John Piper > Quotes

“Murmur-free Christians who don’t complain are the light of the world.”
― John Piper

“The shape of true love isn’t a diamond. It’s a cross.”
― John Piper

“Gratitude for luxury impresses no one with our savior. No matter how grateful we are, lining our lives with gold will not make the world think our God is great, it will make the world think our God is gold. That is no honor to the supremacy of His worth. None. But His supremacy, Him being infinitely more valuable than gold is why we live.”
― John Piper

“Una teología débil forma mujeres débiles”
― John Piper

“The gifts are intensifiers of desire for Christ himself in much the same way that fasting is. When you give a gift to Christ like this, it's a way of saying something like this: The joy that I pursue is not the hope of getting rich with things from you. I have not come to you for your things but for yourself. And this desire I now intensify and demonstrate by giving up things in the hope of enjoying you more, not the things. By giving to you what you do not need and what I might enjoy, I am saying more earnestly and more authentically, "You are my treasure, not these things." I think that's what it means to worship God with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.”
― John Piper, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”
― John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life

“The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife. The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable. Jesus said some people hear the word of God, and a desire for God is awakened in their hearts. But then, “as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life.” In another place he said, “The desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” “The pleasures of this life” and “the desires for other things”—these are not evil in themselves. These are not vices. These are gifts of God. They are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening and reading and decorating and traveling and investing and TV-watching and Internet-surfing and shopping and exercising and collecting and talking. And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God.”
― John Piper

“It is costly to follow Christ. There is risk everywhere. But this very risk is the means by which the value of Christ shines more brightly.”
― John Piper, Risk Is Right

“Let’s be Christian through and through. Let’s get ready to suffer. If we cannot deny ourselves a little bit of entertainment how will we ever endure persecution? Christ is our standard. Use everything to enhance your enjoyment of Jesus. And if it doesn’t enhance it, don’t do it.”
― John Piper

“When the real God is rejected images are embraced because sin loves God-substituting images. And we, more than any culture in the history of the world, live in an age of images. We spend almost all our leisure time looking at images. It’s quite irrelevant…that those images were stone or wood…and ours are on our phone or television or computer - that’s irrelevant! The issue is substitution: we exchange the infinitely valuable glory of God for the glory of that show of images coming off the screen.”
― John Piper

“Eat the fruit of sorrow, even if it is bitter. This fruit, that you can only eat now, has nutrients in it that you can't get any other way. I know this may be a little hard to hear, but this is so real and so needed.”
― John Piper

“... We do not use the word cool to describe true greatness. It's a small word. That's the point. It's cheap. And it's what millions of young people live for.”
― John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life

“Apathy is a passionless living. It is sitting in front of the television night after night and living your life from one moment of entertainment to the next. It is the inability to be shocked into action by the steady state of lostness and suffering of the world. It is the emptiness that comes from thinking of godliness as the avoidance of doing bad things instead of the aggressive pursuit of doing good things.”
― John Piper

“Man was put on earth to make a name for God, nor for himself." Providence, 68.”
― John Piper

“But whatever you do, find the God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated passion of your life, and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it. And you will make a difference that lasts. You will not waste your life.”
― John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life

“Only the gospel can do two seemingly contradictory things: destroy pride and increase courage. Destroy self-exaltation and increase confidence. Destroy the pushiness of self-assertion and deliver from the paralysis of self-doubt.”
― John Piper