Ethics

Lutheran ethical teaching has been described as centring on faith active in love, which means that the believer makes moral choices in freedom, without preset rules and laws. Lutheranism has thus eschewed the notion of a specifically Christian ethos but has insisted that the place of ethical endeavour is the common ordinary life, in which Christian believers are called upon to serve their neighbours. This ethical teaching, therefore, emphasized the sacredness of all human activities and maintained that an ethical life should be pursued apart from legalistic rules in what Martin Luther called “Christian freedom.”

In addition, Luther’s teachings (and example) on ecclesiastical marriage would open the door to pastors marrying in the reformed tradition.