Reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Life Together afresh and anew seeing as it has been a while since doing so. I am refreshed by his deep thought concerning God's community/church. He argues that mankind, apart from God, seeks an unattainable ideal community; however, God, in and through Christ, provides realistic community. According to Bonhoeffer, satisfying community is a Divine reality "in and through Christ," a Biblical truth I wholeheartedly agree with! In discussing this "Divine Reality," Bonhoeffer compares Human love and spiritual love (love produced in the human through Christ that only those "in Christ" possess) in the following way: "Human love lives by uncontrolled and uncontrollable dark desires; spiritual love lives in the clear light of service ordered by the truth. Human love produces human subjection, dependence, constraint; spiritual love creates freedom of the brethren under the Word. Human love breeds hot house flowers; spiritual love creates the fruits that grow healthily in accord with God's good will in the rain and storm and sunshine of God's outdoors. The existence of any Christian life together depends on whether it succeeds at the right time in bringing about the ability to distinguish between human ideal and God's reality, between spiritual and human community." If the church is to experience true, genuine community that satisfies the human longing, she must live by spiritual love, love produced "in and through Christ" only. Acts 2:42-27 & Acts 4:32-37 describe what the Church looks like that operates on spiritual love. This church devotes herself to the teaching of the Word and fellowship in the Word, and to serving one another sacrificially. You desire genuine community? You desire satisfying relationships that are "genuine and transparent?" These will only be found in a church that understands her community is "in and through Christ" and not in merely embracing a document called "The Constitution and By-Laws." The church that experiences true community will seek to love one another in the way that Christ has loved us.