Timothy Keller Quotes

Obviously, it is true that we must bring the gospel to the city and hear the gospel while in the city. But we must also recognize how much the city itself brings the gospel to us. The city will challenge us to discover the power of the gospel in new ways. ~ Timothy Keller

The most rapturous delights you have ever had - in the beauty of a landscape, or in the pleasure of food, or in the fulfillment of a loving embrace - are like dewdrops compared to the bottomless ocean of joy that it will be to see God face-to-face (1 John 3:1-3). That is what we are in for, nothing less. And according to the Bible, that glorious beauty, and our enjoyment of it, has been immeasurably enhanced by Christ's redemption of us from evil and death. ~ Timothy Keller

The gospel is not about choosing to follow advice; it's about being called to follow a King. ~ Timothy Keller

All I can tell you is that we have to re-live the gospel every time we pray. We have to re-live it every time we go to church. We have to re-live the gospel on the spot and ask ourselves what we are doing in the courtroom. We should not be there. The court is adjourned. ~ Timothy Keller

Ultimately, it is impossible to separate word and deed ministry because human beings are integrated wholes - body and soul. It is both natural and necessary that ministers of mercy also minister the Word while they are in the process of meeting human needs, and that communicators of the gospel also show compassion with regard to the material needs of the people they are trying to reach. An integrative ministry means weaving together word and deed ministry as much as possible. ~ Timothy Keller

I am so bad that He had to die. I am so loved that He was glad to die. ~ Timothy Keller

If we can't say "thy will be done" from the bottom of our hearts, we will never know any peace. We will feel compelled to try to control people and control our environment and make things the way we believe they ought to be. ~ Timothy Keller

If we are not deliberately thinking about our culture and our context, we will be conformed to it without ever knowing. ~ Timothy Keller

Ironically, the insistence that doctrines do not matter is really a doctrine itself. ~ Timothy Keller

Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be servant of all ~ Timothy Keller

God is very patient with us when we are desperate. Pour out your soul to him. ~ Timothy Keller

The gospel has supernatural versatility to address the particular hopes, fears, and idols of every culture and every person. ~ Timothy Keller

Our daily work can be a calling only if it is reconceived as God's assignment to serve others. ~ Timothy Keller

How do you change your behavior? Change what you worship ~ Timothy Keller

Community service has become a patch for morality. You can devote your life to community service and be a total schmuck. ~ Timothy Keller

Only if you first seek inner forgiveness will your confrontation be temperate, wise, and gracious. Only when you have lost the need to see the other person hurt will you have any chance of actually bringing about change, reconciliation, and healing. You have to submit to the costly suffering and death of forgiveness if there is going to be any resurrection. ~ Timothy Keller

All forms of love are necessary, and none are to be ignored, but all of us find some forms of love to be more emotionally valuable to us. They are a currency that we find particularly precious, a language that delivers the message of love to our hearts with the most power. Some types of love are more thrilling and fulfilling to us when we receive them.. ~ Timothy Keller

Many people think of the Bible as a book of moral teachings with stories sprinkled through to illustrate the teachings. But it's a lot BETTER THAN THAT ... the Bible is a single true story with teachings sprinkled through to illustrate the story. ~ Timothy Keller

Jesus's teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. ~ Timothy Keller

You believe in a loving God. Then along comes criticism, or rejection (say, a relationship breaks up), or some failure that's a blow to your reputation in some realm. Anyone in such a situation will feel quite crestfallen and downcast. But there is a difference between being discouraged and being devastated, between sliding into despondency and not being able to function. If God's love is an abstraction, it is of no consolation. But if it is a felt and lived reality through prayer, then it buoys you up. ~ Timothy Keller

The early church was strikingly different from the culture around it in this way - the pagan society was stingy with its money and promiscuous with its body. A pagan gave nobody their money and practically gave everybody their body. And the Christians came along and gave practically nobody their body and they gave practically everybody their money. ~ Timothy Keller

The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access ~ Timothy Keller

C. S. Lewis argues that it takes a community of people to get to know an individual person. Reflecting on his own friendships, he observed that some aspects of one of his friend's personality were brought out only through interaction with a second friend. That meant if he lost the second friend, he lost the part of his first friend that was otherwise invisible. "By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets."221 If it takes a community to know an ordinary human being, how much more necessary would it be to get to know Jesus alongside others? By praying with friends, you will be able to hear and see facets of Jesus that you have not yet perceived. ~ Timothy Keller

