Life Together

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.

We have one another only through Christ, but through Christ we do have one another, wholly, and for all eternity.

We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what he does give us daily.

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.

Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ’s sake.

Spiritual love recognizes the true image of the other person which he has received from Jesus Christ; the image that Jesus Christ himself embodied and would stamp upon all men.

It is not our heart that determines our course, but God’s Word.

There are three purposes for which the Christian needs a definite time when he can be alone during the day: Scripture meditation, prayer, and intercession. All three should have their place in the daily period of meditation.

‘Seek God, not happiness’—this is the fundamental rule of all meditation. If you seek God alone, you will gain happiness: that is its promise.

Self-justification and judging others go together, as justification by grace and serving others go together.

Once a man has experienced the mercy of God in his life he will henceforth aspire only to serve.

If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all.

‘Never think that thou hast made any progress till thou look upon thyself as inferior to all’ (Thomas à Kempis).

Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening. But he who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God too. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there is nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words.

Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by him who is himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and cancelling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps—reading the Bible. When we do that we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that, not our way, but God’s way must be done.

The service of forgiveness is rendered by one to the others daily. It occurs, without words, in the intercessions for one another. And every member of the fellowship, who does not grow weary in this ministry, can depend upon it that this service is also being rendered him by the brethren. He who is bearing others knows that he himself is being borne, and only in this strength can he go on bearing.

Genuine authority knows that all immediacy is especially baneful in matters of authority. Genuine authority realizes that it can exist only in the service of him who alone has authority. Genuine authority knows that it is bound in the strictest sense by the saying of Jesus: ‘One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren’ (Matt. 23.8). The Church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus and the brethren.