Exhortation to the Dispersed Children of God

To all the chosen children of God dispersed here and there, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, unknown to me in the flesh, my beloved brothers and fellow believers in the faith: to you be the kingdom and portion of the grace and peace of Christ.

Sincerely beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, I tell you with great joy that some praiseworthy brothers have written to inform me that the merciful, faithful Father has endowed you with the heavenly gift of his divine knowledge and enlightened you with his Holy Spirit; that your faith works by love, your hope is living, and your union with one another is Christian; that your peace is pleasant; and that the church of the Lord is increasing and spreading daily in great power and glory, through the grace of God. For this I thank his fatherly kindness with a joyful heart. And since he has called you through his holy gospel to the fellowship of his beloved Son and to the imperishable, eternal kingdom of his glory, I pray his grace that he may now and from now on preserve you with the great power of his divine arm in your faith, love, doctrine, truth and life, without any offense, to the end. Faithful is he who has called you, and he will undoubtedly do it, if only you continue to be ardent in prayer and unwavering in what you have undertaken, and never become sleepy or slothful, nor in the end turn back, as stubborn, disobedient Israel did, to the flesh pots of Egypt. May the Lord graciously preserve us forever. Since, then, you are called to so high and glorious a grace, as I have said, and we certainly know our weak, vile flesh and the sinful nature we have from Adam, which makes our whole heart and life unclean, and since we also learn from the Scriptures that our opponent the devil goes about like a roaring lion, resting neither day nor night but always seeking how he might devour us, I therefore exhort you, as my fellow fighters against the evil flesh and the tents of death, to keep strict watch over yourselves inwardly and outwardly. Circumcise, teach, purify and sanctify your hearts with the Spirit of God; exhort and reprove one another; curb your thoughts; subdue and extinguish your impure, evil lusts in the fear of the Lord, for blessed are the pure in heart; walk worthy of the Lord and of his gospel, to which you have come. Whatever God has commanded, do it without murmuring. Act so that no one can truthfully complain of you. Be sincere children of God, blameless in this crooked and perverse generation, and shine like beautiful, clear torches in the middle of a dark night in this evil world.

Take the Lord Jesus Christ as your example and follow in his footsteps; walk as he walked. For this Moses and all the prophets preached; for this the Son of God came down from heaven; for this he sent out the holy apostles and instituted baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as the mouth of the Lord commanded, so that by them we may be admonished to awaken, to repent, and to lead a blameless, pious life in all righteousness. “Be holy, for I am holy,” says the Lord. Peter says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light,” First Peter 1, verse 16; First Peter 2, verse 9. You are guests called to the table of the Lord, and you have come to the marriage of the Lamb; you are his chosen friends and bride. Therefore hear his voice willingly, and whatever pleases him, do it cheerfully. Adorn yourselves with the shining garment of white linen; be faithful to death, and beware of all strange gods. Dedicate yourselves wholly to the Lord, so that he may be your Lord and bridegroom, and teach, reprove, govern and lead you with his Holy Spirit and word, and have his perfect work in you. For you are in his grace, and through his grace you are accepted by him, betrothed to him, bought with his precious blood, reconciled to the Father, sanctified as priests and kings, and made heirs of his eternal kingdom. Therefore it is fitting and right that we should be grateful to so kind a Lord for such gifts, hear him, take his word to heart, and do what pleases him well.

Beloved children, do not fear, but be comforted in the Lord. For he is so faithful and pious a King, to whom you have sworn and bowed your knees, that not the least of his promises will fail you. He will be our shield and great reward. Therefore do not doubt or stagger, for it is only a small thing that we endure the heat of the sun, tribulation, fear, sorrow, temptation, robbery, persecution, prison and death for a short time. The messenger is now at the door who will say to us, “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” Then our mourning and passing pain will be changed into unending joy. These tyrants with their bloody decrees will come to an end, and all our persecutors, avengers, executioners and torturers will cease. We will follow the Lamb, dressed in white garments, with palms in our hands and crowns on our heads. Neither torment nor pain nor the pangs of death will harm us, but we will forever exalt, praise and thank, in inexpressible joy and glory, the Lamb who sits on the throne.

See, my children, all truly believing, pious hearts comfort themselves with this approaching change, and by it they possess their souls in patience, knowing well that their reward in heaven is great, and that, on the other hand, all the ungodly will have their portion in the eternal, unquenchable fire, under the unbearable, dreadful sentence of God, in the abyss of hell, unless they are converted and repent with all their hearts. Woe! woe! to these wretched people, for it was an evil day on which they were born! My children, be cheerful in Christ and do not despair. For as long as we sincerely desire God, seek, fear, love, honor and serve him, and walk in the truth with upright, pure zeal, neither world, flesh, tyranny, devil, sin, hell nor death will hinder us; but the victory, which is won by a firm faith in the blood of Christ, will through the grace of God be on our side, and this through the Spirit of Christ who dwells in us. David says, “By my God I have leaped over a wall,” Psalm 18, verse 29. Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.” Christ says, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” And so those who abide in Christ will overcome, as we can see not only in the prophets and apostles but also in many pious hearts at the present day, in great power and clearness.

I have nothing more in particular to write. Therefore take care that you walk wisely and carefully. Keep your wedding garment; have oil in your lamps at all times, so that the Lord does not come upon you at an unexpected hour, find you unprepared and naked, and shut the door on you, or cast you into outer darkness.

With unfeigned, true, brotherly love, and out of a pure heart, love one another sincerely, as those who are born again not of corruptible but of incorruptible seed, through the word of the living God, which abides forever. For love is of God and of a divine nature; it does right before God and man, is long-suffering, compassionate and peaceable, and gives offense to no one. In short, it is blameless and brings forth Christian fruit; it is the spiritual girdle of Aaron and his sons, the girdle of perfection, and the fair bond of peace. O how completely happy is the one who is girded with this bond, for he is born of God, he is in God and God is in him. Indeed, where this love is, there we find the true, sincere and pious Christian. Therefore take care of this bond, for if you lose it, you will lose Christ Jesus and eternal life.

Beware of false doctrine and of all discord, strife and dissension, and hold without wavering to the Spirit, word and example of Christ if you do not want to be deceived. For every spirit that is not satisfied with the Spirit, word and example of Christ, and will not conform to them in its weakness, is not of God but is the spirit of antichrist. It would rob you and all the pious once more of the precious light of revealed truth, which has graciously appeared to us poor children in these abominable days, and would lead you again on the crooked paths of death under the appearance of the Scriptures.

My children in Christ, be warned. I write to you out of true brotherly love. May the merciful, gracious God grant that you read, hear and understand it with such hearts that it bears much fruit among you, and that your fruit abides to eternal life. Pray for your poor, unknown brother, who loves you in truth. He who continues perfect to the end will be saved. The saving power and fruits of the crimson blood of Christ be with you and with all my chosen brothers and sisters to eternity. Amen.