1] Of Civil Affairs they teach that lawful civil ordinances are good works of God, and that 2] it is right for Christians to bear civil office, to sit as judges, to judge matters by the Imperial and other existing laws, to award just punishments, to engage in just wars, to serve as soldiers, to make legal contracts, to hold property, to make oath when required by the magistrates, to marry a wife, to be given in marriage.
3] They condemn the Anabaptists who forbid these civil offices to Christians.
4] They condemn also those who do not place evangelical perfection in the fear of God and in faith, but in forsaking civil offices, for 5] the Gospel teaches an eternal righteousness of the heart. Meanwhile, it does not destroy the State or the family, but very much requires that they be preserved as ordinances of God, and that charity be practiced in such 6] ordinances. Therefore, Christians are necessarily bound to obey their own magistrates 7] and laws save only when commanded to sin; for then they ought to obey God rather than men. Acts 5, 29.
A recap: "They" refers to the Lutherans as the confessors stated their position before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
This debate dates back to Augustine. Recall in church history that the Roman government persecuted the Christian church. There arose a belief that, since Christians were now perfect in the blood of Christ, they no longer needed a government over them.
In Augustine's day, the emperor was now Christian. If you recall the debate on "just wars" in this forum, a dilemma for Christians following Constantine's conversion was reconciling previous "dogma" with the emperor's call to bear arms in defense of the empire. Thus Augustine touches on what we today call the "Just War Doctrine." It was actually Thomas Aquinas who defined a "just war" and, since he defined it at the start of the crusades, likely wrote it as a recruitment to get young men to enlist as crusaders.
In Luther's day a similar problem arose. The church and state were so intertwined that the abuses of the church were seen as state abuses as well. And if one didn't need a pope or church authority over them, it was reasoned, then a good Christian had no need of a state authority either.
We can see some modern traits in Luther's day. The fact that Luther mentions marriage (both man and wife—"to marry a wife, to be given in marriage") tells us that some must have advocated marriage as "just a piece of paper." No doubt many sought marriage outside the church, which is an adiaphoron. We see today the broken lives left in the wake of marriage-less unions that dissolve (as well as marriages that dissolve).
