February 13, 2024 — Soul Friendship as a Spiritual Discipline

“The Mutual Conversation and Consolation of Our Brothers and Sisters in Christ” – the fifth means of grace as written by Martin Luther in the Smalcald Articles.

Soul Friendship is “Engaging fellow disciples of Jesus in prayerful conversation or other spiritual practices.”  What is described as prayerful conversation is what Martin Luther stated as one of the means of Grace in the Smalcald Articles (listed above).

Why is mutual conversation and consolation so important for the believer?  It is so important because we need to be in community as the body of Christ. That is why Paul called it the body of Christ. The body is made up of many parts, and each part must work in concert with the others, if the body is to function to the ability that it should and can. As such, the body of Christ is made up of all kinds of people being that there is no one who is denied into the body of Christ.

Therefore, there are all kinds of people who need to be in conversation with one another – because we are all different from one another. We are not all feet – and we are not all elbows. So, if we are to understand one another, we need to talk to one another, pray for one another, and pray and worship with one another. And as Martin Luther states, this is one of the “Means of Grace” – or one of the ways that G-d’s Grace is disseminated within the body of Christ. When we talk with one another, when we pray with one another, when we worship with one another, the Holy Spirit is present because Jesus promised to be where two or three are gathered together.

My friends, we need to always be in conversation with one another, as the body of Christ, so we can work as a community to be the hands and the feet of Christ.

Pastor Dave