Quote of the Day (Martin Luther, on How a Christian Lives in Christ and in His Neighbor)

“We conclude, therefore, that 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. Yet he always remains in God and in his love….As you see, it is a spiritual and true freedom and makes our hearts free from all sins, laws and commands, as Paul says, 1 Tim 1 [:9]. The law is not laid down for the just. It is more excellent than all other liberty, which is external, as heaven is more excellent than earth. May Christ give us this liberty both to understand and to preserve.”—German theologian Martin Luther (1483-1546), The Freedom of a Christian (1520), in Classics of the Reformation, edited by Kirsten Birkett (2000)