Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Cost of Living the Word

In 1933, as Adolf Hitler rose to power, most German churches chose silence. They listened to sermons about justice and love, nodded in agreement, and went home to do nothing. But a young Lutheran pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer refused to let the Word of God remain mere theory on his lips.

While other clergy signed loyalty oaths to the Nazi regime, Bonhoeffer helped found the Confessing Church, openly declaring that obedience to Christ demanded resistance to tyranny. He established an underground seminary at Finkenwalde, training pastors who would preach truth when truth was dangerous. He smuggled Jews across the Swiss border. He joined a conspiracy to end Hitler's reign, knowing it could cost him everything.

It did. Bonhoeffer was arrested in April 1943 and hanged at Flossenburg concentration camp on April 9, 1945, just two weeks before Allied forces liberated the camp.

In his book The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer wrote words that still sting: "Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes." He understood what James knew centuries earlier — that hearing the Word without acting on it is the most dangerous form of self-deception.

James 1:22 does not ask us to admire Scripture. It asks us to live it. Bonhoeffer showed the world what that looks like — even when living the Word means laying down your life.