ChosenRebel's Blog

Saturday Musings and Reflections

“… it is imperative for the Christian to achieve renunciation, to practise self-effacement, to distinguish his life from the life of the world.”

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 
The Cost of Discipleship, 44.

Why does Bonhoeffer believe that it is imperative that Christians be different from the world? Why is it important that Christians set themselves up against the world in some real and visible sense, some obvious sense? Perhaps because Jesus said things like this:

Matthew 16:24 (ESV)

Then Jesus told his disciples,
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Why do so many Christians spend so much time trying to “be like” everyone else? Why extend any effort at all at “being one of the guys” when Jesus calls us to stand out as people who follow Him? Why would we ever give less than the fullest expression of our love when Jesus said that they would know we were His by our love (John 13:34-35)? 

Why “fit in” when the Scripture call us a “peculiar people” (Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:9). Why when the apostle Paul implies that we are to be more than “mere men” ( 1 Corinthians 3:1-4) would we settle for lives that give no evidence of the supernatural Lord of our lives?

Bonhoeffer speaks:

“… it is imperative for the Christian to achieve renunciation, to practise self-effacement, to distinguish his life from the life of the world.”

Let’s deny ourselves, let’s pick up our cross, let’s follow Him (Luke 9:23).

It is the cost (and the glory) of discipleship.