24 Quotes by Ronald J. Sider

So we work for better political and economic systems, knowing that sin precludes any earthly utopia now, but rejoicing in the assurance that the kingdom of shalom that the Messiah has already begun will one day prevail, and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord.

Christians must be extremely vigilant against the ongoing temptations of idolatrous nationalism. Christians in the United States are especially prone to embrace this evil, but the temptation lurks in every nation.

In order to retain a commitment to Jesus’s new messianic community with its countercultural values, Christians must accept the fact that the faithful church will often – perhaps always – be a minority community in a broken world.

Are national boundaries sacred? Are they ordained by God? do the citizens of a rich nation have the right to use their abundant resources just for themselves? Or to keep out immigrants from poor nations who seek greater economic opportunity?

As the church demonstrates new possibilities for community grounded in Jesus’s teaching, the church models a new reality that historically has profoundly shaped surrounding society.46 Perhaps it is not an overstatement to say that “only a continuing community dedicated to a deviant value system can change the world.

Christians have too easily, and too often, fallen into the trap of supposing that the nonhuman creation has worth only as it serves human purposes. This, however, is not a biblical perspective.