Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Visible

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16

“The call of Jesus makes the disciple community not only the salt but also the light of the world: their activity is visible, as well as imperceptible. “Ye are the light.” Once again it is not: ”You are to be the light,” they are already the light because Christ has called them, they are a light which is seen of men, they cannot be otherwise, and if they were it would be a sign that they had not been called.

How impossible, how utterly absurd it would be for the disciples-these disciples, such men as these!-to try and become the light of the world! No, they are already the light, and the call has made them so. Nor does Jesus say: ”You have the light.” The light is not an instrument which has been put into their hands, such as their preaching. It is the disciples themselves.

The same Jesus who, speaking of himself, said, “I am the light;’ says to his followers: “You are the light in your whole existence, provided you remain faithful to your calling. And since you are that light, you can no longer remain hidden, even if you want to.” It is the property of light to shine. A city set on a hill cannot be hid; it can be seen for miles away, whether it is a fortified burgh, a stronghold or a tottering ruin.

This city set on the hill (the Israelite would instinctively think of “Jerusalem on high”) is the disciple community. But this is not to say that the disciples have now to make their first decision. The only necessary decision has already been taken. Now they must be what they really are-otherwise they are not followers of Jesus. The followers are a visible community…”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1979) 131-132. Click here to download this classic work.

Today marks the last day exploring input from Dietrich Bonhoeffer at this time. Do download the book for reading and sharing if you have not already done so.

Yesterday Bonhoeffer reminded us that Jesus says that we are the salt of the earth. Today, he adds that we are the light of the world. And he adds important clarifications.

Jesus did not say we “are to be” the light or that we “have” the light. When we live out our faith, we shine for Jesus. And our generosity shows his light and love to the world.

You can sense the urgency in these posts from Bonhoeffer. I am trying to echo that same urgency today. Be what you are, otherwise you are not a follower of Jesus.

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. Matthew 5:13

“That is the peculiar quality of salt. Everything else needs to be seasoned with salt, but once the salt itself has lost its savor, it can never be salted again. Everything else can be saved by salt, however bad it has gone-only salt which loses its savor has no hope of recovery. That is the other side of the picture. That is the judgment which always hangs over the disciple community, whose mission is to save the world, but which, if it ceases to live up to that mission, is itself irretrievably lost. The call of Jesus Christ means either that we are the salt of the earth, or else we are annihilated; either we follow the call or we are crushed beneath it. There is no question of a second chance.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1979) 131. Click here to download this classic work.

This week Dietrich Bonhoeffer has shed light on what is needful for us to live a life of Christian generosity. In short, we need to be who God made us to be or else. Think about it.

Since “everything else can be saved by salt” and since “only salt which loses its savor has no hope of recovery” we are God’s chosen ones for making know His love and grace to the whole world or we are worthless.

This should shake and sober Christians to who think their faith is something linked only to beliefs and disconnected from works as evidence of that faith. And this is not me or Bonhoeffer talking. It’s Jesus.

Readers everywhere who profess faith in Jesus Christ: You are the salt of the earth. Just like salt adds flavor to food and preserves meat, add flavor to this world and preserve it through how you live, give, serve, and love.

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him. Philippians 1:29

“To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. When it comes, it is not an accident, but a necessity. It is not the sort of suffering which is inseparable from this mortal life, but the suffering which is an essential part of the specifically Christian life. It is not suffering per se but suffering-and-rejection, and not rejection for any cause or conviction of our own, but rejection for the sake of Christ.

If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering.

The Psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected of men, and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross. But this notion has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and a life committed to Christ. The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest. Only a man thus totally committed in discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1979) 98-99. Click here to download this classic work.

Are you totally committed? This statement is worth repeating for those who want to grow in generosity.

“The Psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected of men, and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross. But this notion has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and a life committed to Christ. The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest. Only a man thus totally committed in discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross.”

