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,

I was so excited to find a place on the launch team for this book! John Mark Comer has been a guiding voice for me the past few years while my country as a whole is moving toward progressivism.

This book is convicting, heart-breaking, and encouraging all at once. Simply put, we aren't going back. We now live in a post-Christian culture, and this comes as no surprise to God. He has called and equipped the Church to be an alternative light in a deconstructing culture. We have the tools to fight these spiritual battles: spiritual disciplines and community with other believers.

What hope that gives my heart! I often watch the news and feel utterly helpless, but JMC has reminded me that thru faithful connection with the Father, I can actively fight against the lies of the devil, flesh, and world that seek to destroy me. Praise God for His providence.

I've read most of John Mark Comer's books and his newest book doesn't disappoint. This book centres on spiritual warfare and is a prophetic voice for today's church in identifying the traps of contemporary society. It unpacks how to battle the three enemies of the soul - the world, the flesh, and the devil.

I appreciated the current cultural examples that John Mark uses to illustrate his points. He unpacks how the devil lies to us with deceitful ideas (eg. Trump, fake news, distorted reality); how the flesh plays to our disordered desires (talking about the dangers of the current "be true to yourself" gospel and expressive individualism), and the world weakens our idea of what is sin (lowering standards of holiness in the church, exploring abortion and downloading media illegally). It feels like a very current read so I wonder how it will stand the test of time with the timely nature of the examples.

This book is harder to read than his previous books and you can see strong influences from Comer's friendship with Mark Sayers: he echoes Sayer's heavy use of cross-discipline examples in his writing using wide-ranging illustrations from philosophy, economics, sociology, politics, psychology). At times, I felt Comer could have done a better job at unpacking and explaining his examples as he assumed readers were familiar with certain technical terms that require a certain level of prior understanding (e.g. the Enlightenment, globalisation, post-modernism). He is clearly writing to a certain portion of the Church assuming a level of education and understanding.

That being said, I came away convinced, challenged and resolute in the need for the church to be distinctive and take seriously the task of spiritual formation. I appreciate Comer's practical application, synthesising and translating spiritual disciplines from church history into practices for today's church. I had many conversations with my husband stimulated by content from this book and it's shed light on areas of my own life where I may be compromising or being deceived. I would recommend this book to any believer who wants to advance their spiritual formation and shed light on areas of deception in their lives.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.

Netgalley review

John Mark Comer is an author and pastor from Portland, Oregon. He is an excellent communicator. I have read several of his books and they are always well researched and yet easy to follow. There was so much good content in this book that I hardly know where to begin.

Comer begins the book by explaining that we are in a spiritual Babylon. We are not at home where we belong. We are in exile. We are at war. The devil’s signature weapon is the lie. And to paraphrase Comer, “All good lies are full of truth.” In other words, they are deceptive.

Spiritual disciplines are a way we engage in spiritual warfare. How do we wage war against the world, our flesh and the devil? Through community, meditation, fasting and prayer.

“It is absolutely crucial for us to recapture the idea of spiritual war; because as long as we deny the reality of demonic evil, we will demonize people - the very people we are called to love and serve…instead of fighting back the hate and violence and darkness of the three enemies, we will just add even more hate and violence and darkness to a culture in desperate need of healing.”

This particular quote gave me pause: “If Jesus’s anthem is ‘On earth as it is in heaven’, then the devil’s is ‘On earth as it is in hell.’” I had never thought of this correlation, but it was a powerful reminder that there is an enemy who has evil intent against you and me. I think it’s very easy to walk around as if there is no devil. But as Comer said, “For Jesus, the devil is the archetype of a villain who is hell-bent on destruction. He just wants to watch the world burn. His motto: ‘Tear it all down.’ Wherever he finds life, he tries to stamp it out. Beauty? Deface it. Love? Corrupt it. Unity? Fragment it into a million pieces. Human flourishing? Push it to anarchy or tyranny; either will do. His anti-life, pro-death, pro-chaos agenda is an insatiable fire. Jesus, on the other hand, is the author of life itself and an advocate for all that is good, beautiful, and true. Specifically, for love. God is love, and the devil is in rebellion against all that is God. Ergo, his intent is to wreck love: one relationship, one community, one nation, one generation at a time.” We need to wake up to the spiritual war and fight back.

Here is where our fighting back comes in. We devote ourselves to God. “The poet Mary Oliver once said, ‘Attention is the beginning of devotion.’ The starting place of devotion to God and movement into his kingdom is simply to set our attention on Spirit and truth…And this is not the drudgery of religion or onerous obligation; remember, we’re already filling our minds with inputs all day long, and many of those inputs are creating in us hearts that are fractured, anxious, distracted, and angry. When we curate our attention on Jesus and allow the flow of his thoughts into our minds, we begin to experience his peace, his love and compassion for all, and his deep, pervasive joy. We become calmer, more loving, and plain happier. Just by abiding.”

We meditate on scripture. “The goal of reading scripture is not information but Spiritual formation. To take on the ‘mind of Christ’. To actually think like Jesus thinks. To fill your mind with the thoughts of God so regularly and deeply that it literally rewires your brain, and from there, your whole person”…”The key is not just to think about scripture but to think scripture.”

I will end with this thought from John Mark, “It will cost us to follow Jesus, but it will cost us even more not to follow him.“

Pick up this book and you will find much to ruminate on. I’m my opinion, the discussion of these ideas is very timely in the history of believers. The reminders are much needed.

I received an arc copy from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.

John Mark Comer is my favourite pastor and teacher. I have such a high respect for him. In this book he addresses three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh and the world. Each of the three sections is summarized with the main points making it easy to follow the obviously theologically deep and well researched text. John Mark also provides practical steps to take to help fight and overcome these enemies.

I was thrilled to receive an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. I read John Mark Comer's, "God Has a Name" and it really opened my eyes to things in the Bible I'd never noticed before so I was looking forward to the same adventure. This one was much more difficult, heavy. It could be because it revealed some things about my flesh that I didn't want to see. I discussed many of the thoughts in this book with my husband and I am always thankful for books that lead to deep thought and conversation. Admittedly I was uncomfortable in parts and I think that was the goal of the book to move you a bit and make you examine your heart, flesh, and view of the world as well as the role you play in it as a follower of Christ.

The epilogue really summarized everything nicely and I love the quote the author used below:

"Honestly written and courageously presented words reveal reality and expose our selfish attempts to violate beauty, manipulate goodness and dominate people, all the while defying God...Honest writing shows us how badly we are living and how good life is." - Eugene Peterson

I am looking forward to reading other books by Comer as well as Bonhoeffer whose life and legacy he referenced multiple times throughout this book.

This may be the most important, perceptive and hopeful book I have read this year! Mark Comer is an engaging, intelligent writer and his take on Spiritual Warfare is brilliant and timely. Even a casual observer can sense that our world is increasingly divided and sick and John Mark provides a compelling diagnosis and compassionate prescription. In this book, Comer unpacks what is known to followers of Jesus as the three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh, and the world. In doing this, Comer calls in conversation partners from Scripture, the early church, the reformation and our own time. Rather than wringing his hands and lamenting, the author directs the reader to spiritual formation in a way that encourages and inspires.