Even when he has to deal with a brother who is at fault, the 'doer of the law' has only one possible means of giving effect to the law, and that is by performing it himself. It is rendered effective and is acknowledged to be the living word of God which takes effect by it's own power and which has need of no human assistance. This does not mean, then, that the doer of the law is content with his own doing and that with a side long glance he calls upon God to be the judge of his sinful brother whom he himself is, unfortunately, not permitted to judge. There is really no such sidelong glance here, but there is the only conduct which is appropriate to the law of God, namely the doing of the law, and it is only in this exclusive concentration upon one's own doing of the law, without any other thought in mind, that the law is given its due and is allowed to exercise its power also upon one's brother."

Ethics by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Co., New York originally published in the German in 1949


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