Even if our own troubles are great, we should still serve. Jesus washed His disciples feet on the way to the cross. ~ Timothy Keller

True citizens of the heavenly city are the best residents of the earthly city. ~ Timothy Keller

If I have the smile of God, all other frowns are inconsequential. ~ Timothy Keller

If you want God's grace, all you need is need, all you need is nothing. But that kind of spiritual humility is hard to muster. We come to God saying, "Look at all I've done," or maybe "Look at all I've suffered." God, however, wants us to look to him - to just wash. ~ Timothy Keller

Think about this. The God of the universe became a wiggling baby in order to get close to you. ~ Timothy Keller

Nothing is more important than to learn how to maintain a life of purpose in the midst of painful adversity. ~ Timothy Keller

The "good deeds" done outside trusting the gospel will make a soul go sour. ~ Timothy Keller

The peace of God is not the absence of fear. It, in fact, is His presence. ~ Timothy Keller

But we need to realize that there are deeper harvests that happen even when we don't meet with much outward success. We will find our own character changing deeply through ministry. Our consciences will be clear and our hearts happier, since we're less self-indulgent. We'll develop a less selfish and more satisfied character, which will serve us well when we are under pressure. We may not reap quickly, and we may not see all that we reap; but we can know that there is a great harvest for those who sow to please the Spirit. ~ Timothy Keller

To stay away from Christianity because part of the Bible's teaching is offensive to you assumes that if there is a God he wouldn't have any views that upset you. Does that belief make sense? ~ Timothy Keller

When people say, "God is love," I think they mean that love is extremely important, or that God really wants us to love. But in Christian conception, God really has love as his essence. ~ Timothy Keller

If our identity is in our work, rather than Christ, success will go to our heads, and failure will go to our hearts. ~ Timothy Keller

The elder brother is not losing the father's love in spite of his goodness, but because of it. It is not his sins that create the barrier between him and his father, it's the pride he has in his moral record; it's not his wrongdoing but his righteousness that is keeping him from sharing in the feast of the father. ~ Timothy Keller

Those dreaming of the perfect match are outnumbered by those who don't really want it at all, though perhaps they can't admit it. After all, our culture makes individual freedom, autonomy and fulfillment the very highest values, and thoughtful people know deep down that any love relationship at all means the loss of all three. You can say, 'I want someone who will accept me just as I am,' but in your heart of hearts you know that you are not perfect, that there are plenty of things about you that need to be changed, and that anyone who gets to know you up close and personal will want to change them. ~ Timothy Keller

People "at the top" are eager to attribute their position to their own intellect, savvy, and hard work. The reality is much more complicated. Personal connections, family environment, and what appears to be plain luck determine how successful a person is. We are the product of three things- genetics, environment, and our personal choices- but two of these three factors we have no power over. We are not nearly as responsible for our success as our popular views of God and reality lead us to think. ~ Timothy Keller

We have to be careful not to elevate our preferences to moral standards and judge others by them. We only do so to feel superior. ~ Timothy Keller

Love is primarily giving. It's an action that leads to a feeling, not a feeling first. ~ Timothy Keller

I seemed to see two camps before me, and there was something radically wrong with both of them. The people most passionate about social justice were moral relativists, while the morally upright didn't seem to care about the oppression going on all over the world. I was emotionally drawn to the former path - what young person wouldn't be? Liberate the oppressed and sleep with who you wanted! But I kept asking the question, If morality is relative, why isn't social justice as well? ~ Timothy Keller

Christmas is an invitation by God to say: Look what I've done to come near to you. Now draw near to me ... I want to be a friend. ~ Timothy Keller

Is the covenant between God and his people conditional or unconditional? Yes. Yes. Jesus came and fulfilled the conditions so God could love us unconditionally. ~ Timothy Keller

The very fact that we have access to God's attention and presence should concentrate the thoughts and elevate the heart. ~ Timothy Keller

Nothing we formulate or do can qualify us for access to God. Only grace can do that - based not on our performance but on the saving work of Christ. ~ Timothy Keller

The happy ending of the Resurrection is so enormous that it swallows up even the sorrow of the Cross. ~ Timothy Keller

