John Mark Comer’s latest book is an excellent read about the world, the flesh, and the devil. There’s great insights presented in an engaging writing style. It is similar thematically to other Comer books.

Definitely recommend it for fans of John Mark Comer, or anyone interested in faith and spirituality.

John Mark Comer is one of my favorite authors, speakers, and leaders so I was beyond excited for this copy of his new book. This one, while seemingly a departure from his previous book, did not disappoint. Comer walks the reader through the three enemies that sabotage our peace, the world, the flesh, and the devil. His attention to walking through these with a different lens on the concept of spiritual warfare helps combat some of the complacency that it is tempting to bring to dealing with issues of the spiritual realm.

"When we believe truth—that is, ideas that correspond to reality—we show up to reality in such a way that we flourish and thrive. We show up to our bodies, to our sexuality, to our interpersonal relationships, and, above all, to God himself in a way that is congruent with the Creator’s wisdom and good intentions for his creation."

I started this book skeptically, holding it at arms length. But John Mark Comer writes in the most winsome way you can, when "the devil, the flesh, and the world," are the topics of discussion.

I never thought a book like this would captivate me so entirely, but Comer has been gifted with a remarkable way of holding compassion and truth in the same hand.

This is a book to keep on the same shelf as Nancy Percey. A book that helps you examine your worldview and how those thoughts shape your life. Not only that, but he provides tools to navigate and help break unhelpful patterns in our thought process.

I'm repeatedly surprised by how thoughtfully, thoughtprovokingly, and precisely Comer writes. His words somehow speak to my heart, as they hopefully will, yours.

Loved this book. I really enjoyed John Mark Comer's take on the "3 ancient enemies of the soul" and felt his spiritual practices were very helpful.

I've given my full review on video, which you can find here: https://youtu.be/okURnFP3WBg

I’ve read a lot of Christian living books, but I don’t think I’ve ever read one as life changing as this one. I’ve been deconstructing my faith for awhile and recently turned the corner into rebuilding a faith that is genuine. This book has been a handbook for me as I walk that journey. The theology in these pages is solid and counter cultural. It’s made me confident in my beliefs. John Mark is arguably my favorite contemporary pastor because he talks about Christianity in a way that feels real. He talks about following Jesus in solid terms and doesn’t shy away from calling sin, sin. I love the way that he talks about “the way of Jesus” and what it means to be a true disciple. The format of this book helps clearly convey his message, the sections are clearly labeled and memorable. There are practical tools contained within these pages and thought provoking questions. I just finished it, but I plan to reread it immediately. Absolutely worth every cent, plus some. If you’re looking to be challenged and encouraged, this book is for you.

This is Comer’s best book by far! So well researched and yet written from the heart of a pastor. It’s clear that this book is the overflow of a life lived for Christ. Definitely a must-read for any believer. Will defiantly be re-reading!

John Mark Comer, bestselling author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, writes about the three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh, and the world. Diving into each one, he shares that we aren't just telling lies... we're living them.

This spiritual formation book is very different in topic and tone from The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. Readers who expect more of the same will be disappointed or frustrated, likely saying this book is heavier or darker. That it is. It's more of a call to wake-up call to examine yourself/your heart than a book with practical take-aways for your schedule/life.

I really enjoyed John Mark Comer’s newest book, Live No Lies! He writes with wisdom and insight in a relatable, down-to-earth way. The way he broke down and expounded on the common Christian phrase “the world, the flesh, and the devil” opened my eyes to the insidious spiritual warfare we face daily. He addressed issues and topics we face in our culture and political landscape without leaning more towards one political party; I thought he did a great job sticking to Biblical truth.

