Life with Brothers

Thankfulness for Daily Gifts of Fellowship

“Because God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship, because God has bound us together in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ, long before we entered into common life with them, we enter into that common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients. We thank God for what He has done for us. We thank God for giving us brethren who live by His call, by His forgiveness, and His promise. We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what He does give us daily. And is not what has been given us enough: brothers, who go on living with us through sin and need under the blessing of His grace? Is the divine gift of Christian fellowship anything less than this, any day, even the most difficult and distressing day? Even when sin and misunderstanding burden the communal life, is not the sinning brother, with whom I, too, stand under the Word of Christ? Will not his sin be a constant occasion for me to give thanks that both of us may live in the forgiving love of God in Jesus Christ? Thus the very hour of disillusionment with my brother becomes incomparable salutary, because it so thoroughly teaches me that neither of us can lie by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and Deed which really binds us together—the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. When the morning mists of dreams vanish, then dawns the bright day of Christian fellowship.” Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pp. 28-29.

There’s a phone call with a sister in the Lord regarding answer to prayer.

There’s another phone call from a medical institution who calls giving good news about our financial obligations to them.

There’s an old friend from years back that stops by unannounced—for friendship.

There’s a good long distance talk with a fellow-worker in the Gospel—we both need encouragement.

There’s the fellowship of good, solid, open talk with five others in a small group discussing Calvin’s view of the importance of having and beholding Christ given to us in the New Testament; Calvin writes: “They [Old Testament people] had but a slight taste of it; we [in the New Testament era of the Gospel] can more richly enjoy it.” (see p. 423, Vol. 1 Calvin’s Institutes from Westminster/John Knox Press)

Bonhoeffer says it well, “We thank God for giving us brethren who live by His call, by His forgiveness, and His promise. We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what He does give us daily.”

G. Mark Sumpter