Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Cost of Discipleship - Chapter 9

The Brother

Every idle word which we think so little of betrays our lack of respect for our neighbour, and shows that we place ourselves on a pinnacle above him and value our own lives higher than his. The angry word is a blow struck at our brother, a stab at his heart: it seeks to hit, to hurt and distort. A deliberate insult is even worse, for we are then openly disgracing our brother in the eyes of the world, and causing other to despise him, With our hearts burning with hatred, we seek to annihilate his moral and material existence.

I could have used a million different pull quotes from this chapter, it was seriously the best chapter yet, totally making up for my lack of understanding in Chapter 8.

So, upon reading The Brother I was subjected to a rude awakening... This chapter, as you may have already pieced together, talks about your "brothers." In other words, your relationships with others. The chapter centralizes around Matthew 5:21-26 and focuses on the main topics of forgiveness and relationships.

I consciously do my best to keep from gossip or any form of slander as I learned from a young age that talking behind someones back never does anyone any good. However, there are times, admittedly, where I say things I should not. I am 100% confident that I am not alone in this boat, I am sure each and every reader has said something (either directly to an individual or behind someone's back) that they have regretted saying. It was an simply an awakening that I need to be more careful of what I say.

On another note, I took The Cost of Discipleship with me to school today as I figured that I may have a moment or two to dive back into Chapter 8 and attempt to figure out some of the deep theology that Bonhoeffer was referring to... I am pleased to say that my wave of enlightenment hit me when I was waiting to get my haircut... I see Chapter 8 in a different light, with a clearer understanding of the topics mentioned. All it took was reading it over again, slowly.

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