Our lives should not appear as ordinary. It is a necessity that we embrace the cross regardless of the cost. The alternative results in a tragic ending for people.

Paul wrote this to Timothy in his second letter. “If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us.” 2 Timothy 2:12

Have you pursued a life of comfort instead of life with Christ? Yesterday I asked these questions: How is God speaking to you this week? What does obedience look like or need to look like for you?

I ask them again today because the cost of failing to endure in discipleship is that Christ will disown us. Our lack of perseverance will reveal where our heart really was in the first place.

Make Christ first in your life. And embrace whatever suffering, consequences, or ridicule that comes with it.

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:23-26

“The shocked question of the disciples “Who then can be saved?” seems to indicate that they regarded the case of the rich young man not as in any way exceptional, but as typical. For they do not ask: “Which rich man?” but quite generally, “Who then can be saved?” For every man, even the disciples themselves, belongs to those rich ones for whom it is so difficult to enter the kingdom of heaven. The answer Jesus gives showed the disciples that they had understood him well. Salvation through following Jesus is not something we men can achieve for ourselves-but with God all things are possible.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1979) 94. Click here to download this classic work.

Many people ignore the command to “go, sell, give, come, and follow Jesus” saying that it only related to the rich man in the scene. But the response of the disciples and other biblical texts says otherwise. It is typical and not exceptional.

Why does it matter? Bonhoeffer is teaching us, obedience becomes belief by letting go. Then paradoxically, God resupplies one hundred times more it says in the text, if we continued reading.

This book leans into the cost of discipleship. What we discover is unfathomable gain, but only if we are willing to pay the price. How is God speaking to you this week? What does obedience look like or need to look like for you?

What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

“When Jesus calls the young man to enter into the situation where faith is possible, he does it only with the aim of making the man have faith in Him, that is to say, He calls Him into fellowship with himself. In the last resort what matters is not what the man does, but only his faith in Jesus as the Son of God and Mediator.

At all events poverty or riches, marriage or celibacy, a profession or the lack of it, have in the last resort nothing to do with it-everything depends on faith alone. So far then we are quite right; it is possible to have wealth and the possession of this world’s goods and to believe in Christ-so that a man may have these goods as one who has them not.

But this is an ultimate possibility of the Christian life, only within our capacity in so far as we await with earnest expectation the immediate return of Christ. It is by no means the first and the simplest possibility. The paradoxical understanding of the commandments has its Christian justification, but it must never lead to the abandoning of the single-minded understanding of the commandments.

This is only possible and right for somebody who has already at some point or other in his life put into action his single-minded understanding, somebody who thus lives with Christ as his disciple and in anticipation of the end. This is the infinitely more difficult, and humanly speaking “impossible possibility,” to interpret the call of Jesus in this paradoxical way. And it is just this paradoxical element which exposes his call to the constant danger of being transformed into its very opposite, and used as an excuse for shirking the necessity of concrete obedience.

Anybody who does not feel that he would be much happier were he only permitted to understand and obey the commandments of Jesus in a straightforward literal way, and e.g. surrender all his possessions at his bidding rather than cling to them, has no right to this paradoxical interpretation of Jesus’ words. We have to hold the two together in mind all the time.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1979) 90-91. Click here to download this classic work.

Today’s Scripture teaches us to live differently from the world, to have marriages that are missional, and to have possessions but not be controlled by them.

Bonhoeffer reminds us to hold both sides of these topics in mind all the time. This is wise. Let me explain.

If we don’t hold both in mind all the time, here’s what can happen. We obey the simple command of God to enjoy and share his material blessings. Then He blesses us again. At that moment, we can forget the Giver and just celebrate the gift.

So, in plain terms, and everyone can do this. Give thanks for God’s blessings but always use them obediently. I call it paradoxical possession because you possess them and you don’t simultaneously as a conduit.