In short, the Enlightenment privatized marriage, taking it out of the public sphere, and redefined its purpose as individual gratification, not any 'broader good' such as reflecting God's nature, producing character, or raising children. Slowly but surely, this newer understanding of the meaning of marriage has displaced the older ones in Western culture. ~ Timothy Keller

Faith in the gospel restructures our motivations, our self-understanding, our identity, and our view of the world. Behavioral compliance to rules without heart-change will be superficial and fleeting ... We can only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and into our hearts. We must feed on the gospel, as it were, digesting it and making it part of ourselves. That is how we grow. ~ Timothy Keller

Disordered love always leads to misery and breakdown. The only way to 'reorder' our loves is to love God supremely. ~ Timothy Keller

If we get our very identity, our sense of worth, from our political position, then politics is not really about, it is about US. Through our cause we are getting a self, our worth. That means we MUST despise and demonize the opposition. If we get our identity from our ethnicity or socioeconomic status, then we HAVE to feel superior to those of other classes and races. If you are profoundly proud of being an open-minded, tolerant soul, you will be extremely indignant toward people you think are bigots. If you are a very moral person, you will feel superior to people you think are licentious. And so on. ~ Timothy Keller

Behold the glory of Jesus means that we begin to find Christ beautiful for who he is in himself. It means a kind of prayer in which we are not simply coming to him to get his forgiveness, his help for our needs, his favor and blessing. Rather, the consideration of his character, words, and work on our behalf becomes inherently satisfying, enjoyable, comforting, and strengthening.289 Owen insisted that it was crucial that Christians be enabled to do this. He reasoned that if the beauty and glory of Christ do not capture our imaginations, dominate our waking thought, and fill our hearts with longing and desire - then something else will. We will be "continually ruminating" on something or some things as our hope and joy. Whatever those things are, they will "frame our souls" and "transform us into their likeness." If we don't behold the glory of God in the face of Christ, then something else will rule our lives. We will be slaves. ~ Timothy Keller

A church must be more deeply and practically committed to deeds of compassion and social justice than traditional liberal churches and more deeply and practically committed to evangelism and conversion than traditional fundamentalist churches. This kind of church is profoundly counter-intuitive to American observers. It breaks their ability to categorize (and dismiss) it as liberal or conservative. Only this kind of church has any chance in the non-Christian west. ~ Timothy Keller

No one is exempt from trials and tribulations. In fact, this is often what happens to people God loves very much, for it is part of God's often mysterious and good plan for turning us into something great. ~ Timothy Keller

In the Bible there are three human institutions that stand apart from all others - the family, the church, and the state. There's nothing in the Bible about how schools should be run, even though they are crucial to a flourishing society. ~ Timothy Keller

Young professionals seeking cities to live and work in, and a wave of immigrants in inner-city neighborhoods and inner suburbs that eventually produced second-generation college graduates who moved into the center city to live and work. These groups joined the gays and artists who have always chosen to live in urban communities.12 Edward Glaeser points out that not all cities have succeeded in the past generation - and he points to Detroit, Michigan, and Leipzig, Germany, as examples. But most cities have found the power to reinvent themselves, argues Glaeser, because the essence of what makes a city a city is the bringing of people together to innovate. At one level, this means bringing together the most highly trained and talented people, the "elites." Yet at another level, it means bringing together the most energetic, ambitious, and risk-taking people from among the ~ Timothy Keller

The idols of modern culture have had a profound influence on the shape of our work today. In traditional societies people found their meaning and sense of value by submitting their interests and sacrificing their desires to serve higher causes like God, family, and other people. In modern societies there is often no higher cause than individual interests and desires. This shift powerfully changed the role of work in people's lives - it now became the way we defined ourselves. Traditional cultures tended to see people's place on the social ladder as assigned by nature or convention, each family having its "proper place." That view had put too little stock in the role of individual talent, ambition, and hard work for determining the outcome of one's life. But modern society responded by putting too much stock in the autonomous person. ~ Timothy Keller

Religious people find God useful. Gospel people find him beautiful. ~ Timothy Keller

A sense of Jesus' absence might be a sign of his presence- a sign that he's working already in your life. ~ Timothy Keller

