Here are a few of the highlights from Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of The Prophet Malachi. These are from volume 18 of Luther’s Works, which you can find here.
- 1.1 The stomach is the greatest idol in every religion.
- 1.2 To be sure, among His own people God always appears weak, caring little for them. Thus He wants our virtue to be hidden in Himself. The weaker we are, so much the more powerful does He want to be in us.
- 1:5 The sign of the presence of God is the presence of the pure Word and the pure use of God’s sacraments.
- 2.7 Certainly God could with His Spirit instruct and justify those whom He would, but it has pleased His wisdom more to instruct and save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching. The Word is the channel through which the Holy Spirit is given. This is a passage against those who hold the spoken Word in contempt. The lips are the public reservoirs of the church. In them alone is kept the Word of God. You see, unless the Word is preached publicly, it slips away. The more it is preached, the more firmly it is retained. Reading it is not as profitable as hearing it, for the live voice teaches, exhorts, defends, and resists the spirit of error. Satan does not care a hoot for the written Word of God, but He flees at the speaking of the Word. You see, this penetrates hearts and leads back those who stray.
- 2.10 “Have we not all one Father, etc.”; and with their unity in the worship of God: “Has not one God created us?” These are also two outstanding statements for correcting the cruelty of husbands, namely, if they look at their wives as God’s creation and as women who have a God in common with them. This is what Peter is saying in 1 Peter 3:7: “Let husbands live considerately with their wives, etc.” Here he also lifts their eyes to God and indicates that they honor God when they honor their wives as God’s creation.
- 2.11 11. [For Judah has profaned] the sanctuary of the Lord, that is, the Law. With a careful eye, then, the prophet takes a look at those who corrupt the Law. You see, as long as the teaching remains pure, there is hope for easily correcting one’s life. The rays of the sun remain pure even when they fall and shine on manure. And God keeps something holy in our midst through which we may be sanctified, even if we have fallen. This is His Word, by which we quickly condemn a sin that has been committed. The Lord magnifies this.
- 3.1 John, therefore, will see to it that the appearance of the way would look beautiful and unencumbered. After all, there are many things which hinder the “way,” that is, the work of the Lord. Those things must be removed, especially human reason, self-love, one’s own wisdom, one’s own righteousness, etc. That preparing, then, is to make humble and to arrange things so as to allow God to work in one. You see, the way of the Lord is where He Himself walks. The prophet mentions nothing about our ways except that we should abstain from them. After all, our works lie in His way, so that Christ cannot work or enter. John told all the Jews and those doing very fine works “Repent!” as if he were speaking to sinners. He is saying: “Let the Lord enter. He Himself will justify you and will do the will of the Lord. Neither you nor your works will do this.” This is what it means to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, etc. Those who believe, then, are those who are prepared to meet the Lord and to receive Him. In them He is able to work, that is, in those who have been brought back to a knowledge of their sins.
- 3.2 The kingdom of Christ is a mystical smelting furnace that purges out the impurity of the old Adam.
- 3.2 Christ is not merely the Purifier but also the purifying Agent. He is not only the Blacksmith but also the Fire; not only the Cleaner but also the Soap. He does not sit indolently at the right hand of His Father. Rather He is always working among us vitally, effectively, and uninterruptedly as He is spread abroad over His mystical body, as fire is applied to metal. So He is elsewhere called Salvation, and not just Savior. That is, He is Salvation itself and the Laboratory of salvation. This is what Christians sense. They have less affection for wealth; they are less afraid of death; they disregard everything secular. The power to do this is the “fire” and the “soap.”
- 3.3 And He will purify the sons of Levi. He is now explaining what that purifying of silver is, namely, the purifying of Holy Writ, for our sake. You see, here is where all the wise men of the world do battle and want to make this obscure. Yet, while their dung keeps smelling, the Word of God always becomes more clear. Finally “their folly will be plain to all.”
