Luther: "The more and the longer we preach, the worse matters grow"

Here's a Martin Luther quote from the book, Luther's Own Statements Concerning His Teaching and Its Results: Taken Exclusively from the Earliest and Best Editions of Luther's German and Latin Works (1884), p. 55.

"The more and the longer we preach, the worse matters grow." Walch XII. 2120.

This quote pops up every once in a while. It's typically used by Rome's defenders as proof of the failure of the Reformation (or something like Luther's regret or concession of the failure of the Reformation).

The author, Henry O'Connor, includes this quote under the heading, "Lower State of General Morality."According to O'Connor, this quote proves Luther admitted his preaching made "matters worse." How odd. Luther preached an extraordinary number of sermons and continued to do so after he made this statement. O'Connor's interpretation of Luther is that of a person purposefully and knowingly making the world worse by his preaching! Something doesn't quite add up... so let's take a closer look at this quote.  

Documentation
Luther's Own Statements Concerning His Teaching and Its Results is an old small anthology of Luther quotes peppered with vilifying commentary from O’Connor. The author claims to have compiled the quotes from the original sources: “Nearly two-thirds of the matter contained in this pamphlet is taken from the original editions of Luther’s own Works, as published in Wittenberg, under the very eye of the Reformer of Germany himself”(p. 3) He says “I have taken special care not to quote anything, that would have a different meaning, if read with the full context”(p.5). We'll see though he interpolated this quote to make it say something beyond what Luther actually said.  

The reference "Walch. XII" refers to the twelfth volume in a set of Luther's works published between 1740-1753 by Johann Georg Walch. Page 2120 can be found here (see top of second column, note "XII, 2118-2121" on the top right, not to be confused with the 1645 page number). This is a 1530 sermon on Romans 13:11-14.  It can also be found in WA 32:219. The quote in German is: "Aber je mehr und länger es gepredigt wird, je ärger wirds." It can be found in this paragraph:

There does not appear to be an official English translation of the complete context of this sermon. However, there is an unauthorized English translation of the entire Walch set on the Internet Archive put together using DeepL Translate (utilized below). While a computer-generated translation is obviously inferior, it will at least provide access to the gist of what Luther was preaching.  If you work your way through the entire DeepL translation of the sermon, a clear picture emerges of what Luther's main points are in the sermon, and they're contrary to that sour image created by Rome's defenders.  

Context

(10) And this is the reason why great plagues always come upon the gospel, such as famine, war, pestilence, etc., as St. Paul says of those who abused the sacrament, 1 Cor. 11; then God came among them with pestilence, so that they blasphemed the name of God with their shameful lives. So we do the same, as if it were not a sin against our baptism and against the gospel. Even if we remain silent and despise it, God will not despise it in this way, but will come upon us with war, pestilence and evil time, or will send all three upon us at the same time. But the more and longer it is preached, the worse it becomes. Now that the ban has been lifted, each one does as he pleases; and now that his name is blasphemed, he will blaspheme and desecrate your name again. Therefore let us not so despise his name and word. One can see his sorrow in it. If I did not preach for the love of our Lord God, I would not preach a word; for those who want to be most evangelical despise him, and do with his word as they will. Go in the name of all devils, if you do not want to go in the name of God. Enough has been said for those who need to be told. Therefore give thanks to God that you have the light and know what you should and should not do, and do not be so lukewarm and indolent, but admonish yourselves and strive to adorn this teaching in all things.

Conclusion

A closer look at the context demonstrates Luther's Roman Catholic critics find only what they want in a text: they want to find Luther lamenting the failure of his preaching and the Reformation. What the context actually shows is an example of Christianity 101: exhorting believers to live consistently with the faith they claim to have and a rebuke of those who are double-minded and a call to repentance.

Luther uses this sermon on Romans 13:11-14 as an exhortation to believers to live a godly life; that those who claim to have faith in Christ demonstrate it by the way they live: "Paul wants to prevent trouble and admonishes them to live in a way that is in accordance with the faith, that is, to live outwardly in the way that faith teaches them inwardly" (6). If someone claims to be a Christian, but lives an immoral life, that person is guilty of blaspheming the name of God: "For to live otherwise is to profane the gospel, to blaspheme the word, and to dishonor the name of God" (6). If a person thinks they are getting away with living this sort of double minded life, Luther says, "If you are not punished here, you will certainly be punished there in the hellish fire" (9).

In the context in which the quote occurs (10), Luther explains that Christians living improperly (inconsistent with the Gospel) can bring severe consequences from God in this life. He cites 1 Corinthians 11 for proof, that for those partaking in the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner "God came among them with pestilence." A Christian person living in an unholy way sins against the Gospel and their own baptism, leading to judgment in this life. 

The quote Rome's defenders cite out of context is simply saying: the more the Gospel is preached, the worse God's wrath will be against those that do not live a godly life. Luther concludes of this particular type of double-minded person: "Enough has been said for those who need to be told." Certainly, there have always been (and still are!) the type of double-minded people Luther describes and exhorts.

Notice also, O'Connor translates the German sentence, "The more and the longer we preach, the worse matters grow." However, the sentence literally reads, "the more and longer it is preached, the worse it becomes." O'Connor has made Luther (and his fellow preachers) the subject of the sentence!  Luther (and his fellow preachers) are not the subject of the sentence, the Gospel is. For the Gospel to continually be preached while people live sinful lives, they were bringing greater judgment upon themselves.  

Addendum: The Ban

In the context above, Luther singles out those people that were no longer under "the ban" and were living lives blatantly against Christian morality. I suspect Luther was referring to church discipline in the medieval church ("the ban"). Luther explains elsewhere, "A bishop or pope may exclude someone from this fellowship and forbid it to him because of his sins. This is called putting someone under the ban" (LW 39:8). Around this time in Wittenberg, the ban consisted in denying someone the Lord's Supper if they were found guilty of public sin (LW 50:61; 39:7). In the sermon in question, Luther appears to be chastising those people taking advantage of a lighter form of church discipline than what was occurring under the authority of the papal church: "Now that the ban has been lifted, each one does as he pleases." 

What began as a means of church discipline actually turned into a practice in which people were penalized for not paying their tithe to the church. These people could be denied access to the sacraments, attending marriages, baptisms, funerals, be excommunicated, etc. (see Boehmer's discussion in his Road to Reformation, 223-225). Being placed under the ban by the medieval church could severely complicate one's daily life and livelihood. Luther states, "But the ban goes even further and forbids burial, buying and selling, trading, a certain kind of life and fellowship among men, and finally even (as they say) water and fire" (LW 39:8). As the Reformation progressed, the early Reformers had to restructure the entire concept of church discipline. As Luther stated in 1520, 

Since we have already heard that the sacrament of the holy body of Christ is a sign of the community of all saints, we must now learn what the ban is which is exercised through the power of the spiritual estate in Christendom. For its principal, real function and power is to deprive a sinful Christian of the holy sacrament and to forbid it to him (LW 39:7).