One of my favorite parts was the summary at the end of each section with definitions, key Scriptures, key points, and a summary of the book as a whole so far. It helps collect your thoughts and have a quick reference point to go back to. The message of this book is one I believe the church desperately needs to hear today. It’s cultural commentary, impactful theology, and practical advice. I highly recommend this book!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

In his book, Live No Lies, John Mark Comer has offered readers a glimpse behind the curtain to see some of the major driving influences on the lives we live. But, he doesn’t stop there. Instead of simply identifying the problem or the challenges we face, he offers time-tested and battle-proven steps to overcome them. He points out that when we accept lies we subscribe to an “unreality” that appeals to disordered desires which leads to a broken and fallen life. And then he offers practices that we can adopt and implement to find ourselves more grounded in reality, with healthy and ordered desires, to bring greater wholeness to our lives and the world we live in.

I definitely recommend this book. It is an easy and enjoyable read that will provoke you to look deeper into the way you see and engage in the world.

I have read all of John Mark's books and have been deeply shaped by all of them. This book is something different. A great temptation of today is that we have to be loud and attacking to get our point across. But John Mark shows us otherwise with a tone that is full of love and humility. Even if you disagree with some of the points in this book, you are compelled to continue to read and understand deeper. This will book will continue to resonate and challenge me to walk forward in my walk with Jesus in asking the question, "what lies am I believing about myself"?

Thank you for sharing your gift with the world, John Mark.

John Mark Comer's writing style will make you laugh, but don't be fooled - this is not a light-hearted read. Live No Lies takes a deep dive into what is harming our souls. He names the Devil, our Flesh, and the World as our enemies & provides deep, yet simple ways for us to combat those evils daily.

He has a special gift to reveal Scripture & ancient wisdom to in a fresh way to our present day. Highly recommend, but don't think you're getting a Ruthless Elimination 2.0.

I'd love to say this review is unbiased, but I'm a big fan of Comer's work and like his other titles, this one won't disappoint. Live No Lies is a refreshing and convicting act of resistance against modern culture. As Christianity continues to grow/feel counterculture in a society focused on pleasure dictated by self love, it's important to root oneself in practices that are other worldly - aka heavenly. Comer once again lays out his wisdom in a conversational way that is easy to dig into but leaves you thinking and hopefully leads you to look inside yourself honestly and apply spiritual disciplines to your own life. Live No Lies is full of impeccable storytelling, real life examples, and a guidebook to resisting the lies we tell ourselves. I highly encourage any devout Christian (or skeptic wanting to know more) pick this one up and dig into it. Be ready for action.

Incredible and timely book for our culture. This book equips its reader to combat lies with truth in a powerful way.

Live No Lies: Recognize and Resist the Three Enemies That Sabotage Your Peace by John Mark Comer

I absolutely loved this book. This will definitely be a book I reread many times.
The main point of this book is living as exiles in modern day "Babylon," aka, the world, our cultures, and our flesh.

John Mark explains that lies we believe and their pull come from 3 places; the world, the flesh, and the devil.

He starts off with the devil, where lies and evil all came from. He explains the method the "Father of Lies" uses to trap us and how he has used this same method on every human, including Jesus, since the Beginning. He explains why Jesus came as a teacher. (Photo 3)

Next he moves to our flesh: "our base, primal, animalistic drives for self-gratification." He gives the key to overcoming our flesh and gives a direct correlation between fasting from food and resisting temptation.

The third and final enemy is the world, not the people of the world, but "a system of ideas, values, morals, practices, and social norms that are integrated into the mainstream and institutionalized in a culture corrupted by the twin sins of rebellion against God and the redefinition of good and evil." In this section, we see the way culture "colonizes" us and the church into thinking what is good is bad and what is bad is good.

This book covers a lot of heavy topics, but it's done in a gentle way. It's deep and well researched, with many outside resources referenced (Christain and secular) and Scripture quoted. (One chapter has 53 resources in the notes section.)

Every human needs to read this book because every human believes lies and has to fight the world, flesh and the devil every moment of every day. This book gives some practical help and suggestions to guide you from living and believing lies to being free in Christ. He gives us guidance in how to change our thoughts from lies to truth.

