Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes

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.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

God Ourselves Path People
Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Discipline God Religious
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.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Appearance Myself Recognition Sin
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
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
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.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Believe Hope Religious Yourself
Love, in the sense of spontaneous, unreflective action, spells the death of the old man.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Action Death Love Man Old Reflection
Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Evil Mindset Person Philosophy Time Tools
One act of obedience is worth a hundred sermons.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Act Worth
A love that left people alone in their guilt would not have real people as its object. So, in vicarious responsibility for people, and in His love for real human beings, Jesus becomes the one burdened by guilt.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Alone Guilty Love People Reality Religious Responsibility
[Christ] is the Mediator, not only between God and man, but between man and man, between man and reality.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

God Man Philosophy Reality Religious
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
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
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Gift Grace Man
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
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

Dare Father Gift Himself Need Secure
Advent creates people, new people.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Creation One Liner People
This is the end. For me the beginning of life.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Beginning End Life Myself
The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise godfearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Beginning End Happiness Life Ourselves Religious Unity
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
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
Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Believe Character Himself
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
We are torn out of our own existence and set down in the midst of the holy history of God on earth. There God dealt with us, and there he still deals with us, our needs and our sins, in judgment and grace.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Existence God History Judgement Need Sin
Not hero worship, but intimacy with Christ.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

God Worship
Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

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

Love Marriage Yourself

Famous German theologians