Scott Sauls > Quotes

“Christianity always flourishes most as a life-giving minority, not as a powerful majority. It is through subversive, countercultural acts of love, justice, and service for the common good that Christianity has always gained the most ground.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“There is something incredibly attractive and inviting about people who stop pointing fingers and posing and pretending to be totally good and totally right, and instead start taking themselves less seriously and openly and freely admit that they are not yet what they should be.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“Theologian Donald Carson writes: Ideally . . . the church itself is not made up of natural “friends.” It is made up of natural enemies. What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christians come together . . . because . . . they have all been loved by Jesus himself. . . . They are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake.[13]”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“[It is] our inclination to replace Jesus’ call to deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow him. We replace his call with a self-serving path in which we deny our neighbors, take up our comforts and follow our dreams.”
― Scott Sauls, Irresistible Faith: Becoming the Kind of Christian the World Can't Resist

“Faithful are the wounds of friends who show me a mirror, who praised the good in me but who also point out what's hurtful, because such wounds are surgical, not punitive. Such wounds are restorative, not insulting.”
― Scott Sauls, Befriend: Create Belonging in an Age of Judgment, Isolation, and Fear

“I need the wisdom, reasoning, and apologetics of C. S. Lewis, though some of his theological beliefs are different from mine. I need the preaching and charisma of Charles Spurgeon, though his view of baptism is different from mine. I need the resurrection vision of N. T. Wright and the theology of Jonathan Edwards, though their views on church government are different from mine. I need the passion and prophetic courage of Martin Luther King Jr., the cultural intelligence of Soong-Chan Rah, and the Confessions of St. Augustine, though their ethnicities are different from mine. I need the justice impulse and communal passion of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, though his nationality is different from mine. I need the spiritual thirst and love drive of Brennan Manning and the prophetic wit of G. K. Chesterton, though both are Roman Catholics and I am a Protestant. I need the hymns and personal holiness of John and Charles Wesley, though some of their doctrinal distinctives are different from mine. I need the glorious weakness of Joni Eareckson Tada, the spirituality of Marva Dawn, the trusting perseverance of Elisabeth Elliot, the long-suffering spirit of Amy Carmichael, the transparency of Rebekah Lyons, the thankfulness of Ann Voskamp, the Kingdom vision of Amy Sherman, and the integrity of Patti Sauls, though their gender is different from mine. As St. Augustine reputedly said, “In nonessentials, liberty.” To this we might add, “In nonessentials, open-minded receptivity.” We Christians must allow ourselves to be shaped by other believers. The more we move outside the lines of our own traditions and cultures, the more we will also be moving toward Jesus.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. —ANNE LAMOTT”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“We should feel “at home” with people who share our faith but not our politics even more than we do with people who share our politics but not our faith.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“there is more to unity than the cooling down of hostility. Christians from differing perspectives can learn and mature as they listen humbly and carefully to one another.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“What matters more to us—that we successfully put others in their place, or that we are known to love well? That we win culture wars with carefully constructed arguments and political power plays, or that we win hearts with humility, truth, and love? God have mercy on us if we do not love well because all that matters to us is being right and winning arguments.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“Humility is a virtue we admire in others and desire most in our family members, closest friends, and confidants. Unlike pompous people, the humble are a breath of fresh air. Unlike approval junkies, the humble are low maintenance and approachable. Though not perfect, they are generally kind, modest, agreeable, respectful, and deferential in nature. They treat others as being more significant than themselves.[9] Best of all, you never sense that humble people want to be your rivals. They aren’t the type to put you in your place. Even when they disagree with you, you sense that they are in your corner. They respect your dignity. They will not disparage your dignity or reputation, nor will they take sides with you in disparaging somebody else. They don’t need to, because ironically, humble people are also among the most confident. They possess a solid inner core and are among the most secure, emotionally healthy people in the world. They make you want to be a better human being. By their mere presence they call you to higher ground . . . to be and become the very best version of yourself, the person that God has created you to be.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“Tim Keller writes, “Tolerance isn’t about not having beliefs. It’s about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“While true faith is filled with holy fire, it is a fire that is meant for refining and healing, as opposed to dividing and destroying. If our faith ignites hurt rather than healing upon the bodies, hearts, and souls of other people—even those who treat us unkindly—then something has gone terribly wrong with our faith.”
― Scott Sauls, A Gentle Answer: Our 'Secret Weapon' in an Age of Us Against Them

“as far as Jesus is concerned, everyone will ultimately “take a side.” Yet Jesus gave so much of his time, attention, and love to people who did not side with him. A journey through the Gospels shows that he was especially tender toward people who did not believe in him or follow him.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“Are we less concerned about defending our rights—for Jesus laid down his rights—and more concerned about joining Jesus in his mission of loving people, places, and things to life?”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“I am eager for more of us to respond as G. K. Chesterton once did when asked by the London Times, “What’s wrong with the world today?” He said simply, “Dear Sir, I am.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. . . . Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“Leaning toward a certain party is one thing (Matthew did it, Simon did it, and Jesus allowed it), but it is important to see that a partisan spirit can actually run against the Spirit of God. If there ever was a partisan crowd in the Bible, it was the crowd that pressured Pilate to crucify Jesus instead of Barabbas. Barabbas, a true criminal, went free while Jesus, an innocent man, was executed after having his impeccable character assassinated. This is the essence of partisanship. Partisans inflate the best features of their party while inflating the worst features, real or contrived, of the other party. They ignore the weaknesses of their own party while dismissing the other party’s strengths. I have good friends on both sides of the political aisle. I trust them. Many of them—on both sides—have a strong commitment to their faith. Because of this I grow perplexed when Christian men and women willingly participate in spin—ready, willing, and armed to follow the world in telling half-truths to promote their candidates, while telling more half-truths to demonize their opponents. Have we forgotten that a half-truth is the equivalent of a full lie? What’s more, political spin is polarizing even within the community of faith.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“Perhaps there is no greater way for Jesus to uphold the dignity of the poor than by choosing to be poor himself.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“Jesus’ gentle answer was bold and costly. His gentle answer included pouring out his lifeblood and dying on the cross. Our gentle answer will be costly as well. We must die to ourselves, to our self-righteousness, to our indignation, and to our outrage.”
― Scott Sauls, A Gentle Answer: Our 'Secret Weapon' in an Age of Us Against Them

