The following comes from a sermon preached by Christoph Blumhardt on June 29, 1897 in Germany. The scripture was Matthew 16:13-19, and the sermon title was "The Church of Jesus Christ."*
“How then does this church come into being? Those who have seen Jesus must really stop letting themselves get distracted from the revelation of the Father. . .
“Can God reveal himself in you, my friend? I will tell you when He can do it. It is when you are bent completely, fully, on God as love. Here the roads part. Believe me, I have rarely met a person who wanted this love of God. Does that surprise you? They all want to love, but they want to choose the people they love. They are cool toward or will even persecute with their hatred all those who do not suit them. Naturally everyone wants to love according to his sympathies. Everyone loves his family, her friends, his hobbies. However, it is quite a different matter to want God’s love fully and completely. There is a love that rules in the name of godless humanity; it is the most dangerous thing in the world! The love of the members of one party judges people belonging to the other parties. The love of the members of one church loves only these and condemns all others. The love that is in the world tears God’s love to pieces because it judges.
“Yet there is a love which denies itself, which esteems all people as equals, which respects creation and no longer judges. There is a love which saves, which does away with evil and fights against all evil in order that the evil person may be saved. There is a love which does not want to do away with anybody, so that nothing may be lost, because Jesus is here, because God is the Father of all people. Remember this. Whoever does not want this love, which is God’s love, will not recognize the living God, nor will he receive the revelation.”
*This sermon was printed in "Christoph Blumhardt and His Message," written in 1938 by R. Lejeune (Plough Publishing, reprint, 1963).
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