Top 160 John R.W. Stott Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “The church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought.”

— John R.W. Stott

52. “What we need is not more learning, not more eloquence, not more persuasion, not more organization, but more power from the Holy Spirit.”

— John R.W. Stott

53. “The Christian’s chief occupational hazards are depression and discouragement.”

— John R.W. Stott

54. “Probably the greatest tragedy of the church throughout its long and checkered history has been its constant tendency to conform to the prevailing culture instead of developing a Christian counter-culture .”

— John R.W. Stott

55. “In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?”

— John R.W. Stott

56. “The truth is that there are such things as Christian tears, and too few of us ever weep them.”

— John R.W. Stott

57. “His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And His presence with us leaves us with no other choice.”

— John R.W. Stott

58. “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 R.W. Stott

59. “Scripture is the royal scepter by which King Jesus rules his church.”

— John R.W. Stott

60. “There is no biblical Christianity without the cross at its center.”

— John R.W. Stott

61. “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 R.W. Stott

62. “The reason I am a Christian is not that it is nice, but that it is true.”

— John R.W. Stott

63. “God continues to speak through what He has spoken.”

— John R.W. Stott

65. “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 R.W. Stott

66. “A deaf church is a dead church: that is an unalterable principle.”

— John R.W. Stott

67. “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 R.W. Stott

68. “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 R.W. Stott

69. “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 R.W. Stott

70. “Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.”

— John R.W. Stott

71. “The Bible isn’t about people trying to discover God, but about God reaching out to find us.”

— John R.W. Stott

72. “Envy is the reverse side of a coin called vanity – Nobody is ever envious of others who is not first proud of himself.”

— John R.W. Stott

73. “The church is under orders. Evangelistic inactivity is disobedience.”

— John R.W. Stott

74. “All worship is an intelligent and loving response to the revelation of God, because it is the adoration of His name.”

— John R.W. Stott

75. “Indignation and compassion form a powerful combination. They are indispensable to vision, and therefore to leadership.”

— John R.W. Stott

76. “No man preaches his sermon well to others if he does not first preach it to his own heart.”

— John R.W. Stott

77. “A gift is acceptable according to what the giver has, not according to what he has not.”

— John R.W. Stott

78. “Everyone who has been truly set free by Jesus Christ expresses liberty in these three ways, first in self-control, next in loving service of our neighbor, and third in obedience to the law of God.”

— John R.W. Stott

79. “Persecution is simply the clash between two irreconcilable value-systems.”

— John R.W. Stott

80. “Simplicity is the first cousin of contentment.”

— John R.W. Stott

81. “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 R.W. Stott

82. “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 R.W. Stott

83. “The gospel creates the church, which spreads the gospel, which creates more churches, which in turn spread the gospel further ad infinitum.”

— John R.W. Stott

84. “The symbol of the religion of Jesus is the cross, not the scales.”

— John R.W. Stott

85. “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 R.W. Stott

86. “The meaning of atonement is not to be found in our penitence evoked by the sight of Calvary, but rather in what God did when in Christ on the cross He took our place and bore our sin.”

— John R.W. Stott

87. “Faith’s only function is to receive what grace offers.”

— John R.W. Stott

88. “God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be.”

— John R.W. Stott

89. “Knowledge is indispensable to Christian life and service. If we do not use the mind that God has given us, we condemn ourselves to spiritual superficiality and cut ourselves off from many of the riches of God’s grace.”

— John R.W. Stott

90. “Saving faith is resting faith, the trust which relies entirely on the Savior.”

— John R.W. Stott

91. “Good conduct arises out of good doctrine.”

— John R.W. Stott

92. “No theology is genuinely Christian which does not arise from and focus on the cross.”

— John R.W. Stott

93. “God condemned sin in Christ, so that holiness might appear in us.”

— John R.W. Stott

94. “There is something inherently inappropriate about cherishing small ambitions for God.”

— John R.W. Stott

95. “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 R.W. Stott

96. “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 R.W. Stott

97. “It is a great comfort to know that our judge will be none other than our savior.”

— John R.W. Stott

98. “The overriding reason why we should take other people’s cultures seriously is because God has taken ours seriously.”

— John R.W. Stott

99. “God has clothed His thoughts in words, and there is no way to know Him except by knowing the Scriptures.”

— John R.W. Stott

100. “The chief reason why the Christian believes in the divine origin of the Bible is that Jesus Christ Himself taught it.”

— John R.W. Stott