The gospel that most people are familiar with, the popular one, is the one involving the third chapter of John’s sixteenth verse; “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (New Living Translation) I can’t even begin to tell you how misinterpreted and misunderstood this verse is (That’s for another blog post).
How did we get away from Luke 4:18 where Jesus himself tells us what the gospel really is? It really started with Paul. Paul never met Jesus, he was just a dude who took on the mission of killing his followers until he himself ‘met’ Jesus on the road to Damascus and was convinced he was playing for the wrong team. But when he went to the Christians he wanted to kill just days before, they taught him about Jesus. Remember, there was no writings about Jesus at the time; no Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. All he had to go on was the oral teachings of Jesus that was being passed around at the time. One of the prevalent messages that the first century Christians shared was the imminent return of Christ (John 21:23)
Armed with this belief and his new found zeal, Paul set out to save as many people as he could before the second coming of Christ. For Paul it was about believing that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, the wisdom of God. Paul began to preach the gospel, his gospel, the good news about Jesus. But the gospel of Jesus, the one he came to preach was good news for the poor. It was not about himself.
To live out the gospel of Jesus Christ is simple; care for the people Jesus cared about. To me, a true disciple of Jesus is one who lives the life Jesus modeled, and makes disciples who do the same. It’s those who do works of justice, who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned, those who are a voice for the voiceless, strength for the weak, who stand for those who cannot stand up for themselves. It’s people like Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr. They lived out the gospel of Jesus, while others such as Billy Graham and other so-called ‘evangelists’ preach Paul’s gospel about Jesus.
If we’re going to be a disciple of Jesus, shouldn’t we focus on imitating Jesus and living out his gospel, rather than Paul’s gospel about?
A Promethean Dialogue 