The Gospel is news of what God has done to reach us. It is not advice about what we must do to reach God. ~ Timothy Keller

Why is understanding church models essential in enabling a city's churches to work together in unity? Without this understanding, there will be no catholicity in your city. Unless you accept the fact that there is not one exclusively biblical church model, you will not see the need for strong fellowship and connections to other denominations and networks, which usually embody different emphases and strengths than the ones that characterize your model. What's more, there also will be no catholicity in your church, denomination, or movement. ~ Timothy Keller

The reason for our confusion is that we usually read the Bible as a series of disconnected stories, each with a "moral" for how we should live our lives. It is not. Rather, it comprises a single story, telling us how the human race got into its present condition, and how God through Jesus Christ has come and will come to put things right. ~ Timothy Keller

Any sermon that tells listeners only how they should live without putting that standard into the context of the gospel gives them the impression that they might be complete enough to pull themselves together if they really try hard. Ed Clowney points out that if we ever tell a particular Bible story without putting it into the Bible story (about Christ), we actually change its meaning for us. It becomes a moralistic exhortation to "try harder" rather than a call to live by faith in the work of Christ. There are, in the end, only two ways to read the Bible: Is it basically about me or basically about Jesus? In other words, is it basically about what I must do or basically about what he has done? ~ Timothy Keller

In the end, we love people into belief. We do not argue them into belief. ~ Timothy Keller

In religion, you obey because God is useful. In Christianity, you obey because God is beautiful. ~ Timothy Keller

I've heard plenty of Christians try to answer the why question by going back to the what. "You have to believe because Jesus is the Son of God." But that's answering the why with more what. Increasingly we live in a time in which you can't avoid the why question. Just giving the what (for example, a vivid gospel presentation) worked in the days when the cultural institutions created an environment in which Christianity just felt true or at least honorable. But in a post-Christendom society, in the marketplace of ideas, you have to explain why this is true, or people will just dismiss it. ~ Timothy Keller

The church growth movement has made many lasting contributions to our practice of ministry. But its overemphasis on technique and results can put too much pressure on ministers because it underemphasizes the importance of godly character and the sovereignty of God. ~ Timothy Keller

Christians are called to be an alternate city within every earthly city, an alternate human culture within every human culture - to show how sex, money, and power can be used in nondestructive ways; to show how classes and races that cannot get along outside of Christ can get along in him; and to show how it is possible to cultivate by using the tools of art, education, government, and business to bring hope to people rather than despair or cynicism. ~ Timothy Keller

Falling in love in a Christian way is to say,'I am excited about your future and I want to be part of getting you there. I'm signing up for the journey with you. Would you sign up for the journey to my true self with me? It's going to be hard but I want to get there. ~ Timothy Keller

God's love and mercy (like liberal preachers). Only when people see God as absolutely holy and absolutely loving will the cross of Jesus truly electrify and change them. ~ Timothy Keller

Not everyone is your brother or sister in the faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor. ~ Timothy Keller

There is a joy available that the deepest grief cannot put out. No circumstance or person can take away the joy God gives. ~ Timothy Keller

There is no evil that the father's love cannot pardon and cover, there is no sin that is a match for his grace. ~ Timothy Keller

The main problem in the Christian life is that we have not thought out the deep implications of the gospel, we have not 'used' the gospel in and on all parts of our life. ~ Timothy Keller

When people say, "I know God forgives me, but I can't forgive myself," they mean that they have failed an idol, whose approval is more important than God's. ~ Timothy Keller

Our moral efforts are too feeble and falsely motivated to ever merit salvation. ~ Timothy Keller

When I forget the gospel I become dependent on the smiles and evaluation of others. ~ Timothy Keller

If we can't "love the sinner; hate the sin" then how can we relate to ourselves? Love who we are in Christ but still hate the sin remaining. ~ Timothy Keller

When love of one's people becomes an absolute, it turns into racism. When love of equality turns into a supreme thing, it can result in hatred and violence toward anyone who has led a privileged life. It is the settled tendency of human societies to turn good political causes into counterfeit gods. ~ Timothy Keller

A triune God would call us to converse with him ... because he wants to share the joy he has. Prayer is our way of entering into the happiness of God himself. ~ Timothy Keller

The gospel is not only the way to enter the kingdom; it is the way to live in the kingdom. ~ Timothy Keller

