John Mark Comer’s Live No Lies is the most important book I’ve read in a long time. I’ve urged all my family members and many of my friends to read it, and I’d encourage you to, as well. His argument in a nutshell is this: Christians are at war against three enemies—Satan’s lies vs. God’s truth, our disordered desires vs. the call to love, and the colonizing power of the world vs. Jesus’ new community. Here’s a selection of key quotes to whet your appetite:
“Jesus sees our primary war against the devil as a fight to believe truth over lies.”
“If we give in to the thoughts at war with life and peace, they become strongholds in our minds and hold us in captivity. But we can break free if we set our minds on Scripture. You cut new neural pathways that eventually take root in the neurobiology of your body itself. You become what you give your mind to.”
“Giving in to the desires of our flesh does not lead us to freedom and life, as many people assume, but instead to slavery and, in the worst-case scenario, addiction, which is a kind of prolonged suicide by pleasure.”
“The things we do, do something to us. They shape the people we become.”
“Our freedom expands or shrinks with each decision we make. This is why the older you get, the harder it is to change.”
“Willpower is at its best when it does what it can (direct my body into spiritual practices) so the Spirit’s power can do what willpower can’t (overcome the three enemies of the soul).”
“The key to spiritual formation is to change what we can control (our habits) to influence what we can’t control (our flesh).”
“I will never fit in. I will never be cool. I will never be liked or well respected or admired by the culture. And that’s okay.”
“Church must become a thick web of interdependent relationships between resilient disciples of Jesus deeply loyal to the Way. …we must move beyond Sunday services and a network of loose ties to become a robust counter-anti-culture not just against the world but for the world.”
“It will cost us to follow Jesus, but it will cost us even more to not follow him.”