Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes

grace at a low cost, is in the last resort simply a new law, which brings neither help nor freedom.

Sanctification means that the Christians have been judged already, and that they are being preserved until the coming of Christ and are ever advancing towards it.

In recent years we have seen a great deal of bravery and self-sacrifice, but civil courage hardly anywhere, even among ourselves.

Jesus Christ has to suffer and be rejected... Suffering and being rejected are not the same.

The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.

A pastor who does not pray daily for his congregation is not a pastor.

The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies

That fact that Jesus Christ died is more important than that fact that I will die.

Christian marriage is marked by discipline and self-denial...C hristianity does not therefore depreciate marriage, it sanctifies it.

Where is love more glorified than where she dwells in the midst of her enemies?

Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening.

Right speech comes out of silence and right silence comes out of speech.

My past life is abundantly full of God's mercy, and, above all sin, stands the forgiving love of the Crucified.

If you believe, take the first step, it leads to Jesus Christ. If you don't believe, take the first step all the same, for you are bidden to take it.

The wars of Israel were the only 'holy wars' in history... there can be no more wars of faith. The only way to overcome our enemy is by loving him.

Wherever it pleases God to put man in this world, the Christian must be ready for martyrdom and death. It is only in this way that man learns faith.

Every Christian must be fully Christian by bringing God into his whole life, not merely into some spiritual realm.

Whenever Christ calls us, his call leads us to death.

Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity.

As Christ bore and received us as sinners so we in his fellowship may bear and receive sinners into the fellowship of Christ through the forgiving of sins.

The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.

Discipleship never consists in this or that specific action: it is always a decision, either for or against Jesus Christ.

All are called to be what in the reality of God they are already.

Then fear will grow pale and fade away, and you will be free, through your faith in our strong and living Savior, Jesus Christ.

Before Jesus leads His disciples into suffering, humiliation, disgrace, and disdain, He summons them and shows Himself to them as the Lord in God's glory.

There is no way to peace along the way to safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture.

One who loves his community destroys community; one who loves its members builds community.

Every sermon must contain a certain shot of heresy.

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions.

Jesus' commandment never wishes to destroy life, but rather to preserve, strengthen, and heal life.

The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving.

Neighbourliness is not a quality in other people, it is simply their claim on ourselves.

We should find God in what we do know, not in what we don't; not in outstanding problems, but in those we have already solved.

God has willed that we should seek and find God's living Word in the testimony of other Christians, in the mouths of human beings.

A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him.

Only in Jesus are we able to pray, and with Him we also know that we shall be heard.

If Jesus Christ is not true God, how could he help us? If he is not true man, how could he help us?

The cross is suffering with Christ.

The right way to requite evil, according to Jesus, is not to resist it. This saying of Christ removes the Church from the sphere of politics and law.

The consciousness of being borne up by a spiritual tradition that goes back for centuries gives one a feeling of confidence and security in the face of all passing strains and stresses.

Prayer is the supreme instance of the hidden character of the Christian life.

Once again, Jesus calls those who follow him to share his passion.

It is a dangerous error, surely very widespread among Christians, to think that the heart can pray by itself.

We have grown so accustomed to the idea of divine love...that we no longer sense the awe that God's coming should awaken in us.

Desires repeatedly mastered for the sake of present duty make us richer. Lack of desire is poverty.

If religion is onlya garment of Christianityand even this garment has looked very different at different timesthen what is religionless Christianity?

Only what is essential must be said.

The responsible person seeks to make his whole life a response to the question and call of God.

The Psalter is the great school of prayer.

God is not free from human beings but for them.