Letters · Erster Band · Theil I (1773)

What right greeting is.

Bd I · Th I · Brief 113 · Der hundertunddreizehnte Brief

Addressee — An die Brüder auf der Otterbeck (the brethren on the Otterbeck — a community of Tersteegen's friends near Mülheim); addressed "Wertheste Brüder in der Gnade JEsu!" — a plural male address (euch / ihr). Van Andel (278): "Brüder in der Otterbeck."
Date — 27 May 1731, from Mülheim.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil I, pp. 319–321), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften, Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Hundred and Thirteenth Letter.

What right greeting is.

Most worthy brothers in the grace of Jesus!

Since I must just now send off by post the letter I had held back, to friend D. K., I would not omit to greet you also, at the same time, in love — which I then desire to do from the heart, and in the name of Jesus.

Right greeting is an inward inclining of our goodwill and love — or, as the Scripture speaks, of our bowels toward one another; it is the hidden hand-reaching of the spirit, whereby we, as much as is in us, actually impart to one another divine grace, power, peace, and life. This greeting can happen in no other way than in the name of Jesus, as the fountain of life opened in the Spirit, out of which we must and can, in faith, in an instant draw what we impart to one another; since otherwise we have nothing in us that is truly good, which we might impart to one another — indeed, we are held too fast by self-propriety, which cares only for itself, draws to itself and holds fast whatever is agreeable to it. But the divine love of Jesus teaches us what it does itself: namely, unceasingly to wish well, to flow forth, to impart, to embrace, and so forth; and it brings the spirit out of the strait into the wide, out of want into abundance, out of the dark anguish into a childlike, paradisiacal well-being of peace and joy — which one, like the children, without care of any want, gladly grants and gives one to another, to the glorifying of God in the Son of His love.

Now, therefore, I desire to greet you, and all the God-seeking who meet you in those parts — namely, in the name of Jesus, and in the bowels of Jesus Christ, as it stands in the original (Philippians 1:8). May He Himself reach out to you what is needful for you, in every way and in all places, that you may please Him, and find peace in Him, unmoved! Open to Him your whole heart, that He may fill it with His love — which gives to the old man death, but to the new, eternal life, here and hereafter, Amen! I am, through grace,

Your poor brother.

Mülheim, 27 May 1731.

❦

German

Der hundertunddreizehnte Brief.

Was das rechte Grüßen seye.

Wertheste Brüder in der Gnade JEsu!

Da ich eben den zurückgelassenen Brief an Freund D. K. mit der Post wegschicken muß; so habe nicht unterlassen wollen, euch zugleich in Liebe zu grüßen, welches ich dann von Herzen, und im Namen JEsu zu thun begehre.

— Opening lines of the original German. The complete transcription of all 605 letters appears in the forthcoming Encounter Press critical edition; Brief 1 is shown in full as a sample.

German text: public domain (1773–75 first edition / 1845 Gesammelte Schriften).

Translator’s notes

What this letter is. A short, luminous note to the little community of Tersteegen's friends on the Otterbeck — written almost in passing, as he sends off another letter by the same post, and takes the moment to reflect on what a greeting really is. His answer is startlingly high: a true greeting is not a courtesy but a genuine spiritual act — "the hidden hand-reaching of the spirit," by which we actually "impart to one another divine grace, power, peace, and life." That is only possible "in the name of Jesus," drawing in faith from him as from an opened "fountain of life"; on our own we have nothing good to give, and our natural "self-propriety" only hoards. But the love of Jesus teaches the opposite motion — "unceasingly to wish well, to flow forth, to impart, to embrace" — and carries the spirit "out of the strait into the wide, out of want into abundance." So he greets them, in Paul's tender phrase, "in the bowels of Jesus Christ," and prays that Christ himself fill their hearts with the love that is death to the old self and eternal life to the new.

A few words and echoes.

Greeting as spiritual communication. His central, surprising claim: to greet someone "in the name of Jesus" is really to convey grace and life to them — a hidden hand-clasp of the spirit, not a mere pleasantry.
Bowels (Eingeweide). An old biblical word (Paul's, in Philippians) for the deepest tender affection — the "heart" in its most visceral sense. To greet "in the bowels of Jesus Christ" is to love with Christ's own tenderness.
Self-propriety (Eigenheit). The grasping instinct of the natural self, which "cares only for itself" and holds fast what it likes — the opposite of love's outflow.
"Out of the strait into the wide." An echo of the Psalmist (2 Samuel 22 / Psalm 18): God "brought me forth into a large place" — love enlarges the cramped spirit.
The Son of his love. Paul's phrase (Colossians 1) for Christ — the greeting and the giving are all "to the glorifying of God in the Son of His love."

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, I. Theil, Brief 113 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-113.html.

← Bd I · Th I · Brief 112 Bd I · Th I · Brief 114 →