The goal of prayer is not just the sharing of our ideas, but also of ourselves. ~ Timothy Keller

Revival occurs when those who think they already know the gospel discover they do not really or fully know it. ~ Timothy Keller

The essence of sin is "I do not want to have God in my life." And the essence of God's judicial wrath is to give us what we have asked for. ~ Timothy Keller

To truly become Christians we must also repent of the reasons we ever did anything right. ~ Timothy Keller

Praying the Lord's Prayer forces us to look for things to thank and praise God for in our dark times, and it presses us to repent and seek forgiveness during times of prosperity and success. It disciplines ~ Timothy Keller

In short, work - and lots of it - is an indispensable component in a meaningful human life. It is a supreme gift from God and one of the main things that gives our lives purpose. But it must play its proper role, subservient to God. It must regularly give way not just to work stoppage for bodily repair but also to joyful reception of the world and of ordinary life. ~ Timothy Keller

The church does not simply have a missions department; it should wholly exist to be a mission. ~ Timothy Keller

GARDENS OR FIELDS? Craig Blomberg points out that in Matthew's parable of the mustard seed, the sower sows his seed in a "field" (agros, Matt 13:31), while in Luke the sowing is in a "garden" (kepos, Luke 13:19). Jews never grew mustard plants in gardens, but always out on farms, while Greeks in the Mediterranean basin did the opposite. It appears that each gospel writer was changing the word that Jesus used in Mark - the word for "earth" or "ground" (ge, Mark 4:31) - for the sake of his hearers. There is a technical contradiction between the Matthean and Lukan terms, states Blomberg, "but not a material one. Luke changes the wording precisely so that his audience is not distracted from ... the lesson by puzzling over an ... improbable practice." The result is that Luke's audience "receives his teaching with the same impact as the original audience."22 ~ Timothy Keller

If you're avoiding sin and living morally so that God will have to bless you and save you, then you may be looking to Jesus as a teacher, model, and helper, but ironically you are avoiding him as Savior. You are trusting in your own goodness rather than in Jesus for your standing with God. ~ Timothy Keller

It has been said that D. M. Lloyd-Jones wasn't always excited by people taking notes on his sermons. He felt that that was more appropriate to a lecture. The job of the preacher, he believed, was to make the knowledge live. Lloyd-Jones and Edwards believed preaching should aim to make an impression on the listener, and that impression is more important than "information takeaways." I would say that it's fine if listeners are taking notes in the first part of the sermon, but if they are doing so at the end, you are probably not reaching their affections. ~ Timothy Keller

Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it. God's saving love in Christ, however, is marked by both radical truthfulness about who we are and yet also radical, unconditional commitment to us. The merciful commitment strengthens us to see the truth about ourselves and repent. The conviction and repentance moves us to cling to and rest in God's mercy and grace. ~ Timothy Keller

Rejoicing and repentance must go together. Repentance without rejoicing will lead to despair. Rejoicing without repentance is shallow and will only provide passing inspiration instead of deep change. ~ Timothy Keller

When Jesus looked down from the cross, he didn't think "I am giving myself to you because you are so attractive to me." No, he was in agony, and he looked down at us - denying him, abandoning him, and betraying him - and in the greatest act of love in history, he STAYED. He said, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they are doing." He loved us, not because we were lovely to him, but to make us lovely. ~ Timothy Keller

When the world sees us doing evangelism, they just see us recruiting. When they see us doing justice, they see God's glory. ~ Timothy Keller

Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail him, will forgive you eternally. ~ Timothy Keller

Secularism and Religion are both all about your personal performance. The Gospel is the performance of another applied to you. ~ Timothy Keller

No one has ever been deeply changed by an act of the will. The only thing that can re-forge and change a life at its root, is love. ~ Timothy Keller

There's an old saying that the difference between abstract knowledge and real wisdom is that "wisdom is knowledge with the knower left in." It is taking the truth into all your relationships. It is to ask, "What does this mean for my relationship to God? to myself? to this or that person or group? to this or that behavior or habit? to my friends, to the culture? ~ Timothy Keller

Jesus experienced homelessness at Christmas so that we could experience a love we could never lose. ~ Timothy Keller

It takes more than a great church to reach a city, it takes a great movement of churches. ~ Timothy Keller