Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: No Condemnation in Christ (07/16/26)
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TITLE: Part of the Main | Previous Challenge Entry
By Matthew Sutherland
07/23/26 -
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‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ was taken from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624) written by the English poet and clergyman John Donne in 1624. It reads as follows.
No man is an island,
Entire to itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own,
Or of thine friends where.
Each man’s death diminishes thee,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, do not send to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
This poem has been referenced and used in many ways throughout the centuries. I stand to use the analogy of humanity as a continent in reference to the topic of condemnation.
We truly are as Donne puts it, “A part of the main.” The dust God breathed into Adam exists in all of us. We are all of equal molecular makeup. In spite of those who try to create divisions, we are all a piece of this continent called humanity. Young, old, short, tall, fair, or dark, we are all made of flesh and blood. This is a beautiful truth. In fact, our distinctions are what separates us from other animals. I've never met a mouse who prefers one cheese to another, or a fox who prefers a vegan diet. Yet, I know many friends who could argue for days over these very things.
Our distinctions are gifts from God, and should not be ranked as one better than the other. Our distinctions should be celebrated. For they are what make us uniquely human. Distinctions are like sails in a ship uniquely crafted to catch God's breath, pushing us in his desired direction. This is a unifying truth. Our distinctions make us useful to God, they are not a category for discrimination.
With that said, the continent of humanity is united in another way. As the continent loses its clods and beaches to the sea. So does humanity lose itself to death. All of us are united in our final hour. We all stand condemned. I suppose this is what Donne realized as he lay recovering from an illness that nearly took his life. The funeral bells he heard tolling are both a reminder of another bit of humanity crumbling to the sea, and a reminder of our own condemnation to the same fate.
This would be entirely true, if it were not for the creator God who formed Adam from the dust. The creator God who formed his beloved continent and recognized the problem at hand. So what did he do? He sent his Son, Jesus the Christ, born of flesh and blood. Who lived a life perfectly following his Father’s breath. He was led to bear the crashing waves of sin, and hung on the edge of the continent. In the end, he suffered the same human fate. He was washed into the sea, lost to the continent. But in his divinity the story does not end. Instead he rose. He rose from the sea to create a new continent. A continent of solid rock, never to wash away.
So, as I may one day hear the tolling of bells, perhaps even my own. I will not think of the continent crumbling under my feet, or the sea of death crashing on the shoreline. No, I will instead look to the harbor, at the ships with wide sails full of His breath. Ringing their bells as they set off for eternity with Christ.
Truly, do not ask for whom these bells toll, for Christ rings them for you and all who stand no longer condemned.
Source: John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, (1624) (In Public Domain)
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