Oneness

Jesus Christ has created a church. His community is also known as his “body” because he is present in and through it. Therefore, the unity of his church depends more upon the one who creates it than the human members of it. In Christ, all of our relationships are mediated by him. Relationships are no longer person-to-person, but person-to-Christ-to-person. Therefore, we need not work hard at making someone into someone they are not, because Jesus is already on that job, transforming them and, more importantly, us.

While leading his underground seminary in the years leading up to World War II, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote his little book, Life Together. He explores the true nature of the church and Christian community. (This book was published in 1939, so take all the “hes” and translate them to “theys.”)

Because Christ stands between me and others, I dare not desire direct fellowship with them. As only Christ can speak to me in such a way that I may be saved, so others, too, can be saved only by Christ himself. This means that I must release the other person from every attempt of mine to regulate, coerce, and dominate him with my love. The other person needs to retain his independence of me; to be loved for what he is, as one for whom Christ became man, died, and rose again, for whom Christ bought forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Because Christ has long since acted decisively for my brother, before I could begin to act, I must leave him his freedom to be Christs; I must meet him only as the person that he already is in Christ’s eyes. This is the meaning of the proposition that we can meet others only through the mediation of Christ. Human love constructs its own image of the other person, of what he is and what he should become. It aks the life of the other person into its own hands. Spiritual love recognizes the true image of the other person which he has received from Jesus Christ; the image that Jesus Christ himself embodied and would stamp on all men.