Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Christian Community

Pastor Kenny Stokes, our Lead Pastor for Spreading at Bethlehem Baptist, wrote an excellent article in our weekly church newsletter, The Bethlehem Star. In it, he excerpts quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book Life Together on Christian community. The article adds perspective and encouragement to my earlier post on the duty of a “one-another ministry” as seen in 1 Thessalonians. A few excerpts from the quotes provided by Pastor Stokes will here follow.

• A PRIVILEGE AND GIFT: As a pastor and seminary professor in Nazi Germany, Bonhoeffer realized all too well that “It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians….It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of GOD that any day may be taken away from us…”.
• ONLY THROUGH CHRIST: “…a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ….Without Christ we should not know God, we could not call upon him, nor come to him. But without Christ we also would not know our brother, nor could we come to him. The way is blocked by our own ego. Christ opened up the way to God and to our brother.”
• DISILLUSIONMENT: This especially intrigued me: “Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream….But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and if we are fortunate, with ourselves….Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God’s sight begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it….He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter.” I take him to be stressing that our duty to minister to one another is sometimes a duty to get ourselves dirty in a difficult and not always personally gratifying way. We are called to serve and love not merely enjoy each other’s company only as much as they please us. Secular clubs do no better. Grudges and resentment are to be removed through the power of the Spirit and to the glory of Christ. [I think much more could be thought through on this point, but that must be saved for another time.]
• THANKFULNESS REQUIRED: “Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as a Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.”
• REALITY, NOT AN IDEAL: “Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.”

Pastor Stokes closed with these words: “In view of God’s mercies in Christ (cf. Romans 1-11), informed by the biblical call to love one another, unhindered by the historical and social racial barriers of our day, may we press on — with thankfulness — to love one another more and more in practical new ways in 2006. As Paul urged the church in 1 Thessalonians, I urge you Bethlehem, ‘Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing….But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more…’ (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10, ESV)”

I conclude by pointing out first that this article is available in a pdf format here. And then I want to encourage us with these thoughts to continue embracing our duty to mutual fellowship. Again, please reference this earlier post of mine, regarding the duty of being a Christian brother. I hope these thoughts by Bonhoeffer encourage you as much as they did me.

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7