Jesus Isn't God

In almost every church I have been to, there is a strongly held misconception about Jesus. It’s important to know that Jesus spent quite a bit of effort trying to tell people that he is Not God. He is a separate entity, a representation of what a relatively good person can be. As he said to a group calling him “good teacher”, he said “why do you call me good? No one is good but God.”. Clearly, distancing himself. He also made a point of referring to himself as “Son of Man” and unless we’re going to suggest man created god, this leaves him only manhood.

This isn’t a pedantic nitpick. This is vital. Jesus didn’t use any special magical abilities, he wasn’t particularly poor or wealthy, he didn’t know anything that wasn’t knowable. He simply did as the scriptures actually ask one to. For every time someone was accused of a sin, though the claim was generally valid it would always be rejected due to another scripture. The prostitute may or may not have been actually a prostitute, but Jesus didn’t care either way. What he cared about was that a group of people were about to murder a woman in the name of a god who didn’t want that. But when given only half of a scripture, one will always take it as a command.

Jesus didn’t ask for anyone to believe in him as some kind of god. He hoped that we might see our God the same way he did. He hoped that we would listen to the actual message and not our broken traditions and cult-like beasts. He asked that we help those who we do not believe to deserve help. He asked us to do the precise opposite of what is done today in the churches.

Is your church always pointing to outside groups and claiming there’s something wrong with them existing, or doing as they do? Do you believe the next church is wrong, and yours is somehow correct in some way? Do you look around and see various sins and want to stop others from doing them? That isn’t what Jesus stood for at all. None of that is okay.

Read the gospels. They are short, just read them through like any other book and with absolutely no guidance or attempts to tell you “what that means”. No commentary, because Jesus gave his Own commentary. Ignore the church, it cannot save you. Listen to Jesus, because he was saved.