“Our loyalty to Jesus and his Kingdom must always exceed our loyalty to an earthly agenda, whether political or otherwise. We should feel “at home” with people who share our faith but not our politics even more than we do with people who share our politics but not our faith. If this is not our experience, then we very well may be rendering to Caesar what belongs to God.”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“A careful reading of Scripture reveals that this is God's preferred way to make his presence known on earth - not chiefly through movers, shakers, and A-listers, but rather through out-casts, losers, those of ill repute, and those who were held in low esteem. If we examine Jesus' friendships, for example, we will notice a disproportionately low number of celebrities, powerful politicians, affluent business people, high-society people, prominent leaders, and the like. But if you were a known prostitute or a tax collector, an addict or an alcoholic, a no-name, a leper or a paralytic, or a despised and rejected sinner, your chance of being invited into Jesus' inner circle of friends would increase. So scandalous and unexpected were Jesus' associations that he was accused of being a glutton, a drunk, and a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Luke 7:34). The scribes and Pharisees shamed, scolded, and excluded such sinners for their failure to measure up. Yet these strugglers experienced Jesus as humble, gentle, and kind - attributes the scribes and Pharisees knew little to nothing about, because they were too busy separating the world between the good people and the bad people, the saints and the sinners, the virtuous and the scumbags, the insiders and the outsiders, the worthy and the unworthy. Meanwhile, Jesus was hanging out with, befriending, and welcoming religious society's choice rejects, thereby separating the world between the proud and the humble.”
― Scott Sauls, A Gentle Answer: Our 'Secret Weapon' in an Age of Us Against Them

“In our current cultural moment, outrage has become more expected than surprising, more normative than odd, more encouraged than discouraged, more rewarded than rejected.”
― Scott Sauls, A Gentle Answer: Our 'Secret Weapon' in an Age of Us Against Them

“Those of us who identify as Christian have been given a resource that enables us to respond to outrage and wrath in a healing, productive, and life-giving way. Because Jesus Christ has loved us at our worst, we can love others at their worst. Because Jesus Christ has forgiven us for all of our wrongs, we can forgive others who have wronged us. Because Jesus Christ offered a gentle answer instead of pouring out punishment and rejection for our offensive and sinful ways, we can offer gentle answers to those who behave offensively and sinfully toward us.”
― Scott Sauls, A Gentle Answer: Our 'Secret Weapon' in an Age of Us Against Them

“Being awakened by God’s pain-megaphone redirects our focus to essential things worth preserving and nurturing: relationship with family and friends, rhythms and practices leading to health, humble service toward our work, our churches, and our neighbors, and above all, anchoring our roots in the character, promises, and future of God.”
― Scott Sauls, Beautiful People Don't Just Happen: How God Redeems Regret, Hurt, and Fear in the Making of Better Humans

“We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. . . . It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.[1]”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“Those of us who measure a person's worth by dollars instead of dignity would do well to remember that Jesus couldn't afford a place to live (Matt. 8:20). Those of us who measure a person's potential by where she went to college should note that Jesus didn't go to college or to school at all (John 7:15). Those of us who measure a person's significance by their line of work ought to recall that Jesus worked with his hands (Mark 6:3). Those of us who measure a person's beauty by his external appearance should observe that Jesus was average looking at best, if not outright unattractive (Isa. 53:2). Those of us who determine whether or not we want to befriend a person on the basis of his popularity or the types of associations that he keeps should remember that Jesus was a man of no reputation, even his own people did not receive him, and he was chiefly seen as a friend to sinners (John 1:11; Matt 11:16-19). And those of us who measure a person's desirability by his marital and familial status ought not forget that Jesus had no wife and no children.”
― Scott Sauls, A Gentle Answer: Our 'Secret Weapon' in an Age of Us Against Them

“The world thirsts for a different kind of neighbor—not the kind who deny their fellow man, take up their comforts, and follow their dreams—but the kind who deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Jesus in his mission of loving a weary world to life.”
― Scott Sauls, Irresistible Faith: Becoming the Kind of Christian the World Can't Resist

“Why does a little girl lose her emotional equilibrium in a moment of parental discipline, or a megastar musician forget who she is because of one criticism? Or why, when a text message or the subject line of an e-mail says, “We need to talk” (or for us pastors, “About your sermon”) are we struck with a sudden feeling of doom? Why do we spend hours in the gym or in front of the mirror or online meticulously editing our social media profiles? Why is the perfect “selfie” such a large part of how we present ourselves to the world? Why do we live in constant disequilibrium about what our real or imagined critics might say about us?”
― Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

“The name of Jesus is sufficient to name us. The story of Jesus is sufficient to be our story. His name liberates us from preoccupation with self.”
― Scott Sauls, Befriend: Create Belonging in an Age of Judgment, Isolation, and Fear