John Stott Quotes & Sayings

The Christian community is a community of the cross, for it has been brought into being by the cross, and the focus of its worship is the Lamb once slain, now glorified. — John Stott

The hallmark of an authentic evangelicalism is not the uncritical repetition of old traditions but the willingness to submit every tradition, however ancient, to fresh biblical scrutiny and, if necessary, reform. — John Stott

No theology is genuinely Christian which does not arise from and focus on the cross. — John Stott

All worship is an intelligent and loving response to the revelation of God, because it is the adoration of His name. — John Stott

Our Christian life began not with our decision to follow Christ but with God's call to us to do so. — John Stott

The reason I am a Christian is not that it is nice, but that it is true. — John Stott

I have never been able to conjure up (as some great Evangelical missionaries have) the appalling vision of the millions who are not only perishing but will inevitably perish. On the other hand ... I am not and cannot be a universalist. Between these extremes I cherish and hope the majority of the human race will be be saved. And I have a solid biblical basis for this belief. — John Stott

Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, 'I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.' Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. — John Stott

Circumcision stands for a religion of human achievement, of what man can do by his own good works; Christ stands for a religion of divine achievement, of what God has done through the finished work of Christ. — John Stott

A man who loves his wife will love her letters and her photographs because they speak to him of her. So if we love the Lord Jesus, we shall love the Bible because it speaks to us of him. — John Stott

The command to judge not is not a requirement to be blind, but rather a plea to be generous. Jesus does not tell us to cease to be men ... but to renounce the presumptuous ambition to be God. — John Stott

I have sometimes called this 'double listening'. Listening to the voice of God in Scripture, and listening to the voices of the modern world, with all their cries of anger, pain and despair. — John Stott

The nations are not gathered in automatically. If God has promised to bless "all the families of the earth," he has promised to do so "through Abraham's seed" (Genesis 12:3, 22:18). Now we are Abraham's seed by faith, and the earth's families will be blessed only if we go to them with the gospel. That is God's plain purpose. — John Stott

The cross is not just a badge to identify us ... it is also the compass which gives us our bearings in a disoriented world. — John Stott

Without the Holy Spirit, Christian discipleship would be inconceivable, even impossible. There can be no life without the life-giver, no understanding without the Spirit of truth, no fellowship without the unity of the Spirit, no Christlikeness of character apart from His fruit, and no effective witness without His power. As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead. — John Stott

Baptism with water is the sign and seal of baptism with the Spirit, as much as it is of the forgiveness of sins. Water-baptism is the initiatory Christian rite, because Spirit-baptism is the initiatory Christian experience. — John Stott

The essence of apostasy is changing sides from that of the crucified to that of the crucifier. — John Stott

When we look at the cross we see the justice, love, wisdom and power of God. It is not easy to decide which is the most luminously revealed, whether the justice of God in judging sin, or the love of God in bearing the judgment in our place, or the wisdom of God in perfectly combining the two, or the power of God in saving those who believe. For the cross is equally an act, and therefore a demonstration, of God's justice, love, wisdom and power. The cross assures us that this God is the reality within, behind and beyond the universe. — John Stott

A deaf church is a dead church: that is an unalterable principle. — John Stott

Biblical righteousness is more than a private and personal affair; it includes social righteousness as well ... Thus Christians are committed to hunger for righteousness in the whole human community as something pleasing to a righteous God. — John Stott

Christian giving is to be marked by self-sacrifice and self-forgetfuln ess, not by self-congratula tion. — John Stott

The modern world detests authority but worships relevance. Our Christian conviction is that the Bible has both authority and relevance, and that the secret of both is Jesus Christ — John Stott

Apathy is the acceptance of the unacceptable. — John Stott

A gift is acceptable according to what the giver has, not according to what he has not. — John Stott

Word and worship belong indissolubly to each other. All worship is an intelligent and loving response to the revelation of God, because it is the adoration of His name. Therefore, acceptable worship is impossible without preaching. For preaching is making known the name of the Lord, and worship is praising the name of the Lord made known. — John Stott

Truth without love is too hard; love without truth is too soft. — John Stott

God has clothed His thoughts in words, and there is no way to know Him except by knowing the Scriptures. — John Stott

It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size. — John Stott

Faith is a reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently upon the trustworthiness of God. — John Stott

Indignation and compassion form a powerful combination. They are indispensable to vision, and therefore to leadership. — John Stott

But the Holy Spirit is not in a hurry. Character is the produce of a lifetime. — John Stott

The chief reason why the Christian believes in the divine origin of the Bible is that Jesus Christ Himself taught it. — John Stott

It is no exaggeration to say that without Scripture a Christian life is impossible. — John Stott

