As a life-long teacher in the classical Christian movement, I often tell my students that education is not just about job-preparation. Although our culture defines people by their job and calls that their “vocation,” there’s much more to be said about vocation from a theological point of view. One of the most helpful guides here is Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer. Luther came to a radical conclusion about the nature of “vocation,” one that we need to hear today.
As a late medieval man, Luther entered life as a monk because that was the accepted way to submit to God at the deepest level. The life of a monk or nun was called a “vocation,” which comes from the Latin, voco — “I call.” The lifelong commitment to celibacy, prayer, study, and service was viewed as the highest calling. Those who could not pursue this were viewed as second-class Christians. With Luther’s reformational insights about the centrality of faith and the danger of trusting in religious good works, he had to rethink this entire framework. His early tract, The Freedom of a Christian (1520), shows this development.
Christian freedom as paradox
Luther begins with two seemingly paradoxical statements: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all” (Dillenberger, Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings). Luther draws from Paul’s statements about himself and (1 Cor. 9:19; 13:8) and from Paul’s teaching about Jesus (Gal. 4:4; Phil. 2:6-7). Both Paul and Christ were “free” from all men, yet chose to “serve” all men. Luther connects this to our twofold nature. Our spirits are free from all reliance on good works to save us, and also free from the legalistic demands others might place upon us. However, in our bodily life, we must focus primarily on the welfare and benefit of others.
Regarding our spiritual freedom, Luther maintains that the only thing “necessary for the Christian life, righteousness, and freedom” is “the most holy Word of God, the gospel of Christ.”
From the standpoint of salvation, “works” are entirely unnecessary. We must “lay aside all confidence in works” and must trust in the promises of Christ through faith alone. We are “free” from any reliance on works as a basis for our salvation. Luther compares faith to a wedding ring. Drawing on Ephesians 5, where Jesus is described as the husband of the bride (the church), Luther explains that just a husband shares all that he has with his wife, so Christ gives us his holiness, righteousness, and divine life.
Luther has been discussing the “freedom” of a Christian in the “inner man,” in our spiritual lives, especially related to the issue of our redemption. Luther then turns to the “outer man,” and takes up the subject of good works. He recognizes the obvious problem: If we are saved simply through faith alone, then why worry about doing good works?
The first reason to pursue good works is to subdue our sinful desires and grow in self-discipline. Good works are the fruit that grows on a dead tree that has been brought back to life: “Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works.” Luther then turns to what we can call his “theology of vocation.” Although Luther does not use the term “vocation” in this early work, he does express the basic ideas of what he would develop later.
Luther’s theology of vocation
Earlier, Luther had stated that “Christian liberty, our faith” should “not induce us to live in idleness or wickedness but makes the law and works unnecessary for any man’s righteousness and salvation.” So, “Christian liberty” means we are free from depending on our good works for salvation, but this “Christian liberty” also means we are free to serve others in the name of Christ. Luther has what we now call a “holistic” view of life and work: “A man does not live for himself alone in this mortal body to work for it alone, but he lives also for all men on earth; rather, he lives only for others and not for himself.” We practice self-discipline so that we may serve others. Serving others should be the gravitational center for all of our activities: “Therefore he should be guided in all his works by this thought and contemplate this one thing alone, that he may serve and benefit others in all that he does, considering nothing except the need and the advantage of his neighbor.”
Even what we now call “self-care” must be oriented to “other-care”: “This is what makes caring for the body a Christian work, that through its health and comfort we may be able to work, to acquire, and lay by funds with which to aid those who are in need, that in this way the strong member may serve the weaker, and we may be sons of God, each caring for and working for the other, bearing one another’s burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ [Gal. 6:2]. This is a truly Christian life.”
The Christian should pattern their entire life upon the self-emptying and self-giving service of Jesus Christ, as especially described in Philippians 2:1-4. Luther sums it up this way: “Although the Christian is thus free from all works, he ought in this liberty to empty himself, take upon himself the form of a servant, be made in the likeness of men, be found in human form, and to serve, help, and in every way deal with his neighbor as he sees that God through Christ has dealt and still deals with him. This he should do freely, having regard for nothing but divine approval.”
This theological framework provides Luther (and us) with a Christ-centered view of life and work: “Hence, as our heavenly Father has in Christ freely come to our aid, we also ought freely to help our neighbor through our body and its works, and each one should become as it were a Christ to the other so that we may be Christs to one another and Christ may be the same in all, that is, that we may be truly Christians.”
Luther proclaims a startling truth that can help us see a deeper meaning in our daily work: “Who then can comprehend the riches and the glory of the Christian life? It can do all things and has all things and lacks nothing. It is lord over sin, death, and hell, and yet at the same time it serves, ministers, and benefits all men.” This is the essence of being a Christian, of bearing the name of Christ: “Surely we are named after Christ, not because he is absent from us, but because he dwells in us, that is, because we believe in him and are christs one to another and do to our neighbors as Christ does to us.”
This Christo-centric vision for faith and work also affects the broader culture. Since we can rest in Christ alone, that frees us to obey the governing authorities cheerfully and motivates us to seek the common good. In other words, understanding the paradoxical nature of our freedom from sin and our freedom to serve should impact society and contribute to the flourishing of all. All of our work(s) should be focused on either helping us grow in Christ-likeness and sanctification or serving others: “Any work that is not done solely for the purpose of keeping the body under control or of serving one’s neighbor, as long as he asks nothing contrary to God, is not good or Christian.”
Luther’s theology of work and calling is radically other-centered. He exhorts everyone to “‘put on’ his neighbor and so conduct himself toward him as if he himself were in the other’s place” because this is what Christ has done for us. Luther’s conclusion can help us to navigate the complexity of our current culture, with the many strains, tensions, and demands of our work:
A Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor.