Brian Christensen

“These examples tell us that the first Christians took Jesus’s ethics and message extremely seriously. The early Christians shaped their lives-communally and individually--according to the ethical teachings of Jesus, even to the point of completely altering their economic relationships. The ethical teachings of Jesus also changed how the early Christians related to wider society, including how they related to the state.

Being a Christian in the first few centuries of Christianity cost something, economically, and socially, and for some, it even cost their lives. The commandments of Jesus, no matter how seemingly radical, were not distant ideals for the first Christians. they were commandments to be obeyed, and commandments that they built their lives and communities on.”
― Roman A. Montero, Jesus’s Manifesto: The Sermon on the Plain

“Thus, right at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contradicted all human judgments and all nationalistic expectations of the kingdom of God.

The kingdom is given to the poor, not the rich;

the feeble, not the mighty;

to little children humble enough to accept it, not to soldiers who boast that they can obtain it by their own prowess.”
― John R W Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount by John R W Stott

“Compared to the life Jesus offers, mammon in any amount is poverty!”
― Arthur Simon, How Much is Enough?

“The preaching of the gospel includes much to which the world says "Amen" but the preaching of the gospel will eventually make you an outcast, lead you to prison, or force you underground. The kingdom of God invades and destroys the world by replacing systems of death and fear with justice and mercy.”
― Clarence Jordan, Cotton Patch Parables of Liberation