A Church For The World

"The Church is her true self only when she exists for humanity...She must take her part in the social life of the world, not lording it over men, but helping and serving them. She must tell men, whatever their calling, what it means to live in Christ: to exist for others."
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The effort to separate the Church from the world is a delicate balance. Biblically, we are "called out" and "separate" from the normal flow of human life. And yet, as Tim Keller would put it, "The citizens of heaven are the greatest citizens of earth." We are separate, yet essentially a part of our cities.

If we are truly to exist for others, should it be so much so that we seek their (the world's) peace over our peace? Their comfort over ours? Their prosperity over ours? Is this not what Christ has done for us?

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." - 2 Corinthians 8:9

Maybe that's why the Israelites were instructed to seek the peace and prosperity of others in order to find it themselves - maybe it was a preview of what was to come to a barn in Bethlehem:

"Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” - Jeremiah 29:7

In giving all that we have, we are promised that we will gain our souls. If we are pouring out, we are promised to be filled. If we give, we are promised to receive. The Christian life is that upside-down.