Think of a pipe in your home. It simultaneous has water in it and does not have water in it. When it does its job, water flows. Life is good. And more will flow.

When you live like a conduit? God sees your faithfulness and supply more. You need not try to make yourself wealth through disobedient keeping like the rich fool. Hopefully this is making sense.

As you think about your own life, try to keep the possible and the impossible in view always. That will keep you living by faith. You can do this. God’s got you.

And today, I thank God for Jenni. It’s her birthday. And I am thankful we have a missional marriage. I praise God she finds life by enjoying and sharing God’s blessings with me.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24

“The gracious call of Jesus now becomes a stern command: Do this! Give up that! Leave the ship and come to me! When a man says he cannot obey the call of Jesus because he believes, or because he does not believe, Jesus says: “First obey, perform the external work, renounce your attachments, give up the obstacles which separate you from the will of God. Do not say you have not got faith. You will not have it so long as you persist in disobedience and refuse to take the first step. Neither must you say that you have faith, and therefore there is no need for you to take the first step. You have not got faith so long as and because you will not take the first step but become hardened in your unbelief under the guise of humble faith.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1979) 73. Click here to download this classic work.

Yesterday we heard the gracious call of Jesus. He said, “Come.”

Today that call has become a command. I did an interesting exercise while writing this post. I searched online for lists of the commands of Christ. I scanned multiple lists.

Interestingly, the lists conspicuously omitted commands related to money, such as this one.

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. Luke 12:33

What’s the point? If we ignore the uncomfortable aspects of the faith, we fail to grasp life altogether.

Jesus, Dietrich, and I want you to renounce your attachments not because of what we want from you, but because of what we want for you.

Obeying the command to enjoying and share riches is the pathway for taking hold of life that is truly life.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. 1 Timothy 6:17-19

Do this and you will not end up poor but replenished for greater generosity.

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Matthew 14:28-33

“If a drunkard signs the pledge, or a rich man gives all his money away, they are both of them freeing themselves from their slavery to alcohol or riches, but not from their bondage to themselves. They are still moving in their own little orbit, perhaps even more than they were before. They are still subject to the commandment of works, still as submerged in the death of the old life as they were before. Of course, the work has to be done, but of itself it can never deliver them from death, disobedience, and ungodliness…

Nevertheless the external work must be done, for we still have to find our way into the situation where faith is possible. We must take a definite step. What does this mean? It means that we can only take this step aright if we fix our eyes not on the work we do, but on the word with which Jesus calls us to do it. Peter knows he dare not climb out of the ship in his own strength-his very first step would be his undoing.

And so he cries, “Lord, bid me come to thee upon the waters,” and Jesus answers: “Come.” Christ must first call him, for the step can only be taken at his word. This call is his grace, which calls him out of death into the new life of obedience. But when once Christ has called him, Peter has no alternative-he must leave the ship and come to him. In the end, the first step of obedience proves to be an act of faith in the word of Christ.

But we should completely misunderstand the nature of grace if we were to suppose that there was no need to take the first step, because faith was already there. Against that we must boldly assert that the step of obedience must be taken before faith can be possible. Unless he obeys, a man cannot believe.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1979) 71-72. Click here to download this classic work.

We turn this week to see what is needful for growing in Christian generosity from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Today we learn that a giving away great riches does not save us from our death, disobedience, and ungodliness, only obedience to Jesus does. Without obedience a person cannot believe.

Jesus cares not what you say you think or believe. Your actions show what you believe.

Regarding generosity, we either live like we believe God supplies all good things to enjoy and share or we don’t. Our bank accounts and giving statements show whether or not we believe.

I hope this rocks your world today, in good kind of way. You will thank me in the eternal kingdom.

Is it time for you to step out of the boat. If Jesus is calling you to put your trust in him instead of money, don’t you think he will make sure you won’t sink. You will never know or believe until you obey.

He’s good. He’s faithful. And He’s calling you. “Come.”