The symbol of the religion of Jesus is the cross, not the scales. — John Stott

Ambitions for self may be quite modest ... Ambitions for God, however, if they are to be worthy, can never be modest. There is something inherently inappropriate about cherishing small ambitions for God. How can we ever be content that he should acquire just a little more honour in the world? No. Once we are clear that God is King, then we long to see him crowned with glory and honour, and accorded his true place, which is the supreme place. We become ambitious for the spread of his kingdom and righteousness everywhere. — John Stott

God intends ... our care of Creation to reflect our love for the Creator. — John Stott

We live and die; Christ died and lived! — John Stott

The gospel creates the church, which spreads the gospel, which creates more churches, which in turn spread the gospel further ad infinitum. — John Stott

If Christ seldom makes offers without demands, He also seldom makes demands without offers. He offers His strength to enable us to meet His demands. — John Stott

God condemned sin in Christ, so that holiness might appear in us. — John Stott

Tolerance is not a spiritual gift; it is the distinguishing mark of postmodernism; and sadly, it has permeated the very fiber of Christianity. Why is it that those who have no biblical convictions or theology to govern and direct their actions are tolerated and the standard or truth of God's Word rightly divided and applied is dismissed as extreme opinion or legalism? — John Stott

Nobody can call himself a Christian who does not worship Jesus. — John Stott

Do we claim to believe in God? He's a missionary God. You tell me you're committed to Christ. He's a missionary Christ. Are you filled with the Holy Spirit? He's a missionary Spirit. Do you belong to the church? It's a missionary society. And do you hope to go to heaven when you die? It's a heaven into which the fruits of world mission have been and will be gathered. — John Stott

Prayer is the very way God Himself has chosen for us to express our conscious need of Him and our humble dependence on Him. — John Stott

Our claim is that God has revealed Himself by speaking; that this divine (or God-breathed) speech has been written down and preserved in Scripture; and that Scripture is, in fact, God's Word written, which therefore is true and reliable and has divine authority over men. — John Stott

Because in no other person but the historic Jesus of Nazareth has God become man and lived a human life on earth, died to bear the penalty of our sins, and been raised from death and exalted to glory, there is no other Savior, for there is no other person who is qualified to save. — John Stott

The first and great evidence of our walking by the Spirit or being filled with the Spirit is not some private mystical experience of our own, but our practical relationships of love with other people. — John Stott

The chief reason people do not know God is not because He hides from them but because they hide from Him. — John Stott

It is impossible to pray for someone without loving him, and impossible to go on praying for him without discovering that our love for him grows and matures. — John Stott

Christians who neglect the Bible simply do not mature. — John Stott

We can all be stimulated to greater generosity by the known generosity of others. — John Stott

The question is not so much what the hand is doing (passing over some cash or a check) but what the heart is thinking while the hand is doing it. — John Stott

The authority by which the Christian leader leads is not power but love, not force but example, not coercion but reasoned persuasion. Leaders have power, but power is safe only in the hands of those who humble themselves to serve. — John Stott

We should travel light and live simply. Our enemy is not possessions but excess. — John Stott

God continues to speak through what He has spoken. — John Stott

Do not be content with a static Christian life. Determine rather to grow in faith and love, in knowledge and holiness. — John Stott

For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God [Gen. 3:1-7], while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man [2 Cor. 5:21]. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. — John Stott

We are sent into the world, like Jesus, to serve. For this is the natural expression of our love for our neighbors. We love. We go. We serve. — John Stott

We cannot be content with an evangelism which does not lead to the drawing of converts into the church, nor with a church order whose principle of cohesion is a superficial social camaraderie instead of a spiritual fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. — John Stott

Persecution is simply the clash between two irreconcilable value-systems. — John Stott

So close was Christ's connection with God that he equated a man's attitude to himself with the man's attitude to God. — John Stott

The Christian's chief occupational hazards are depression and discouragement. — John Stott

Every powerful movement has had its philosophy which has gripped the mind, fired the imagination and captured the devotion of its adherents. — John Stott

Sin and the child of God are incompatible. They may occasionally meet; they cannot live together in harmony — John Stott

Instead of inflicting upon us the judgment we deserved, God in Christ endured it in our place. — John Stott

Simplicity is the first cousin of contentment. — John Stott

Saving faith is resting faith, the trust which relies entirely on the Savior. — John Stott

If God speaks to us about himself and his own glorious greatness, we respond by humbling ourselves before him in worship ... If He speaks to us about His commandments, we determine to obey them. — John Stott

Theology is a serious quest for the true knowledge of God, undertaken in response to His self-revelation, illumined by Christian tradition, manifesting a rational inner coherence, issuing in ethical conduct, resonating with the contemporary world and concerned for the greater glory of God. — John Stott

The good news is the gospel of God, about Christ, according to Scripture, for the nations, unto the obedience of faith, and for the sake of the Name. — John Stott

Never use a gallon of words to express a spoonful of thought. Our unadorned word should be enough. — John Stott

