"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."

6 likes

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

About the author

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Theologian

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian known for his resistance against Nazi Germany and his influential writings on faith and ethics.

All quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer →

Same author

More quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

See all →
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Theologian

"If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver."

Read quote
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Theologian

"There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one should not even attempt to do so. One must simply hold out and endure it. At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a great comfort. For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled one remains connected to the other person through it. It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness. God in no way fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us preserve -- even in pain -- the authentic relationship."

Read quote
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Theologian

"Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christian should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong."

Read quote