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Corinthians 3:17

“And although such a Soul may seem to have some affection for exterior things, do not believe it. It is impossible that any love should enter into hearts like these, except the love of God, unless God himself permits it by reason of some necessity either of the soul or the body. And should this occur, all love and care, coming from such a source, would be no impediment, and would not touch the depths of the heart; but would only be ordered of God for some necessity, because it is needful that pure love should be free from every exterior and interior concern; for, where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty.”

Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510) in Spiritual Dialogues (Grand Rapids: CCEL) Part Third, Chapter 8. Click here to download this classic work.

Today marks the final post in this work for now. Do download it for future reading or sharing with others.

The journey this week has brought us to a place where we are surrounded by the pure love of God. We have been challenged this week to grow in grace and today we see a good reason to do this. We enjoy liberty.

As we grow in our living, giving, serving, and loving, God increases our capacity, allows grace to abound toward us, and frees us from earthly attachments giving us freedom to live life as He designed it to be lived.

Take time today to give thanks for His abundant grace and the many gifts and benefits of His providence. And to stay on this trajectory of growth, keep yourself in the love of God.

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Psalm 103:1-2

“God shows the soul also, that all the benefits bestowed on her by creatures (whether spiritual or temporal) are given because God moves them to it; and hence she learns to take no heed of creatures, what service soever they may have rendered her, for she perceives clearly that it is God who has done it by the action of His providence. By this vision the soul is more and more inflamed, and finally abandons herself to love, casting aside all creatures, and finding in God such fulness that she can regard nothing else but Him.”

Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510) in Spiritual Dialogues (Grand Rapids: CCEL) Part Third, Chapter 8. Click here to download this classic work.

Today marks the second to last post from Catherine of Genoa and our rich and edifying exploration of what is needful for living, giving, serving, and loving generously from her Life and Doctrine and Spiritual Dialogues.

As we mature in our journey, we can worship the gifts of God and forget about God. Let me explain.

The reason we must recall His benefits is to remind ourselves where they came from. Sadly, most Christians take steps, God blesses them, and then they get comfortable, fat, and happy.

The forget that the benefits came from His providence. Instead they as if they produced the good themselves.

Don’t let this be you. Pause today to worship God. Acknowledge nothing else but Him as the Giver of all good gifts. And resolve not just to enjoy them but to take steps to grow in your sharing.

His grace will about to you in the measure you move toward maturity. You’ve got this. God’s got you.

Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

“Know then, in the first place, that I am God, with whom there is no change; and know too that I loved man before I created him. I loved him with a love which is infinite, pure, simple, and sincere, and without any cause; it is impossible that I should not love those whom I have created and designed for my glory, each in his own degree. I have also provided him amply with all needful means of attaining his end, both with natural gifts and supernatural graces, and on my part these never fail him. I am ever surrounding him with my infinite love, now in one way and now in another, that I may bring him under my care. I find in him nothing which is contrary to me but the freewill which I have given him, and this I am always combating through love, until he yields it to me, and when I have accepted it I reform it little by little by my secret operations and loving care, and never abandon him until I have conducted him to his appointed end.”

Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510) in Spiritual Dialogues (Grand Rapids: CCEL) Part Third, Chapter 1. Click here to download this classic work.

It was a short night with little sleep. Jenni got home safely from her service in Rwanda. After flight cancellations and delays, we got home about 2:15am. But the ministry went great so we rejoice.

Catherine has challenged us this week to cooperate with the grace of God and take steps to grow toward maturity.

Today we get God’s perspective of each of us. He loves you and me. He made us and he has give us the needful means – natural gifts and supernatural graces – to mature in every aspect of the faith, including generosity.

And notice that He intervenes in our lives with “secret operations and loving care” to aid our growth.

Take time to praise God today. And resolve to take the steps He may be leading you to take this week for your growth and His glory, knowing that His grace will abound to you in proportion to your surrender and service.