The Gospels and Impacting Culture

God is Love.

In the Gospels we learn from the best teacher, Jesus. He teaches us through His example of how we should live our lives. There are two things in particular that I learn from the Gospels. The first is a general comment that has its basis from reading the Gospels as a whole. The second comes directly from Christ’s mouth. First, Jesus goes out of His way and mingles with those whom other people have looked negatively down upon.  Second, in the Gospel of Luke Jesus tells a lawyer, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

I think it is very important to keep both of these in mind when we are talking about “Impacting Culture for Christ.” The world is longing for what Christ teaches. Notice that Christ says “Love”. How many songs and movies and television shows are about some form of love? It seems to me that love plays a crucial part in figuring out why society is what it is today. 

Everyone, everywhere is trying to find love. This is good, natural, and holy. However, where the problem comes is not by people trying to find love. Notice that God is defined as love. God is love. Notice that people do not say that God is like love. Jesus repeatedly talks about the importance of love. If love was not something to be sought after, than why would God be love? Where the problem comes from then is that people start to look for the easy way out. They look for the easy way that they can find “love”. This “love” that they find does not satisfy them and then therefore makes them loose their trust in love. When they do this, they step away from God, who is love, and start to look for an increasingly easier route to find love. 

Jesus shows us through His examples in the Gospels that we must love. He goes to those who seem to be the last person that any one of particular importance would be with for meals and gatherings. However, Jesus does not see it in that life. Jesus told people that “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Matthew 9:12) This verse shows that Christ comes to heal, not to look down upon, those who come to Him. When Jesus tells us that we need to “love our neighbor” He is not only telling us, but throughout the Gospels He shows us through His actions what he has called us to do. 

In impacting the culture for Christ, I think that these are the two main points that we should make. They are the actions to the words that Jesus speaks to us. Throughout our life we will meet people that will judge Christ’s principles based on our actions. Although we are not anywhere close to being able to act like Christ, people interpret our actions as though we are. They base their opinion of Christ’s teaching off of what the people who say they follow him do. Therefore, if we are to impact our culture for Christ, we must not simply tell people that we are Christians and that they need to go to Church or else. We have to live our lives, day in and day out, as an example to those who are around us and whose lives we will be a part of during the course of our life.