yoder quotes

one of the books i read during my 40 day media fast was the original revolution by john howard yoder, a collection of essays discussing the topic of christian pacifism. **everyone must read this book**

i wrote down some of my favorite quotes and thought i'd share them with the blogosphere. enjoy...

"jesus will therefore be describing a morality of repentance or of conversion; not a prescription of what Every Man can and should do to be happy; not a meditation on how best to guide society, but a description of how a person behaves whose life has been transformed by meeting jesus."

"this (christian pacifism) is not a set of moral standards to be posed on everyone or on the unconvinced."

"the ethics of discipleship is not guided by the goals it seeks to reach, but by the Lord it seeks to reflect."

"what jesus meant by fulfillment was thus a quite literal filling full, a carrying on to full accomplishment of the intent of the earlier moral guides."

"nonresistance is right, in the deepest sense, not because it works, but because it anticipates the triumph of the lamb that was slain."

"here we must point out that this attitude, leaving evil free to be evil, leaving the sinner free to separate himself from God and sin against man, is a part of the nature of agape itself, as revealed already in creation."

"God's love begins right at the point where he permits sin against himself and against man, without crushing the rebel under his own rebellion."

regarding the new covenant..."once all men are seen as potential partakers of the covenant, then the outside can no longer be perceived as less than human or as an object for sacrificing."

read the book for yourself. it's brilliant.

-dave-