to the salvation of the preacher and those who listen to him. So this is not a matter that could treated cavalierly. We are required to preach the divine truth because souls are at stake.