Upon hearing Jesus' teachings, they may strike you as somewhat bizarre
and sometimes random teachings.
If you are familiar with any of his teachings like, “You cannot serve both God and money”
or ,“Do not make any promises or swear any oaths”
or, “Do not call any man on earth father”
then at one time or another you must have wondered WHY Jesus taught these things.
Like, why can’t I work for both God and money?
Why is it such a big deal if I make promises or swear oaths?
And, why can’t I call my biological father, “father”?
To us it seems like Jesus is just talking about what we may even consider to be minor issues
while missing all the bigger ones.
Like, why didn’t Jesus denounce war or talk about racial and gender equality?
And, why didn’t he clearly speak against slavery or share his position on same sex relationships?
Why do you think he chose to not take stances on those issues?
Is it because those issues weren’t around back then?
Or, could it be because he realized the “big” issues like the “big” issues of today, stem from somewhere else?
What if Jesus IS really the one who sees clearly and we are all the ones way up in the branches?
Take war for example.
If people started obeying Jesus' teachings, wars would naturally stop.
This is because if people treated other people the way they want to be treated
forgave others in the same way they need forgiveness
and took the plank out of their own eye before trying to take the speck out of anyone else's
then most conflicts, if not all, would be able to be resolved without the need of force.
A common mistake most people make when trying to solve a problem
is they treat the symptoms rather than the root cause.
This happens with almost everything.
A common example is the runny nose.
People’s noses run for many different reasons.
Let’s say yours runs because you're allergic to cats.
If you just take medication to stop your nose from running, but don’t get rid of your cat
then you may be able to make it run less, but you’ll never completely stop it from running.
And, If you didn’t know that you were allergic to cats
then it may sound strange to you if a friend suggested that perhaps you should get rid of your cat
to stop your nose from running.
(Especially if you’d never heard of anyone else doing that.)
You may even get defensive and think your friend is a bit crazy.
But, let’s say you decided to trust your friend and get rid of your cat.
Then a couple of weeks later your nose finally stops running for the first time ever!
Jesus is kinda like that weird friend who is telling you to throw out your cat.
You may not see the connection between your runny nose and your cat
just like you may not see the connection between solving global inequality
and quitting your paying job, but Jesus does.
I could sit here and explain WHY you should trust Jesus and obey every single one of his teachings
but a lot of his teachings just need to be done
so that you can start to clearly see WHY they ARE the solution to the world’s problems.
So, I encourage you to at least try obeying ONE of Jesus teachings
and take note of what you observe when obeying it.
Also, think about what the world would be like if everyone obeyed that teaching of Jesus you are testing out.
You may start to think Jesus might have been on to something.
If you have tested out some of Jesus' teachings
and are starting to become convinced that what Jesus taught is the solution
then write to us and let’s continue living out the solution to the world’s problems together.
And, if you’re one of the people that aren’t fully convinced
but are still interested in giving his teachings a shot, that’s fine too.
Jesus isn’t looking for people who know it all already...
he’s looking for those who are thirsty to find out the truth.
So, write to us and we can help you try to start testing out some, or one of Jesus’ teachings today.