Life Together
What does it mean to live in community with other Christians? Today, Stephen Nichols explores the wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, offering insights into how believers grow together in grace under God’s Word.
Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes In Church History. Last week we were celebrating our 12th anniversary together, and this week we are returning to our good reads for the summer. And we are going into the middle of the 20th century and a classic text Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. On the very first page, Bonhoeffer writes, “It is not simply to be taken for granted if the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end, all of his disciples deserted him. On the cross, he was utterly alone. He was surrounded by evil doers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So, the Christian belongs not to the seclusion of a cloistered life, but in the thick of foes.” Bonhoeffer says we are in a battle, and we need each other. We need this life together in the community of the church.
Now, first a word about where this book came from. It was written in 1938. It reflects the experiences of the year before as Bonhoeffer was the director of an underground seminary at Finkenwalde. And this was set up, of course, because of the Nazis in Germany. Bonhoeffer had been a professor at the University of Berlin, but when the Nazis came to power, he lost his license to teach. And then of course, the German National Lutheran Church endorsed the Nazi party became known as the Reichskirche. And so Bonhoeffer and others were part of the underground church and the dissenting church, but they still needed to train ministers. And so, they set up the seminary there. The Gestapo found it, they shut it down. The students dispersed among different farms and families in that region, and Bonhoeffer went back home to his parents there in Berlin and did what work he could for the underground church.
It was while he was there in his parents' home up on the second floor, he wrote Life Together. This is a short book. It's a beautiful book. When you know the context, it's an even more beautiful book. But the writing is so good, and the ideas are so insightful. It has only five chapters. The first is “Community,” the second is “The Day with Others,” the third is “The Day Alone,” the fourth is “Ministry,” and the final chapter is “On Confession and Communion.” In “The Day with Others,” he stresses the need for the Word of God to be central. In fact, when he gets to “The Day Alone,” he makes that same emphasis. Whether it's the day with others or the day alone, at the center is the Word, of course, when it's the day with others, it's also the Word and the sacrament, it's the word and communion signifying our common union that we have with one another and in Christ.
In the chapter on ministry, Bonhoeffer lists the different ministries that we have. And what's fascinating to me is that he sort of saves the public ministries, the platform ministries like speaking and preaching. He sort of puts those down at the end and he begins with the Ministry of meekness and how we need to recognize that we are there for the other person and there to serve the other person with the meekness that characterized the life of Christ. And then he moves to the ministry of listening. He says “Christians, especially ministers,” now, he was one so he could say this about himself, “Christians, especially ministers so often think that they must always contribute something when they're in the company of others, that this is the one service they have to render. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking.” He continues, “Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians because these Christians are talking when they should be listening.” So one very important takeaway from Bonhoeffer's little book is the role, the important role of simply listening to each other in this life together.
Well, that's Dietrich Bonhoeffer, his classic text Life Together. I hope you enjoy reading it. And I'm Steve Nichols and thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.
