Can We Enjoy One Another? Series

So how do we believe this promise and engage in thankful prayer? I have five suggestions:

• Refuse to dwell on the faults and inadequacies of others, instead focusing on their best traits

• Itemize specific things for which we are thankful

• Speak (out loud) thanksgiving to God and to those we are thankful for

• Make thanksgiving in prayer as significant and frequent to us as intercession

• Add to worship services and prayer meetings

Dietrich Bonhoeffer pastored in Germany and was executed in 1945 under Hitler’s regime. Before his death, he described how Christian are to relate in his book, Life Together. “If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ”(29).

If we believe the Bible, we know that thankful prayer is one way God creates in us heartfelt affection for one another.

2. Enjoying Other Christians Requires Gospel Partnership (Philippians 1.5)

Bonhoeffer: “Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. What does this mean? It means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity” (21).

Bonhoeffer is simply stating in other words what Paul says in Philippians 1.5: everything flows from our partnership in the gospel. We might ask, though, why is the gospel necessary? Can we not be united by reformed theology or our form of worship or some doctrine or practice? Obviously, we can come together around something other than Jesus and his gospel. However, when conflict or disagreement arise, only the grace of God working through the Spirit of God sustains the love of God in our hearts for each other. Only the Gospel knits hearts together sufficiently to resist the ripping force of sin. Bonhoeffer offers a reason why: “Without Christ we would not know our brother, nor could we come to him. The way is blocked by our own ego. Christ opened up the way to God and to our brother. Now Christians can live with one another in peace; they can love and serve one another; they can become one…. Not only the other person who is earnest and devout, who comes to me seeking brotherhood, must I deal with in fellowship. My brother is rather that other person who has been redeemed by Christ, delivered from his sin, and called to faith and eternal life. Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ” (23- 26).

People are united by many common causes and needs. Football teams by the desire to win games; students by shared classes and career goals; political parties by agreed upon agendas. What sets the church apart is the grace of God enabling sinners to truly enjoy the fellowship of the redeemed.