Quotes about Judgment
God hates this wishful dreaming because it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. Those who dream of this idealized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their demands, set up their own law, and judge one another and even God accordingly.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Originally man was made in the image of God, but now his likeness to God is a stolen one. As the image of God man draws his life entirely from his origin in God, but the man who has become like God has forgotten how he was at his origin and has made himself his own creator and judge.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If we would answer the question of the existence of the Evil then we would not be sinners, we could make something else responsible.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Only when we have felt the terror of the matter, can we recognize the incomparable kindness. God comes into the very midst of evil and death, and judges the evil in us and in the world. And by judging us, God cleanses and sanctifies us, comes to us with grace and love…. God wants to always be with us, wherever we may be—in our sin, suffering, and death. We are no longer alone; God is with us.6 "The Coming of Jesus in Our Midst
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Whoever despises another human being will never be able to make anything of him. Nothing of what we despise in another is itself foreign to us.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Talk about one's own guilt can be just as far from the Word of God as talk about one's innocence.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
How can I possibly serve another person in unfeigned humility if I seriously regard his sinfulness as worse than my own?
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The most astonishing observation one makes today is that people surrender everything in the face of nothingness: their own judgment, their humanity, their neighbors. Where this fear is exploited without scruple, there are no limits to what can be achieved.[130]
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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 judgement on others, and are assuming by implication that the Word of God applies to ourselves in one way, and to others in another.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We cannot approach the manger of the Christ child in the same way we approach the cradle of another child. Rather, when we go to his manger, something happens, and we cannot leave it again unless we have been judged or redeemed. Here we must either collapse or know the mercy of God directed toward us.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Judging others makes us blind, but love gives us sight. When I judge, I am blind to my own evil and to the grace granted the other person. But in the love of Christ, disciples know about every imaginable kind of guilt and sin, because they know of the suffering of Jesus Christ.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
What will really matter is whether those in power expect more from people's folly than from their wisdom and independence of mind.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer