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Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

May God in his mercy lead us through these times; but above all, may he lead us to himself.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

God Himself Leadership Leaving Time
I wonder why it is that we find some days so much more oppressive than others, for no apparent reason. Is it growing pains – or spiritual trial? Once they’re over, the world looks quite a different place again.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Different Growth Myself Oppression Pain Place Quite Reason Spiritual World
Political action means taking on responsibility. This cannot happen without power. Power is to serve responsibility.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Politics Power Responsibility
While it is good that we seek to know the Holy One, it is probably not so good to presume that we ever complete the task.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Goodness Job Seek
There is a wrong way of staying in the world and a wrong way of fleeing from it. In both cases we are fashioning ourselves according to the world.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Fashion Ourselves Stay World Wrong
Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Believe Character Himself
Our eyes are at fault, that is all. God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Darkness Eyes God Leaving Light Ourselves
The limitation of the ethical phenomenon to its place and time does not imply its rejection but, on the contrary, its validation. One does not use canons to shoot sparrows.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Limitation Place Rejection Time
A false faith is capable of terrible and monstrous things.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Deep Faith Religion
The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Children Kind Leaving Moral World
The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Children Deep Moral
Being free means being free for the other, because the other has bound me to him. Only in relationship with the other am I free.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Freedom Himself Myself Relationship
Grace at a low cost, is in the last resort simply a new law, which brings neither help nor freedom.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Freedom Grace Simplicity
Not to speak is to speak.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Deep One Liner Talk
The will of God, to which the law gives expression, is that men should defeat their enemies by loving them.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Defeat Enemy Expression God Law Love Man Willing
Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Deep Religious Value Worth
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

God Ourselves
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Death Man Spiritual
We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Forget Gift Ordinary Prayer Thankful
A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes – and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Freedom Hope Oneself Photograph Prison Wait
Any honours that come our way are only stolen from him to whom alone they really belong, the Lord who sent us.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Alone Himself Ourselves
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

Comfortable Desire Difficult Feeling Home People
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.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Judgement Religious
It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Love Marriage Yourself
The fact that we do not speak it but sing it only expresses the fact that our spoken words are inadequate to express what we want to say, that the burden of our song goes far beyond all human words.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Beyond Expression Human Ourselves Sing Talk
No sacrifice which a lover would make for his beloved is too great for us to make for our enemy.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Enemy Greatness Love Ourselves Sacrifice
The task of pastoral ministry, above all else, is to arrange contingencies for an encounter with the divine.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Divine Job

Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.

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Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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