God's All Embracing Love

Wow! What gem I found. Here are some excerpts of excerpts from letters from Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt, a German Lutheran pastor, writing circa 1900 to his son-in-law who was a missionary in China.
As it says in the Forward to the free e-book The Hidden Christ :

“His words lack polish. Blumhardt clearly writes from a passionately moved heart, hastily jotting down thoughts with little regard for the choice of words or the skillful marshalling of ideas. Theologically, too, there are many points over which one could take issue. But Blumhardt never claimed to be a systematic thinker. In fact, many central assertions seem to have no clear inner connection, and even a remarkable duality, especially with problems involving the institutional church and the Church of Christ, Christians and non-Christians, testimony by word and testimony by deed.”

Yet at a time when we struggle to find relevance in a chaotic world, I find his approach refreshing and exciting…

God's All-Embracing Love

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
These excerpts are from Blumhardt's letters to his son-in-law, Richard Wilhelm, a missionary in China.

God's love tears down old divisions. No longer religion against religion, Christians against non-Christians, but justice against sin, life against death. His love embraces everyone. Therefore, every person you encounter should be your concern. Do not settle for less. The whole world must see the glory of God. …

God protects the oppressed. He will see to it that they receive his blessing. Today his spirit moves upright hearts everywhere, without asking what kind of a religion they cling to. Our task is to spread the gospel of Christ, not the gospel of Christians. Christ does not want separation. …

The chief thing is to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, not an apostle of the European Christian world. Have patience, and whatever you do, stay clear of forming a party. Your work must embrace the whole, then your integrity will win you everyone's trust.

… The conversion of individuals is only a temporary measure. Individual conversion by itself risks the sin of pharisaism. A single baptized person can so easily flatter himself, thinking he or she is a special person, able to give someone a spiritual kick now and then.

… When we come to a foreign land in the name of Jesus, we should thank God that a law already exists which can find fulfillment. Or do we think we have first to hammer the laws of Moses into people? This would be to stand above God, whose spirit has been at work long before we Christians showed up!

… No one can honor God without honoring what is of God in people.

Conservatism of every stripe hinders and paralyzes everything. The Chinese are bound by this, just as much as Christians who are in the church's clutches. The Chinese are imprisoned by an inordinate veneration of the family and an overemphasis on superstitious customs. All this prevents them from experiencing any real change. In this sense, Confucianism seems to me to be a kind of church, controlling every mood of the soul, inducing anxiety, and hindering genuine progress. You will no doubt encounter great obstacles the more you draw close to people and move beyond superficial acquaintance.

Many missionaries feel this makes them right in wanting to use Christianity to uproot the national character of the Chinese. But they will soon find out where that leads! If a nationalistic spirit is aroused, on either side, then all foreign elements will be swept away, and the Christians themselves will become enemies. Only those who act justly toward the people and represent their interests in the face of oppression will stand the test of Christ's love.

…My hope is that Christ quietly works and comforts, and that a difference of spirit between what you and others are trying to do can be clearly sensed. As you rightly point out, aggressive attempts at missionizing do not spring from the love of God, but from the spirit of business.

During my recent visit to Cairo, where I had to preach at the local mission house, I was made acutely aware of what a distortion it is to play Christianity like a trump card when we relate with Muslims, instead of simply allowing the Savior to speak through us. Islam is not so absolutely closed that the spirit of God is unable to work there. Certainly, these people will never become European Christians - not that they would gain anything by it if they did.

There is something very impressive about the worship of Allah in the Islamic faith. Not only are there few religious forms, but there is a heartfelt devotion to Allah, even in the midst of misfortune and despite a strict moral code. As a religion, Islam has the kind of strength that is able to influence the actions of its followers. It is true that everything in Islam is quite rigid, which obscures the living, human, and personal love of our Father in heaven. Only Jesus, the Son of Man, can reveal this to them. But to the Muslim, European Christians appear immoral and irreligious-and not without some justification.

…

God's plan is to lift us out of our animal-like existence into the life of the Spirit. A great deal of truth still has to be revealed - from non-Christian peoples as well-to show that from the beginning God has wanted to create something good and true wherever there is an opening far beyond our narrow boundaries.

…

Only Christ expresses God's nature clearly. Apart from him all our human efforts to change the structure of society will collapse as soon as outer circumstances change. "We must be redeemed from the curse of the law and enter into the freedom of the children of God" (Gal. 3:13). It is the Chinese law, like our high and mighty morality in Europe, which holds the people back. As my father wrote to me when I was young, "Our virtues have become our greatest sin." They hinder the living God from doing something new.

Although great and profound outer changes can occur quite apart from any revelation from God, there is nothing more wonderful than the indwelling Christ. When he is present, streams of living water flow out, bringing life to people. This is something that transcends human goodness. What God directs is never destroyed, even when nations suffer ruin. Only where Christ's love rules are human beings valued for who they are, and everything else - social institutions and customs - takes second place and even become quite unimportant.

The hidden Church of Jesus Christ, out of which something of God's future can come, remains and will never die. The lines of human ideals and Christ's kingdom run parallel. And the mantles of Confucianism and Christianity are in tatters. A new mantle is needed - made of God's pure love and the capacity to receive it.

Excerpted from The Hidden Christ, available FREE in e-book format.