Ryan will be hosting a two-night gathering on friendship and sanctification in the weeks to come (October 13th and November 10th). We’ll spend some time on a couple of things for each of those nights: (1) Walking through an anatomy of how God tends to sanctify us and (2) discuss what it would look like to ask questions in everyday conversations to intentionally contribute to that sanctification process [you can RSVP here]. This post is a few meandering thoughts and a sort of primer for these nights.

Bonhoeffer’s Take on Community

This year, I’ve set some time aside to read works by or about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The other morning, I was reminded of how central the person of Jesus and the church were to how he saw the entire Christian life. To live in obedience takes abiding in Christ. To abide in Christ, while having significant implications for individual devotion, also necessitates abiding in His church. In his famous work Life Together, Bonhoeffer states, “Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this” [my emphasis added]. To many, ’living in community’ has become a cliché and its connection to the church merely dangles by a thread. To others, greater intentionality to the local church sounds really nice but what does it actually look like to be committed to a community that is in and through Jesus Christ? Let me try to offer an answer from a few different levels.

At 30,000 Feet

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence…” (2 Peter 1:3). This passage isn’t directly stating that God has given us other people for life and godliness but He is saying that, for your sanctification, all the instruments necessary are present. That includes being brought into a people, wise people that God places as major investors in our dross removal. Are there realms of the human experience that we prefer not to invite others into? Where can we tend to resist God using our Christian friendships (i.e. the people in the pews around us and the people that contributed to the history of the church before us)?

Above The Tree Line

Thinking back to that statement by Bonhoeffer, we need to see those that are in the church through Jesus. This reminds us that the different members of His body are not an autonomous herd but a collective unit that the Spirit has christened us with a new name. The brothers and sisters that you interact with each day are those with whom God is pleased. Jimmy does not get more of Jesus’ name than Sheri, we as a people gain the name of Christ as one body. Does the interest we take in others reflect God’s pleasure in them (imperfect, though they may be)? 

Draw this to mind this week: the engagement of the people in any local church is not mere happenstance, it is a holy people that God has called to gather at the specific cross streets they are on, for each person’s good and God’s glory (1 Peter 2:9).

Beside One Another

For a moment of scanning our own heart’s commitment to the local church in this, think of the most recent time that a brother or sister in Christ brought some of their life circumstances into conversation with you. It could have been that they were asking for your input, or they could have simply been sharing about their job, their kids, their weekend, or their suffering:

• What informed your thoughts about them as they spoke to you? The emotions you felt toward them? 

• What drove your questions and the words you chose to speak to them?

• Did you feel at a loss with what they were going through? 

• What was your hope for them?

The wonderful thing about how God works in all this: God’s Spirit is simultaneously working to give you all you need for life and godliness as He simultaneously provides it for the friend in front of you. The belief that you’d need to change them, fix things for them, or be liked by them will get you nowhere. While you seek to help them, your focus mainly needs to be on whether your intentions are honoring God. The reality is that God is doing something significant in the hearts of both of you to sanctify two holy people.

In all of this, there is a call for revival in Christian friendship. In this being such a great need, I invite you to spend a couple of nights this fall to work through a framework for being friends that seek to help sanctify one another in the local church. May God grow us in wisdom and grace!