There are many things in this book that I learned about that was never taught in church or Bible school, like why fasting from food is so important and why Jesus, other than being God and sinless, was able to resist the temptation of the devil after he fasted for 40 days.

You can pre-order Live No Lies from anywhere you buy books. It releases on September 28, 2021.

If you truly want to live in freedom then this book serves as a roadmap to get you there. We live in a world and have an adversary that wants to shackle our souls. And, if we are honest with ourselves, they have been effective to an uncomfortable degree. Begin your journey to freedom now. It won't be an easy journey and it will take a long time but Live No Lies will prepare you for your first steps and guide you along the way. John Mark Comer's best book yet IMHO.

John Mark Comer’s latest book is a return to the coffee table where Comer simply speaks to you. For better or for worse, his writing comes off as an honest and raw conversation. (A style that I’ve grown to love.)

This book focuses on the three enemies that ever believed must battle against. The devil, the flesh, and the world. I particularly appreciate Comer’s unpacking of Paul’s “the flesh” and what it means to fight against it.

Overall, this book was insightful. For anyone who’s followed along with Comer’s podcast, This Cultural Moment, you’ll recognize several themes that appear in the book.

This book is a total reframing of an old thought in faith. This thought has been applicable through the millennium and in this new context Gods mastery over creation is shown yet again in this book.

The secular world’s democracies are waking up to the truth that its most dangerous threat is not terrorism, communism or some other external threat. It is lies. In this book, John Mark Comer places the devil as the driving force behind this deception in his ongoing campaign to up the entropy in our cosmos. However alternative facts and misinformation isn’t the focus for this author—it is the renovation of the Christian heart that he’s investigating. What is happening to the Christian heart? What lies haves crept into our understanding of what it means to follow Jesus? How do those insidious Screwtape victories leverage the natures of our flesh? And how, through generations of subtle twists in our Christian culture, do these lies have the potential to wreak more havoc on the human soul than the easily recognised lies of the world ever could?

It should be no surprise that John Mark Comer draws on the tradition of the church, and giants like C. S. Lewis and Dallas Willard, to inform his thesis. It’s also no surprise that’s he’s able to make these ideas accessible to a modern reader. Finally—if one has read anything from Comer recently—one would know that Spiritual Disciplines (or, as he prefers: practices) are on offer as a salve.

What was surprising to this reader was the insight into the underlying theology of the author, which paints a world-view and understanding that finally brings the likes of “human nature”, “the devil”, “good and evil”, “sin” and “the kingdom of heaven” together in a way which doesn’t require hand-waving or conveniently ignoring parts of Scripture.


This is a remarkable piece of work from John Mark Comer that revives the gospel and confronts the reader with a striking question: am I living the gospel, or a lie?

*Live No Lies* by John Mark Comer will be one of my favorite books of 2021. I’m sure of that. I don’t know of anyone else currently writing with this much insight into the human condition, our culture, and how the gospel addresses the two. *Live No Lies* looks at the three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh, and the world; and gives very practical ways to combat those enemies and ultimately find life following Jesus.

The prologue begins with the story of *The War of The Worlds* radio broadcast. I won’t spoil it for you if you don’t know the story. I’m not going to lie. I was hooked at the prologue and could not put down this book. It is so relevant to the age we’re living in, but the thing is it’s relevant to the human condition no matter the time period.

Comer structures the book around what he calls the three enemies of the soul: the world, the flesh, and the devil. There’s an underlying war or battle motif, but just to be clear this isn’t a angry rant about the apocalypse. Nor is it a political book focused on “us” versus “them.” Comer makes that clear from outset.

He writes:

> But hear me loud and clear: Our war against the three enemies of the soul is not a war of guns and bombs. It’s not against other people at all. It’s a war on lies. And the problem is less that we tell lies and more that we live them; we let false narratives about reality into our bodies, and they wreak havoc in our souls.

