In The Freedom of a Christian Luther wrote a letter to Pope Leo X in response to his criticism of Luther’s teaching. Luther was “attacking false or unchristian teachings” but he did not attack the pope personally (Tranvik 34). Luther did not like the ungodly teachings from the flatterers whom the pope had allowed into the Roman Church. Luther wants the pope to consider the position the pope is in and perhaps defend the enemy of peace (Tranvik 43). Luther also wants the pope to recognize some of the things the pope was wrong about such as the sale of indulgence and absolute authority of the church. More importantly, Luther wants the pope to perceive and perhaps accept that Luther was right with his teaching which was based on the Scripture. Luther’s purpose for writing the letter to Leo is to explain the good intentions from Luther to the pope prior to sending the short essay - to abstain any conflict (Tranvik 45).
In the short essay, Luther explains the freedom of a Christian by
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The outer being is the one to do good works and serve others. Christians do good works out of love and seek nothing but to serve God and their neighbors (Tranvik 73). This is what makes the outer being servant of all. To do good works, we control our body and “the goal is to have the body obey and conform – not hinder – the inner person and faith” (Tranvik 72). Then, we discipline our body to serve our neighbors. We serve our neighbor without an expectation of reward in return for our service - the work is done in faith and out of pure love. “As our neighbor is in need and lacks the things that make us rich in faith, it is important to keep in mind that we, too, were in need and lacked God’s mercy” (Tranvik 83). We help others as we are being helped by God. We are dependents upon one another. We live in Christ through faith alone and continue to serve our neighbor with love (Tranvik 88). We do good works to please