Do you know who Dietrich Bonhoeffer was? He was an anti-Nazi dissident, a German Lutheran pastor, a theologian and a key founding member of the Confessing Church. He wrote arguably some of the most important books of the 20th century, including The Cost of Discipleship. Dietrich was very outspoken about his beliefs against Nazi Germany. He was imprisoned, and on April 8, 1945, he was executed. His legacy was stamped as a pastor who lived as he preached, but also as a martyr for the Christian church. As we remember Dietrich for what he did, we want to share 10 of his quotes we think you will take to heart.
1. “Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating.”
2. “Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him.”
3. “By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”
4. “Where God tears great gaps, we should not try to fill them with human words.”
5. “The Church is the Church only when it exists for others…not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.”
6. “The will of God, to which the law gives expression, is that men should defeat their enemies by loving them.”
7. “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.”
8. “If my sinfulness appears to me in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all.”
9. “The scriptures do not present us with a series of Christian types to be imitated according to choice; they preach to us in every situation the one Jesus Christ.”
10. “Your life as a Christian should make nonbelievers question their disbelief in God.”
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