Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (18)

 

 

On the bottom of page 213 Bonhoeffer briefly deals with heresy. He writes that while heresy may not be always easy to identify, that once it is distinguished that it and its teachers must be confronted, and that means that the teachers, if they do not repent, must be “cast out.” Bonhoeffer cites Gal. 1:8; 1Cor. 16:22; Titus 3:10; and 2 John 10ff.

 

“The word of authentic proclamation must therefore create both unity and separation in a visible way” (page 214).

 

This is a tough issue for most of us to negotiate, as it should be. It should be tough because we ought to care about people, and this means that we care about them knowing Jesus and living in Him, we care about them being in Christian community, we care about them treating each other in love and truth, and we care about the results of our actions and the actions of our community. We want people to understand Biblical teaching and why heresy cannot be tolerated, why discipline is Biblical and necessary. Confronting heresy is not an option, it is obedience to Scripture.

 

It is also tough to negotiate because we all face dangers when confronting heresy, not the least of which is a prideful attitude, our actions and attitudes must always be in submission to Jesus Christ and His Cross, we must be ever conscious that we serve Him and not ourselves.

 

My own sense is that if we are always looking for Jesus, desiring to hear Jesus, to exalt Jesus; if Jesus is truly the center of our teaching and preaching and koinonia; if we glory in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ; if the entire and holistic Bible is our biosphere in Him; if we are indeed living in community (as Bonhoffer will continue to explore); that our ability in Christ to discern heresy, and thoughts and actions that may lead to heresy, becomes finely–tuned as individuals, families, and church – communities.  

 

The best examples of confronting heresy are found in the New Testament. Many of the epistles (including Revelation) deal with heresy and false teachers, they teach us what to look for and how to respond. It is like foraging for mushrooms with an expert, we learn to identify what is poisonous and avoid them, warning others of them.

 

We are not called to be heresy hunters; we are called to follow Jesus. Our eyes are to be on Jesus, not on evil. We focus on the legitimate, not the illegitimate. If our focus is perpetually on evil, on the counterfeit, we will exhaust ourselves and others, play whack-a-mole, and eventually lose our discernment. We can only discern as we behold Jesus and live by His life in koinonia with others.

 

I have known, and known of, heresy hunters who seem to have lost all sense of grace and mercy and kindness. As James writes, my brothers and sisters, this ought not to be.

 

We should recognize that there is a difference between heresy and imperfect understanding. We all, I think, have areas of imperfect understanding, areas in which our knowledge and understanding and participation in Christ and His Word is growing. In fact, I can’t think of any area of my own life which is not imperfect in understanding, in which I am not (at least I hope I am) growing in Jesus.

 

This is one reason why we need one another, both in local community and in broader Christian community. It is a shame that denominations and movements and traditions don’t crosspollinate; a shame with respect to John Chapter 17, and a shame in that we could learn so much from one another. To those traditions who teach that they have perfect understanding, and that they are the one legitimate voice of God and the Church, all I can ask is, “Really?” Of course, a group need not make such a proclamation to nevertheless act as if they think so.

 

A discussion of heresy seems out of place in America in that there is little appetite for the Bible with professing Christians. Sure, we pay lip service to Scripture, but we don’t really know and breathe the Bible. Many churches have outright rejected obedience to the Bible, other churches are more interested in Sunday morning group therapy sessions, or what amounts to entertainment events, or political and social and worldview movements, or in tantalizing “prophecy” speculations and games.

 

Is community, as Bonhoeffer and Scripture speak of it, vital to the average professing Christian, pastor, seminary professor, and denominational leader?

 

We can forget that heresy often looks very good, it feels good, it promises results…all the time seducing us away from a monogamous relationship with Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 11:1 – 3). As a pastor, my challenges with heresy typically were not with fringe teachers and authors, but with popular (often best-selling) authors and teachers who people were attracted to without seeing the foundational errors in thinking and practice, errors what would eventually lead others far away from the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ.

 

O that we would truly know the Nicene Creed.

 

The fundamental question is always, “Where is Jesus Christ?”