Thursday, May 29, 2025

Bonhoeffer's Discipleship Part II - Reflections (4)

 

“Those who are baptized no longer belong to the world, no longer serve the world, and are no longer subject to it. They belong to Christ alone, and relate to the world only through Christ” (page 185).

 

The word “world” can be confusing, though it need not be. It can mean “people,” as in the people of the world, or it can “system,” an order of things and ways and dynamics that is governed and animated by Satan and his minions, which rules over unregenerate mankind and seeks not only its perpetual enslavement, but seeks to enlist it in rebellion against God and the destruction of His Kingdom.

 

Context indicates the sense in which we ought to understand the word “world.”

 

When we read, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,” we understand that “world” means the people of the world.

 

However, when read 1 John 2:15 – 17 we see something different:

 

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

 

The world system has myriad subsystems, and none is innocuous, none are innocent. In Christ we learn to be “in the world but not of the world” (John 15:19; 17:13 – 16), which also means that we strive to be a blessing to the people of the world, to show them Jesus, to lay down our lives for others as Jesus laid down His life for us.

 

When Bonhoeffer writes that we “no longer serve the world,” he does not mean that we no longer serve the people of the world, but rather that we no longer serve the system of the world. This does not mean that we do not live and function within world systems, for again we must live in the world for many reasons – to eat and drink, for provide for others, to benefit humanity, to share the Gospel and grace of Jesus – but we do not subject ourselves to the values of the world, to the goals of the world. We refuse to be intoxicated by the world, to grab for what the world dangles in front of us, and we refuse to offer our children on the altars of the world.

 

We have an adversarial relationship with the world system, and this means that we must often say “no” to the world if we are to be faithful to Jesus Christ, to the Church, and indeed to the people of the world. The professing Christian who does not live a life of saying “no” to the world perhaps ought to ponder the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4). The parent who is not teaching his or her children to say “no” to the world might want to consider how deeply he or she truly cares for those children and adolescents.

 

The people of the world need us to be faithful in our obedience to Jesus and in saying “no” to the world system, for otherwise they will not see a better Way, they will not see Jesus. This is one reason why it is critical for us to do all that we do in the name of Jesus and to the glory of God (Colossians 3:17, 23), so that when we do say “no” we will have credibility and integrity. People may not like it when we say “no,” but they may respect it; others may take courage when we say “no” and they may see the light of Christ.

 

But there is more than saying “no,” there is more importantly being an active blessing to those around us, seeking the welfare of others, attempting to improve the condition of our communities and broader world. We are to be the Good Samaritan to the world, the Presence of the Good Shepherd, feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, visiting those in prison, caring for the widow and orphan and disenfranchised, clothing the naked and housing the homeless and caring for the sick. Whether at work, at school, in civic life, in recreation and entertainment, in economics – we are to be in the world but not of the world, we are to be showing the people of the world a better Way because we belong to Jesus Christ – we are no longer our own.

 

I am puzzled why we are more pleased with our children doing well in the world than we are in them growing in Jesus Christ. Perhaps because we are more pleased with our own success in the world rather than our growing in Jesus Christ?

 

Bonhoeffer writes, “The break with the world is absolute” (page 185).

 

Followed by, “It requires and causes our death.”

 

Bonhoeffer can be a nuisance, can’t he?

 

What do you think?  


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