- Furthermore, the prophet is indicating that the kingdom of Christ will be totally sacerdotal, and that there will be no distinction or respect of persons. Everyone in this kingdom is Christ’s brother. Through Christ, each can come to God and pray and teach. There will be other, true Levites, namely, purified ones, and the old ones will have been rejected, for they were only purified outwardly but within were wicked and impure.
- And He will refine them. “He will purify, elevate, cleanse them. He will remove the dross of false doctrine to reveal the light of divine truth through the Word by which they themselves will be led. The kingdom of Christ is the exercise of Word and faith because of the perpetual harm of the wicked. Whoever, therefore, wishes to become a Christian must give himself over to being purified.
- 3.4 And the offering … will be pleasing to the Lord. When the persons are pleasant and pleasing, their sacrifices, too, are pleasant and pleasing.
As in the days of old and as in former years, that is, as in the days before the Law had been given. You see, all this has been said in reproach of the Law. After all, hypocrites started when the Law was given. Before the Law, sacrifices were sanctioned through faith. But the same faith, the same Spirit, the same grace which existed in the days before the Law will be in the kingdom of Christ. Faith makes voluntary offerings, while the Law compels them against the will.- 3.7 Return to Me, and I will return to you. These words seem to support the free will of man. They are, however, words of the Law, upon which the ability to obey does not immediately follow. After all, He has already said that they had never kept the Law, even if they were eager to keep it. To be sure, God is a good Lawgiver, but we are lazy doers of it. The Law tells us what we should do. He says, “Return to obey Me, and I will return to you to bless you. I will be your kind Father of mercies.”
- 3.8 Furthermore, He reproaches their behavior no more than their doctrine, because they have been defending their sins, and that is the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit. That is when one cultivates a lie for the sake of piety.
- 3.11 God grants and preserves all things, and He destroys them again when He wishes.
- 3.17 “I will spare,” He indicates that that kingdom would come not without sin. Therefore, it would be a kingdom of grace and forgiveness of sins, a kingdom of sparing.
- 4.2 And [the Sun of righteousness] will rise for you who fear. In the Mosaic kingdom there is pure darkness. All things are hidden in mystery and are confused. Then the wicked will be separated from the righteous by something shining—obviously, by the open truth of God through the Gospel of Christ. Here you see the kingdom of Christ again described in such a way that it is the ministry of the Word. He is saying: “Indeed, a new Sun will shine, and it is not that sun which also animals see. It is the Sun of righteousness, who justifies, who sends out the sort of rays that make men righteous and free from their sins, who drives out every harmful attitude of fleshly lust. Those rays are the Word of the Gospel, which penetrates hearts and is seen as that Sun only by the eyes of the heart, that is, by faith. It is closer to the righteous than is that visible, physical sun. You see, it shines by the Holy Spirit. It shines day and night. Clouds do not hinder it. It is always rising. ‘It will rise for those of you who fear’—who fear the name of God, obviously; that is, the humble, those who are not presumptuous, those who do not trust in their own works but recognize that they are sinners.”
- With healing in His wings. Here you clearly see that we cannot explain this as the Last Day, when judgment will come. But now there will be salvation and protection under the shadow of Christ. Such, then, is the rule of Christ that He Himself is the Mediator and Protector, the way a hen protects her chicks from the hawk. Therefore, let everyone who wants to be safe from the wrath and judgment of God seek refuge under the wings of Christ. This is what the Law urges. Under the Law there is weakness and condemnation; under the wings of Christ, under the Gospel, there is strength and salvation. The Sun rises when the Gospel is preached. One hides under the wings when he believes. Therefore, although you may be a sinner, yet you will be safe when you flee for refuge under His wings. You will not fear death. The lust of the flesh will not overpower you.
You shall go forth like calves leaping from the stall. Here is the fruit of faith and of the kingdom of Christ, a happy conscience, a public confession of faith, thanksgiving, joy in affliction, preaching and the conversion of others to salvation.- Leaping. More accurately: “You shall be poured out, you shall be increased.” This is a property of joy. Sadness, on the other hand, confines. The Christian believes that the world is his. He goes out into the open. He does not head for the corners.
