WisdomArea — Wisdom & Inspiration

"In the New Testament our enemies are those who harbour hostility against us, not those against whom we cherish hostility, for Jesus refuses to reckon with such a possibility. The Christian must treat his enemy as a brother, and requite his hostility with love. His behaviour must be determined not by the way others treat him, but by the treatment he himself receives from Jesus; it has only one source, and that is the will of Jesus."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"Anything I cannot thank God for for the sake of Christ, I may not thank God for at all; to do so would be sin. ... We cannot rightly acknowledge the gifts of God unless we acknowledge the Mediator for whose sake alone they are given to us."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"[Christ] is the Mediator, not only between God and man, but between man and man, between man and reality."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"[God says] Discipleship is not limited to what you can comprehend - it must transcend all comprehension. Plunge into the deep waters beyond your own comprehension, and I will help you to comprehend even as I do. Bewilderment is the true comprehension. Not to know where you are going is the true knowledge. My comprehension transcends yours."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"If there is no element of asceticism in our lives, if we give free rein to the desires of the flesh (taking care of course to keep within the limits of what seems permissible to the world), we shall find it hard to train for the service of Christ. When the flesh is satisfied it is hard to pray with cheerfulness or to devote oneself to a life of service which calls for much self-renunciation."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"So many people come to church with a genuine desire to hear what we have to say, yet they are always going back home with the uncomfortable feeling that we are making it too difficult for them to come to Jesus."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"It is a wicked sophistry to justify the worldliness of the Church by the cross of Christ."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"It is not at all surprising that the disciples imagined that the law had been abrogated, when Jesus made promises like this. For these promises reversed all popular notions of right and wrong, and pronounced a blessing on all that was accounted worthless."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"Justification is the new creation of the new man, and sanctification his preservation until the day of Jesus Christ."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"The temple of God is the holy people in Jesus Christ. The Body of Christ is the living temple of God and of the new humanity."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"But the Christian also knows that he not only cannot and dare not be anxious, but that there is no need for him to be so. Neither anxiety now work can secure his daily bread, for bread is the gift of the Father."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"the world exercises dominion by force and Christ and Christians conquer by service."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"Any honours that come our way are only stolen from him to whom alone they really belong, the Lord who sent us."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"Only the man who follows the command of Jesus single-mindedly, and unresistingly lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"The real difference in the believer who follows Christ and has mortified his will and died after the old man in Christ, is that he is more clearly aware than other men of the rebelliousness and perennial pride of the flesh, he is conscious of his sloth and self-indulgence and knows that his arrogance must be eradicated. Hence there is a need for daily self-discipline."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"Jesus will not accept the common distinction between righteous indignation and unjustifiable anger. The disciple must be entirely innocent of anger, because anger is an offence against both God and his neighbour."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"The worse the evil, the readier must the Christian be to suffer it; he must let the evil person fall into Jesus' hands."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"It is a costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Get more quotes like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship's — every morning.

Add to Collection

Save to Your Library