Discipleship Costs

And what does Scripture inform us about the content of discipleship?  Follow me, run along behind me!  That is all.  To follow in his steps is something which is void of all content.  It gives us no intelligible program for a way of life, no goal or ideal to strive after.  It is not a cause which human calculation might deem worthy of devotion, even the devotion of ourselves.  At the call the disciples leave everything that they have—but not because they think that they might be doing something worthwhile, but simply for the sake of the call.  Otherwise they cannot follow in the steps of Jesus.  The disciples burn their boats and go ahead.  They are dragged out of their relative security into a life of absolute insecurity.  When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to his person.  The grace of his call bursts all the bonds of legalism.  It is a gracious call, a gracious commandment.  Christ calls; we are to follow.

– from The Cost of Discipleship (1937), Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945)