The Three Estates

1. The Family

2. The Church

3. The State

The purpose of the family is to bring forth and support physical life. The purpose of the church and the church family is to bring forth and support eternal life. The purpose of the state is to protect life and prevent others from taking someone else's life. An important thing to remember is the state is the third and least important of the estates, though you wouldn't know that during election time because the state has a bit of a Napoleon complex and try to convince everyone it's the most important. If things are going good in the home and going good in the church, the way things go in the state matters much less.

The state can't bring forth life but only gives death in the smallest possible portion. So the purpose of the state is to destroy those who would destroy others. Its authority is the sword, the authority to bring death. The chief thing for the state is the police and the military. That's the sword pointed in, and the sword pointed out to keep order so people can live. The state can't give life. It can only stop people who want to take life. 

An example of this is war. When you go to war, you're pulling the state out of the sheath and bringing violence to another nation because that nation wants to bring even more violence and death to you or others. So you bring a little bit of death to prevent the bigger death. Or say there's some criminal who's assaulting life or assaulting property, or assaulting chastity or whatever, so you bring the sword to bear, and you've taken him to court and put him in jail, so you give him a little death to prevent the bigger death that he wants to cause. That's the goal and purpose of the state.

We should keep this in mind, and Christians should always keep the Ten Commandments in mind when voting, how can I love my neighbor by my vote? How can I support the institutions God has established and God's ordering of the world? The devil always attacks the works of God, and he's always attacking all three estates. We see him attacking the church with false doctrine and whatever. We see him attacking the family by tearing families apart, redefining family, putting husband and wife and setting them against each other, and all this sort of stuff. We see him trying to attack the state by putting tyrants and dictators in office so the state doesn't do its job. 

 A great thing to consider, we know these three estates established by God can't be overthrown, and they will stand because they are instituted by God. Marriage will stand; it doesn't matter if the state wants to redefine marriage because, at the end of the world, when Jesus comes back, there will be marriage. Now a lot of people might be destroyed and the devil banging his head against the walls of the state, church, and family, but you will be safe. Rejoice that the Lord uses your family to give life, your church to give life eternal, and the state to save us and protect us. God be praised for these three estates.

- Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller