The Church for Others

For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. MARK 10:45

In the spring of 1944, in his cell at Tegel, Bonhoeffer began to write to his friend Eberhard Bethge about ideas he had not yet worked out. They came in letters, in fragments, often late at night, with the sound of air raids overhead. He was trying to think through what Christian faith would look like in a world that no longer seemed to need God. These letters have become some of the most discussed pages in twentieth-century theology, and some of the most misused. This chapter tries to set out what he was reaching for, honestly and with care — and to draw out the one idea from them that every Christian can take hold of: the church that exists for others.

A world come of age

Bonhoeffer observed that the modern world had learned to manage without God in one area of life after another. Science, politics, medicine, ethics — each had found its own way of working that did not appeal to God to explain things or fill the gaps. He called this, in a phrase that has become famous, a world come of age. He did not mean that the world had become wiser or better. The war raging around him made that absurd. He meant that people had grown used to living as if God were not needed for the running of things.

How had the church responded? Too often, he thought, by retreating to the gaps — the places where human knowledge and strength ran out. God became the answer to the questions science had not yet answered, the comfort at the deathbed, the rescuer in the crisis. But as the gaps shrank, so did God. Bonhoeffer thought this was a betrayal. God is not a stopgap, brought in only at the boundaries of life when our own resources fail. He is the Lord at the centre of life — in our strength as well as our weakness, in our health as well as our sickness, in our daily work as well as our dying.

For in him we live, and move, and have our being. ACTS 17:28

That much, most Christians can gladly affirm. The God of the Bible is not a God of the gaps, but the Creator and Lord of all.

Religionless Christianity

Bonhoeffer went further, and here the reader must go carefully. He wondered aloud whether the time of religion was passing — and whether Christianity might need to be expressed in a non-religious way. By religion he did not mean faith in God, or worship, or prayer. He meant a particular way of being Christian that he had come to distrust: an inward, private, otherworldly piety that treats God as a means of meeting our needs and escaping the world. He wondered how the great words of the Bible — repentance, faith, justification, rebirth, sanctification — might be spoken in ways that addressed people in the midst of their lives rather than only at the edges.

He never answered his own question. He died before he could. But two things must be said about what he did write.

First, in the very same letters he insisted on what he called a secret discipline — the hidden life of prayer, worship and sacrament that the church must guard and practise, even when it cannot speak freely to the world. And he wrote that, for the time being, Christian existence would consist chiefly in two things: prayer, and doing what is right among people. A man who says that is not abandoning faith in God. He is stripping it to its core.

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? MICAH 6:8

Second, after his death some theologians took up his phrases and used them for their own ends. In the 1960s his prison letters were quoted in support of a Christianity without a personal God, and even of the claim that God was dead. That use of his work goes against everything else he wrote, and against the life he lived — a life of daily prayer, Scripture and worship, right up to the service he led on the day before his death. Readers should know that these fragments have been bent this way, and should read them in the light of the whole man.

The man for others

In the summer of 1944 Bonhoeffer sketched the outline of a book he hoped to write. It was never written, but the outline survives, and it contains the idea that gives this chapter its title. He described Jesus as the man for others — the one whose whole existence was given away for the sake of others, even to death. That self-giving, he said, is where we meet the transcendence of God: not in some remote power beyond the world, but in the one who was wholly for us.

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. 2 CORINTHIANS 8:9

And from that followed his description of the church. The church, he wrote, is truly the church only when it exists for others. It must share in the ordinary life of the world, not dominating it but helping and serving. It must tell people of every calling what it means to live with Christ, to exist for others. He even suggested, in his outline, that the church should give away its wealth to those in need, and that its ministers should live on the free gifts of their congregations and perhaps work at ordinary callings.

Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. ACTS 3:6

A church that serves

Whatever one makes of the prison fragments, this central idea is deeply biblical. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve. The church, his body, must share his shape. It does not exist to preserve itself, to grow its influence or to secure its comfort. It exists to worship God and to serve the world for Christ’s sake — to bear witness, to heal, to feed, to comfort, to stand beside the suffering.

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 1 JOHN 3:16

There is, of course, a danger on the other side. A church that exists only for others, and forgets that it exists first for God, becomes a charity with hymns. Bonhoeffer knew that; the secret discipline of prayer and worship was meant to guard against it. The church is for others because it is first for Christ. Its service flows from its worship, and not the other way round.

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. 2 CORINTHIANS 4:5

That is the balance: Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants. Hold both, and the church is what it should be.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Where do you treat God as a stopgap, turning to Him only when your own resources run out? Invite Him into the parts of life where you feel strong.

2. Ask how your church spends its money and time. How much goes to maintaining itself, and how much to serving others? Raise the question gently with those who lead.

3. Name one person or group in your neighbourhood that your church could serve. Take one step towards doing it.

4. Guard your own secret discipline — daily prayer, Scripture and worship — as the source of any service you give.

5. Read Philippians 2:1–11 and ask what it would mean for you, this week, to be a person for others.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You were the man for others, rich but made poor for our sake, serving to the end. Forgive Your church when it has lived for itself.

Keep me from treating You as a stopgap, called only when I am weak. Be Lord at the centre of my life, in my strength as well as my need.

Guard in me the hidden life of prayer and worship, and let my service to others flow from it.

Make Your church a people for others, giving itself away as You gave Yourself, so that the world may see You in us. Amen.