A pastor should never complain about his congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men.

Only the believer obeys — obedience follows faith, the way good fruit comes from a good tree. Only the obedient believe.

If you reject God's commanding word, you will not receive God's gracious word.

A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses.

Judgement is the forbidden objectivization of the other person which destroys single-minded love. I am not forbidden to have my own thoughts about the other person, to realize his shortcomings, but only to the extent that it offers to me an occasion for forgiveness and unconditional love, as Jesus proves to me.

Discipleship never consists in this or that specific action: it is always a decision, either for or against Jesus Christ.

In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.