From Luther’s Latin letter fragment dated at the Wartburg, 1 August 1521, which is traditionally identified as written to Philip Melanchthon. This exact English wording is Gottfried G. Krodel’s translation in Luther’s Works, vol. 48 (Fortress Press, 1963), pp. 281–82. We confirmed it in that volume.
“Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly” Martin Luther, letter to Philip Melanchthon, Wartburg, 1 August 1521; trans. Gottfried G. Krodel, Luther’s Works, vol. 48 (Fortress Press, 1963), pp. 281–82. · Verbatim: “Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world.”
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Provenance
The source: a Wartburg letter, 1 August 1521
Work
Letter fragment to Philip Melanchthon, Wartburg, 1 August 1521 (Latin)
Latin text
WA Br 2, 370–372 (“Esto peccator et pecca fortiter, sed fortius fide et gaude in Christo”)
Translation
Gottfried G. Krodel, Luther’s Works, vol. 48: Letters I (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963), pp. 281–82
Note
The letter is a fragment with no address, salutation or signature
If you are a preacher of grace, then preach a true and not a fictitious grace … God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here [in this world] we have to sin. … Pray boldly—you too are a mighty sinner.
Excerpt from the letter
English from Krodel’s translation in Luther’s Works 48. Krodel’s footnotes say the phrase “but believe and” is missing from the manuscript copy and comes from the earliest printed edition. The opening clause before the ellipsis is shortened here.
A close textual study ↗ quotes the same English from LW 48:281–282 next to the Latin at WA Br 2:372, “Esto peccator et pecca fortiter, sed fortius fide et gaude in Christo.”
An independent English translation by Erika Bullmann Flores at Project Wittenberg ↗ gives the same sentence as “Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger.” Wikiquote ↗ lists that version in its main Quotes section.
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Fact-check
Real Luther, often mangled
The source is genuine. What gets distorted is the wording and the meaning: the line is shortened into slogans that cut off the second half about faith.
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Slogan“Love God and sin boldly” Misquote
This couplet is popularly ascribed to Luther. A Gospel Coalition article by Ryan Reeves ↗ traces it to this 1521 letter and argues that the letter’s statement is not “Love God” plus “sin boldly.” The letter itself never says “love God.” Its counterweight is “believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly.”
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Latin tag“Pecca fortiter, sed crede fortius” Shortened
This compressed Latin form circulates, for example in Fr. William Most’s “Luther’s Morals” on EWTN ↗. The letter’s Latin, as quoted with its WA Br 2:372 citation ↗, reads “Esto peccator et pecca fortiter, sed fortius fide et gaude in Christo.”
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MeaningRead as a license to sin Out of context
The editor’s note in Luther’s Works 48 ↗ says passages like this “were misunderstood and used as main arguments against Luther,” who “was interpreted as encouraging laxity and licentiousness.”
✓Luther did write it, in Latin, in a letter fragment from the Wartburg dated 1 August 1521. The popular English is Krodel’s 1963 translation in Luther’s Works vol. 48 ↗.
Context
Why it mattered
Luther wrote the letter while hidden at the Wartburg. It answers questions raised in Wittenberg about clerical and monastic vows, communion in both kinds and the private mass. The “sin boldly” sentence comes in a passage on grace: if grace is real, the sin it forgives must be real too, and God “does not save people who are only fictitious sinners.”
Taken out of that passage, the phrase became a standard charge against Luther, and it is still argued over today. Defenders read it as hyperbole about justification by faith, aimed at a scrupulous colleague. Critics read it as moral license.
God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners.
A note on the text
Luther’s Works 48 notes that the letter is a fragment with no address, salutation or signature, so Melanchthon’s identification as the recipient comes from the editors (it is discussed in WA Br 2). Krodel’s footnotes also record differences between the manuscript copy and the earliest printed edition in this very sentence. One example is “but believe and,” which appears only in the printed edition.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Martin Luther was an Augustinian friar and professor at Wittenberg whose challenge to the papacy began the Protestant Reformation. After the Diet of Worms in 1521 he was hidden at the Wartburg castle, and from there he wrote letters to his Wittenberg colleagues, including Philip Melanchthon. The “sin boldly” letter is one of them. Its central theme is that people are justified by faith in Christ and not by their own works.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Chicago
Martin Luther to Philip Melanchthon, Wartburg, August 1, 1521, in Luther’s Works, vol. 48, Letters I, ed. and trans. Gottfried G. Krodel (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963), 281–82; Latin text in WA Br 2, 370–372.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly’?” Last verified 3 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/be-a-sinner-and-sin-boldly-but-believe-and-rejoice-in/