When Jesus is truly our Lord, He directs our lives and we gladly obey Him. Indeed, we bring every part of our lives under His lordship - our home and family, our sexuality and marriage, our job or unemployment, our money and possessions, our ambitions and recreations. — John Stott

Grace is God loving, God stooping, God coming to the rescue, God giving himself generously in and through Jesus Christ. — John Stott

The Cross is the blazing fire at which the flame of our love is kindled, but we have to get near enough for its sparks to fall on us. — John Stott

Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you. — John Stott

Don't neglect your critical faculties. Remember that God is a rational God, who has made us in His own image. God invites and expects us to explore His double revelation, in nature and Scripture, with the minds He has given us, and to go on in the development of a Christian mind to apply His marvellous revealed truth to every aspect of the modern and post-modern world. — John Stott

Mission arises from the heart of God Himself and is communicated from His heart to ours. Mission is the global outreach of the global people of a global God. — John Stott

A Christian's freedom from anxiety is not due to some guaranteed freedom from trouble, but to the folly of worry and especially to the confidence that God is our Father, that even permitted suffering is within the orbit of His care. — John Stott

At every step of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend. — John Stott

There is no biblical Christianity without the cross at its center. — John Stott

If we truly worship God, acknowledging and adoring his infinite worth, we find ourselves impelled to make him known to others, in order that they may worship him too. Thus worship leads to witness, and witness in its turn to worship, in a perpetual circle. — John Stott

An unchurched christian is a grotesque anomaly. The New Testament knows nothing of such a person. For the church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought. It is not an accident of history. On the contrary, the church is God's new community. — John Stott

Although we have responsibilities to others, we are primarily accountable to God. It is before him that we stand, and to him that one day we must give an account. We should not therefore rate human opinion too highly ... — John Stott

Speaking personally, I find it helpful to detect in the four evangelists four dimensions of the saving purpose of God: its length, depth, breadth and height. Matthew reveals its length, for he depicts the Christ of Scripture, who looks back over long-centuries of expectation. Mark emphasizes its depth, for he depicts the Suffering Servant who looks down to the depths of the humiliation he endured. In Luke it is the breadth of God's purpose which emerges, for he depicts the Savior of the world who looks round in mercy to the broadest possible spectrum of human beings. Then John reveals its height, for he depicts the Word made flesh who looks up to the heights from which he came and to which he intends to raise us. — John Stott

The concept of substitution lies at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. — John Stott

The Spirit of God leads the people of God to submit to the Word of God. — John Stott

No man has ever appreciated the gospel until the law has first revealed him to himself. It is only against the inky blackness of the night sky that the stars begin to appear, and it is only against the dark background of sin and judgment that the gospel shines forth. — John Stott

I believe that to preach or to expound the scripture is to open up the inspired text with such faithfulness and sensitivity that God's voice is heard and His people obey Him — John Stott

To encounter Christ is to touch reality and experience transcendence. He gives us a sense of self-worth or personal significance, because He assures us of God's love for us. He sets us free from guilt because He died for us and from paralyzing fear because He reigns. He gives meaning to marriage and home, work and leisure, personhood and citizenship. — John Stott

Christian people should surely have been in the vanguard of the movement for environmental responsibility, because of our doctrines of creation and stewardship. Did God make the world? Does he sustain it? Has he committed its resources to our care? His personal concern for his own creation should be sufficient to inspire us to be equally concerned. — John Stott

We have the means of evangelizing our country, but they are slumbering in the pews of our churches. — John Stott

God must speak to us before we have any liberty to speak to him. He must disclose to us who he is before we can offer him what we are in acceptable worship. The worship of God is always a response to the Word of God. Scripture wonderfully directs and enriches our worship. — John Stott

No man preaches his sermon well to others if he does not first preach it to his own heart. — John Stott

Here's how to determine God's will for your life: Go wherever your gifts will be exploited the most. — John Stott

Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues. — John Stott

The incentive to peacemaking is love, but it degenerates into appeasement whenever justice is ignored. To forgive and to ask for forgiveness are both costly exercises. All authentic Christian peacemaking exhibits the love and justice-and so the pain-of the cross. — John Stott

What I believe to be one of the major tragedies in the Church today. Namely, that evangelicals are biblical, but not contemporary, while liberals are contemporary but not biblical, and almost nobody is building bridges and relating the biblical text to the modern context — John Stott

If the first mark of a true and living church is love, the second is
suffering. The one is naturally consequent on the other. A
willingness to suffer proves the genuineness of love. — John Stott

The law requires works of human achievement; the gospel requires faith in Christ's achievement. The law makes demands and bids us obey; the gospel brings promises and bids us believe. — John Stott

The major mark of justified believers is joy, especially joy in God himself. We should be the most positive people in the world. For the new community of Jesus Christ is characterized not by a self-centered triumphalism but by a God-centered worship. — John Stott