Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (30)

 

 

Bonhoeffer emphasizes that the visible church-community must not be conformed to the world, but to Christ. At the bottom of page 229 he quotes Romans 12:2:

 

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed into a new form by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God.”

 

Bonhoeffer writes that we have a “form” that is different form the world, and that “form” is Christ. We are “called to be ever increasingly transformed into the form…the form of Christ himself” (pp. 229 – 230).

 

“If it engages the world properly, the visible church-community will always more closely assume the form of its suffering Lord” (p. 230).

 

Is this true of the Western church? Of the professing church in the United States? Or have we embraced the culture of the world? Are we indistinguishable from American culture - from one of the cultures and movements now within American society? Are we colored red or blue or purple, rather than wearing the righteousness of Jesus Christ, white robes which can only be found at the Cross and in obedience and conformity to the Cross? Are we marked by the dollar sign of the American dream, or by the Cross of Jesus Christ?

 

With Paul, are we crucified with Christ? With Paul, have we been crucified to the world and has the world been crucified to us? (Galatians 2:20; 6:14).

 

Bonhoeffer teaches us that whatever we possess, we are to possess only through Christ…in Christ…and for the sake of Christ (p. 230). We are not to be prisoners of our possessions, we are to hold possessions in trust as stewards of Jesus Christ. Since we are free from possessions and from the world, we are “able to abandon the world whenever it prevents them from following their Lord (p. 230).

 

On pages 230 – 231 Bonhoeffer references ten verses dealing with our relationship with money and possessions, including, “But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires” (1 Tim. 6:6 – 9).

 

As I read these pages I was reminded of the second chapter of Tozer’s The Pursuit of God. Its title is “The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing.” Tozer deemed our relationship to possessions so critical and foundational to our pursuit of God that he placed it right after Chapter One, it is something we need to deal with and settle, something we need to understand, we cannot serve God and also serve money and possessions (Mt. 6:24).

 

How do we reconcile the Bible’s treatment of possessions and our obsession with them? Do we live as a people who are not owned by money and materialism but rather by Jesus? Do we not measure our lives by what we have, by our investment accounts, by the opulence and attractiveness of our church buildings? Do we measure the lives of our children and grandchildren by their love for Jesus and others, or by their vocations and income?

 

Do we freely give to others – as families and as congregations? Are we placing the welfare of others before ourselves? Why do we raise funds for new building projects for our church campuses but not have the same (it should be a greater!) passion for raising funds to alleviate hardship and suffering in communities near and afar? Have we forgotten that we are to lay down our lives for others? (1 John 3:16; John 15:12 – 13).

 

Are we being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, or to the images of Wall Street, Hollywood, Nashville, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Silicon Valley, and the sports world?

 

Are we being formed into the image of the world, or of Jesus Christ?

Are we "assuming the life of our suffering Lord"?