I have a confession to make: I’m not sure what I think of Bonhoeffer. Some stuff he says really makes me scratch my head. Take this for instance:
“To everyone God is the kind of God he believes in.”
~The Cost of Discipleship p185
Um, what?
But then on the same page he comes back with this:
Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are. But in the love of Christ we know all about every conceivable sin and guilt; for we know how Jesus suffered, and how all men have been forgiven at the foot of the cross. Christian love sees the fellow-man at the foot of the cross and therefore sees with clarity. If when we judged others, our real motive was to destroy evil we should look for evil where it is certain to be found, and that is in our own hearts. But if we are on the look-out for evil in others, our real motive is obviously to justify ourselves, for we are seeking to escape punishment for our own sins by passing judgment on others, are assuming by implication that the Word of God applies to ourselves in one way, and to others in another. All this is highly dangerous and misleading. We are trying to claim for ourselves a special privilege which we deny to others. But Christ’s disciples have no rights fo their own… .








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