Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes About Enemies

Quotes about: Enemies

• Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Fighting, Grace, Enemy

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.3, SCM Press

• The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Hope, Inspiration, Future

• The will of God, to which the law gives expression, is that men should defeat their enemies by loving them.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Men, Expression, Law

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.96, SCM Press

• But they all stood beneath the cross, enemies and believers, doubters and cowards, revilers and devoted followers. His prayer, in that hour, and his forgiveness, was meant for them all, and for all their sins. The mercy and love of God are at work even in the midst of his enemies. It is the same Jesus Christ, who of his grace calls us to follow him, and whose grace saves the murderer who mocks him on the cross in his last hour.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Jesus, Prayer, Grace

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.34, SCM Press

• No sacrifice which a lover would make for his beloved is too great for us to make for our enemy.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Sacrifice, Enemy, Lovers

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.97, SCM Press

• As brother stands by brother in distress, binding up his wounds and soothing his pain, so let us show our love towards our enemy. There is no deeper distress to be found in the world, no pain more bitter than our enemy's. Nowhere is service more necessary or more blessed than when we serve our enemies.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Brother, Pain, Blessed

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.98, SCM Press

• Christian love draws no distinction between one enemy and another, except that the more bitter our enemy's hatred, the greater his need of love. Be his enmity political or religious, he has nothing to expect from a follower of Jesus but unqualified love. In such love there is not inner discord between the private person and official capacity. In both we are disciples of Christ, or we are not Christians at all.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Christian, Religious, Jesus

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.97, SCM Press

• The Christian must treat his enemy as a brother, and requite his hostility with love. His behavior 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

  Christian, Jesus, Brother

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.148, Simon and Schuster

• Bless them that persecute you.' If our enemy cannot put up with us any longer and takes to cursing us, our immediate reaction must be to lift up our hands and bless him. Our enemies are the blessed of the Lord. Their curse can do us no harm. May their poverty be enriched with all the riches of God, with the blessing of Him whom they seek to oppose in vain. We are ready to endure their curses so long as they redound to their blessing.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Blessed, Blessing, Hands

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.97, SCM Press

• 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.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  War, Israel, Enemy

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.96, SCM Press

• Christian love draws no distinction between one enemy and another, except that the more bitter our enemy's hatred, the greater his need of love.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Christian, Hatred, Enemy

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.97, SCM Press

• It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies.
  …
  So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Christian, Jesus, Taken

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Samuel Wells (2015). “Life Together”, p.7, SCM Press

• The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Enemy, Kingdoms, Midst

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Samuel Wells (2015). “Life Together”, p.7, SCM Press

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

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Enemy, Midst

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.97, SCM Press

• In the New Testament our enemies are those who harbor hostility against us, not those against whom we cherish hostility, for Jesus refuses to reckon with such a possibility.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Jesus, Enemy, Cherish

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.96, SCM Press

• The love for our enemies takes us along the way of the cross and into fellowship with the Crucified. The more we are driven along this road, the more certain is the victory of love over the enemy's hatred. For then it is not the disciple's own love, but the love of Jesus Christ alone, who for the sake of his enemies went to the cross and prayed for them as he hung there.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Jesus, Hatred, Enemy

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Geffrey B. Kelly (1990). “A testament to freedom: the essential writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer”, Harpercollins

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