Part one will likely be the hardest pill to swallow for non-believers and skeptics in our culture. Why? Part one deals with the devil, who the Bible calls the father of lies. Contemporary society will largely laugh that off as superstition. Comer recognizes that some people will be cynical about this, and he asks for those people to suspend disbelief for a moment. He goes on to brilliantly discuss the power of ideas, reality, and truth.

The thesis of *Live No Lies* is—
> The devil’s primary stratagem to drive the soul and society into ruin is deceptive ideas that play to disordered desires, which are normalized in a sinful society.

Certainly everyone can see how ideology and arguments over what is true and false have wreaked havoc in the western world in the the last few years. As Comer puts it— “It’s a war between truth and lies.” The devil is on a disinformation campaign.

Comer writes, “We sin because we believe a lie about what will make us happy.” That lie plays to our flesh, which just wants to have a feel-good life full of adventure, romance, sex, and material things. None of those things actually set us free or give us a sense of peace, which leads to part 2 of *Live No Lies.*

Part 2 deals with the flesh. Comer gives a great example of standing in the checkout line in a grocery store. I’m paraphrasing— on one side, you have the magazines with photoshopped models in bathing suits and male actors who look like they’ve aged well. On the other side, you have magazines with delicious looking cakes on the cover and super-sized candy bars. We’re caught between these conflicting desires and temptations. The lie is we can have both and be “authentic.”

Comer states that “our strongest desires are not our deepest desires.” For example, I want to raise my children well and be a good, loving father. At the same time, I want to come home from work and have “me time” to binge watch Netflix until bedtime. Even though that seems like a silly example, that temptation to satisfy myself is strong.

Comer argues that our deepest desire is actually not to satisfy our flesh, even though that is a strong temptation and lies tell us that will make us happy. He writes:

> I’ve never read an obituary that said, “He really got a lot out of his Tinder subscription.” Or “This girl knew how to eat, drink, and be merry.” Much less “This guy’s commitment to sneakers was inspiring.” Of course not. When people die, we honor and celebrate the best parts of their character. Love, sacrifice, loyalty to family and friends, humility, joy, compassion. All of which required their denial of fleshly desires.

One thing I’ve always loved about John Mark Comer is he includes really practical ways to follow Jesus. We use to call them spiritual disciplines, but both of those words tend to have weird meanings for people now. Comer includes some great practices to help us resist our stronger desires and get to our deepest desire, which is to be in relationship with God.

Part 3 of *Live no Lies* addresses the world—the culture we live, our society and systems. The world propagates the lies and tells us to satisfy our flesh. Comer writes:

> …the world is more than just a system that’s out there in the sociopolitical ether. It is, as Eugene Peterson pointed out, “an atmosphere, a mood,” that’s crept into us like a cancerous rot. An airborne emotional pollutant we inhale every day, an anti-God impulse we circulate in our bodies’ lungs. It’s “the society of proud and arrogant humankind that defies and tries to eliminate God’s rule and presence in history.”

Comer brilliantly breaks down this concept of the world using quotes from some great thinkers and theologians. The list of books I want to read grew significantly after this section. Ultimately, the church is called to be counterculture to the world. How do we do that? Comer again gives some really practical suggestions pointing to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Honestly, just in writing this and looking through my notes and highlights in the book, I want read the book again. I can’t recommend it enough.

John Mark Comer is always so refreshingly self aware and his pulse on today’s sociopolitical climate is so, so much appreciated. His latest does a great job of providing the framework for spiritually surviving, treading water and acknowledging reality in such a wrecked world, I do wish the book would include more examples of his interactions with the light and dark sides of the spiritual realm (some trippy testimonials or something) - his points are beneficial if you’re all in on its existence but might get disregarded by a skeptic. The willingness of a fellow believer to pull quotes from guys like Yuval Noah Harari is bold; I applaud Mr. Comer for being willing to take that swing and bridge science with faith. If you’re in need of a shot of espresso on your faith journey, this read is just that, along with a reminder you’re not alone with some of your thoughts in the midst of the chaos,