The greatest and foremost skill—no matter who the person is – is to cling firmly to the Word and conceive of the things of God in no other way than as the Word tells us. For this reason we should accustom ourselves to know nothing about God and Christ apart from the Word. If we have the Word, we ought to stand firmly on it and say, You may want to make Christ a judge or jailer, but his Word states, “Come unto me all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” I am sticking to the Word. We, therefore, should not try to pry into the hidden things concerning Christ’s rule over his kingdom, and so on, but simply adhere to the Word as he deals with us in the preaching of his gospel,
in baptism, absolution, and the Lord’s Supper. Whenever one abandons the Word and speculates without and apart from the Word, reason becomes a very uncertain, slippery thing.
Thus the wise men miscalculated then. The way they think about Christ is that, if he is the King of the Jews, he will occupy the Royal City and castle. And so they head straight for Jerusalem; but when they arrive there, they find that they have erred. What to do? They refer to the Scriptures, according to which the Jews knew that the King of the Jews is not to be born in Jerusalem but in Bethlehem of Judaea, as recorded in the prophet Micah. The Word is a trustworthy star, and it guides them straight to Christ. Without and apart from the Word, they would not have found Christ the King.
Martin Luther Sermons of Martin Luther: The House Postils, v. 1 “Epiphany, First Sermon” (edited by Eugene F. A. Klug) 201