Visible Community: A Christian Community

In his book The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer talks about 2 qualities of Jesus; the visible and the invisible. Visible quality of Jesus is his humanity and the Invisible, his divinity. There is no need for us to prove Jesus' visible quality, because history affirms his birth and death. But how do we as Christians represent his invisible quality? In other words, how do we as his followers present his divinity? Dietrich Bonhoeffer's answer is that we as the church must become a visible community (a genuine Christian Community); visible community who lives and loves so divinely that Jesus' invisble quality maybe seen in us. Question for us is how do we become that visible community? How do we become a Christian Community?

Apostle Paul in Philippians 3 shares his testimony and what makes him a Christian; a follower of Jesus Christ. In doing so, he unveils his past, reveals his present and shares his future desires.
Before he knew Christ, he was a zealous Pharisee. He was a prominent member of his community as a Pharisee, and he worked hard for it. However, now, he no longer considers those things he worked so hard for as "profit." What he so valued in his past is nothing more than "confidence in the flesh," and moreover, he considers them now to be "rubbish." Let me put it this way; all that Paul valued before he came to know Christ, he now considers them "dung (KJV)." Then in v. 10 Paul reveals his heart's desire; "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead." In other words, what makes him a disciple of Christ; a genuine Christian is not some kind of acheivement or accomplishment; it's KNOWING CHRIST in such a way that one would come to be like Him in his suffering, death and resurrection. Let me clarify: I believe Jesus said it this way: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up the cross and follow me." In other words, if the course of our lives are not completely and utterly changed as Christians; changed so radically in a profound way, we'll never know what it means to be a visible community. And if we never come to know what it means to be a visible community, the world will never come to see the invisible quality of Jesus, the divinity of the Son of God.
Challenge for all of us is that we become people of God who are hungry to KNOW Christ so divinely that his divinity, his invisible quality would shine in and through our community. That's what a Christian community is. May that become our goal this year.