Bonhoeffer
writes that the community of saints “implies three things.” A clear separation
from the world. Holy conduct. The hidden work of sanctification “waiting for
the day of Jesus Christ” (page 243).
On pages 245 –
257 he explores “holy conduct” by considering, citing, and referring to approximately
89 Scriptures. Once again, we witness Bonhoeffer’s orientation to the Bible and
his desire that our faith in Jesus Christ and relationships with one another be
grounded in God’s Word.
We, the saints,
are called to live lives worthy of our calling (Eph. 4:1; Phil. 1:27; Col.
1:10; 1 Thess. 2:12). We are to daily remind ourselves that we’ve been “washed,
sanctified, and justified” (1 Cor. 6:11); this reminder facilitates the work of
sanctification. We have been crucified and died with Christ on the Cross and
the power of sin has been broken.
At the top of
page 246 we read, “Christians must therefore no longer be called “sinners,”
provided sinners are understood as those who live subject to the power of sin.”
“Rather,
Christians were once sinners, godless, enemies of Christ (Rom. 5:8, 10; and
Gal. 2:15, 17). But now they are saints for the sake of Christ. As saints,
they are reminded and admonished to be what they are (page 246, italics
mine).
Bonhoeffer makes
a statement that some may find curious, “They [the saints] are not required in
their sinful state to be holy. That would be an impossibility, a complete relapse
into the attempt to earn salvation by works and thus be blasphemy against
Christ. Instead, the saints are called to be holy. For they are sanctified in
Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit” (page 246).
As we will see,
Bonhoeffer will deal deeply with sin in the life of the saint and in the holy
church-community, so we ought not to misunderstand him by thinking for a moment
that he ignores sin, in fact, by highlighting the fact that in Christ we are
saints, he highlights the heinousness of sin in our lives.
Sin is what we
expect in a sinner, it is not what we ought to expect in a saint. Sin is what
we expect in the world, it is not what we ought to expect in God’s holy realm
of the visible church-community.
Our identity as
saints in Christ, and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, is all because of
the work of Jesus Christ – we are called, justified, sanctified, and glorified
in Him – we have nothing to boast of other than the Christ of the Cross and the
Cross of Christ. We must live by His Life and by no other life (John 15:1ff;
Gal. 2:20).
“The dark works
of the flesh are completely brought into the open by the bright light of life
in the Spirit: “adultery, fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery,
enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, hatred,
murder, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these” (Gal. 5:19 – 21). All
these no longer have any place in the community Christ” (page 246).
Bonhoeffer notes
that the lists of sins in the New Testament are similar, usually beginning with
fornication, followed by greed (which is often combined with impurity and
idolatry), followed by “the sins against love for brothers and sisters, and
finally the sin of excessive self-indulgence” (pages 246 – 247).
Fornication “is
the recurrence of Adam’s sin” (p. 247). It is the transgression of “the boundaries
God has set for us, and in which we abuse God’s creatures” (p. 247).
“Fornication is
first and foremost a sin against God the Creator. For a Christian, however, it
is also a particularly flagrant way of sinning against the body of Christ. It
belongs to Christ alone…Being in community with the tortured and transfigured
body of Christ liberates Christians from disorderliness in matters of bodily
life…With discipline and chastity Christians use their bodies exclusively to
serve and to build up the body of Christ” (pages 247 – 248).
There is a sense
in which fornication became a way of life for Israel, a way that was coupled
with idolatry. Bonhoeffer points this out on page 247 as he cites 1 Cor. 10:7 –
8. Has fornication become a way of life for the professing church today?
We live in a
society in which we view our bodies and minds as things we can do with as we please,
alter as we please, and we have imported this thinking and behavior into the
professing church. We cannot separate fornication from idolatry anymore than
ancient Israel could, idolatry has many forms and one of them is promiscuity.
Jesus says to
the church in Pergamum, “But I have a few things against you, because you have
there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling
block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to
commit acts of immorality” (Rev. 2:14).
To the church in
Thyatira He says, “But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman
Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond
servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things
sacrificed to idols” (Rev. 2:20).
Just as
fornication has many forms, so does eating things sacrificed to idols. If we
consider that greed, the lust for power, self-indulgence, hatred, and anger are
idols, then when we eat these things, when we bring these things into our
hearts and minds and souls, we are partaking of the food of demonic idols. We
can either eat the flesh and drink the blood of our dear Lord Jesus, the Lamb
of God, or we can partake of idols. Which will it be?
Bonhoeffer tells
us that “Greed is related to fornication. An insatiable desire is what they both
have in common, and it is what lets the greedy person become enslaved to the
world” (page 248).
O dear friends,
our hearts and souls and minds and bodies are to belong to Jesus and to Jesus
alone. “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; I betrothed you to one
husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am
afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be
led away from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2 –
3).
Is not something
amiss when we have popular “Christian” teachers who teach us the way of greed,
with overt or covert prosperity gospels? Ought we not to pause and consider when
“Christian” leaders entice us to align ourselves with political agendas
permeated with uncleanness, profanity, injustice, vitriol, fornication, anger –
no matter where on the political spectrum they are found?
A pastor friend
recently asked me what I thought about pastors who use profanity in their writing
and teaching and who encourage their congregations to do so. What bothered me
about his question was that he would even ask me what I thought. What bothered
me was that he hadn’t apparently decided what he thought. What bothered me was
that he was wasting my time.
Now you may
think me a bit harsh…but who has time for the evil in the world and the professing
church? What I mean is that we called to have our eyes on Jesus and to proclaim
Him, otherwise we will be engulfed in news and social media and in stupid
religious practices that suck our energy and distract us from helping those who
truly need help in Christ. We can spend the rest of our lives playing whack-a-mole
with evil and in speculation when we ought to be about living lives faithful to
our one spouse…Jesus Christ.
Another pastor
recently recommended a book he is reading by a pastor. I downloaded a sample on
my Kindle and deleted the sample after reading only a few pages – why the
profanity? What is holy about this? How is Jesus being reverenced and exalted?
How are God’s people being taught to be His holy People? This book is a bestseller.
Have we lost our minds and our moral and ethical and spiritual compass? Yes, we
have.
Dear friends, we
ought not to be ashamed of refusing to watch or read filth. We ought not to be
ashamed to be experientially uninformed about fornication, promiscuity, greed,
hatred, and other ways of darkness and evil. When I download books from the library
to read, I return more than I keep due to content – the content may include violence,
foul language, fornication, or other subject matter. The point is that I am
married to Jesus Christ, He has purchased me by His blood, and I am not going
to pollute myself, His temple, with evil. Furthermore, if I pollute myself with
evil, I will be polluting my marriage, my friendships, and the Body of Christ
to which I belong.
Vickie and I
enjoy sports, but we will turn a game off if the content of the advertisements is
evil (yes, there is evil in some form in most advertising and we ought to be
able to see it – it appeals to our greed, our self-indulgence, and it destroys
language – a gift from God).
There is nothing
worth polluting our souls with evil for, there is no justification for
fornication…and let us make no mistake about this; unfaithfulness to Jesus
Christ is fornication.
As Bonhoeffer
writes, the church-community is to live within God’s sacred realm.
Are we?
