“I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord,

beg you to lead a life worthy of the Faith,

calling to which you have been called,
Fellowship,
with all humility and gentleness, with
Family – Day 2
patience, bearing with one another in

love, making every effort to maintain

the unity of the Spirit in the bond of

peace.”

~ Ephesians 4:1-3

BETHANY LUTHERAN CHURCH

Created by Pastor Megan Filer
Table of Contents Taking it home Scripture:

Day 2: Fellowship.............................................................................................................
“They were continually devoting
Life Together............................................................................................................... 1 themselves to the apostles' teaching
Who are we reading today?..................................................................................1
Beginning Questions................................................................................................ 2 and to fellowship, to the breaking of
On singing together:................................................................................................. 2
bread and to prayer.”
On praying together:................................................................................................2
On eating together:............................................................................................... 2-3 ~ Acts 2:42
On being in community apart and together:..................................................3
Ministering to one another....................................................................................4
Taking it home Scripture:......................................................................................5
"’A new commandment I give to you,
that you love one another, even as I
have loved you, that you also love one
another.”
Works Cited - End Notes ~ John 13:34

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. New York, NY: HarperCollins “Therefore encourage one another and
Publishers, 1954.
End notes: (i page 97, ii page 97, iii page 99, iv page 100, v page
build up one another, just as you also
110, vi page 112, vii page 113, viii page 61, ix page 62, x page are doing."
66, xi page 68, xii page 76, xiii page 78, xiv page 89, xv page 93,
xvi page 93) ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:11

5
Ministering to one another
“a Christian community does not consist solely of preachers of the Word.
Day 2: Fellowship
We can go monstrously wrong here if we overlook a number of other Life Together
things.”i
In the 16th century, the theologian Martin
“The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in Luther noticed that most of the people in
listening to them. Just as love to God begins with listening [God’s] Word, the church didn’t know much about their
so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them.” ii faith. Luther didn’t like that! So he wrote up
the “Small Catechism”, this is a short
“The second service that one should perform for another in a Christian writing meant for families to read through
community is that of active helpfulness. This means, initially, simple together to understand what it is they
assistance in trifling, external matters.”iii believed about the Ten Commandments,
“We speak, third, of the service that consists in bearing others…Bearing Lord’s Prayer, the Apostle’s Creed, and
means forbearing and sustaining…The Christian, however, must bear some other household issues of the time.
the burden of a brother. He must suffer and endure the brother.” iv

Who are we reading today?

“Therefore confess your sins to one Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)
another, and pray for one another, so “Life Together” is an account of the
fellowship he encountered in an
that you may be healed.”– James 5:16a underground seminary in Nazi
occupied Germany.

“The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must These writings were compiled after
conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be his death, and are filled with
sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is inspiration and practical advice.
suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our
Bonhoeffer is known as a Lutheran
sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners!”v …“In
pastor, a theologian, a professor,
confession the break-through to community takes place. Sin demands to
and a member of the resistance
have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more
against Hitler during World War II.
isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over
him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous He was executed by the Nazis in
his isolationvi….The expressed, acknowledged sin has lost all its 1945 for his part in the resistance.
power….Now the fellowship bears the sin of the brother.”vii

4 1
Beginning Questions “The fellowship of the table has a festive quality. It is a constantly
recurring reminder in the midst of our everyday work of God’s resting
1. What do you think of when you think of the word “fellowship”?
after [God’s] work, of the Sabbath as the meaning and goal of the week
2. What are some important experiences you’ve had of fellowship?
and its toil. Our life is not only travail and labor, it is also refreshment
and joy in the goodness of God.”xi

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it

is for brethren to dwell together in On being in community apart and together:
unity!” —Psalm 133:1 “There are Christians too, who cannot endure being alone, who have
some bad experiences with themselves, who hope they will gain
some help in association with others. They are generally
On singing together: disappointed.”xii
“It is the voice of the Church that is heard in singing together. It is not
“Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. Let him who is
you that sings, it is the Church that is singing, and you, as a member of
not in community beware of being alone.”xiii
the Church may share in its song.”viii
“One who returns to the Christian family fellowship after fighting the
battle of the day brings with him the blessing of his aloneness, but he
On praying together: himself receives anew the blessing of the fellowship.” xiv

“all comment and criticism must cease whenever words of prayer “Where this discipline [of not speaking about others] is practiced…
howsoever halting are offered in the name of Jesus Christ. It is in fact the [One] will be able to cease from constantly scrutinizing another person,
ix
most normal thing in the common Christian life to pray together.” judging him, condemning him, putting him in his particular place…Now
he can allow the brother to exist as a completely free person, as God
made him to be.”xv
On eating together:
“Strong and weak, wise and foolish, gifted or ungifted, pious or impious,
“The scriptures speak of three kinds of table fellowship that Jesus keeps
the diverse individuals in the community, are no longer incentives for
with his own: daily fellowship at table, the table fellowship of the Lord’s
talking and judging and condemning, and thus excuses for self-
Supper, and the final table fellowship in the Kingdom of God. But in all
justification. They are rather cause for rejoicing in one another and
three the one thing that counts is that ‘their eyes were opened, and they
serving one another.”xvi
knew him.’”x

2 3
i
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ]Pg 97
ii
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 97
iii
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 99
iv
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 100
v
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 110
vi
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 112
vii
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 113
viii
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 61
ix
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 62
x
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 66
xi
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 68
xii
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 76
xiii
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 78
xiv
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 89
xv
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 93
xvi
[ CITATION Bon54 \l 1033 ] Pg 93