ABSTRACT
The ‘father of the Reformation’, Martin Luther was a prolific writer and incisive theologian. His work A Treatise on Good Works is linked to his doctrine of Salvation by faith alone (Sola Fide) and the need to explain it and avoid partisan misinterpretations. Luther’s objective was to outline that the essence of good works was faith and to demonstrate it. It is by faithfully performing one’s duties and the commandments of God that a good Christian will be performing ‘Good works’. In the excerpt below, Luther discusses the Commandment ‘Thou shalt honour thy father and thy mother’ and exposes the ways in which the emotions of fear and love are combined in the dutiful reverence of children to their parents and, by extension of the children of the Church to their ecclesiastical superiors. Regarding the following Commandment, ‘Though shalt not kill’, Luther considers the virtue of meekness as a “good work” that works against the passions of anger and revenge.
