Fear or Love?

Many of us were raised in a faith tradition that emphasized rules and the threat of punishment by God, but should our fear of punishment be our proper motivation? Read what Jesus had to say about this.

Fear-based theology is not new. It is called “transactional theology” and means essentially “you do something good for me and I’ll do something good for you. Bad things will happen if you do not.” The book of Deuteronomy in the Hebrew bible spells out rewards from God for good behavior and punishments from God for bad behavior. Pagans, too, followed this type of theology. The Canaanites took it to the horrifying of sacrificing their infant children to placate their gods.

In contrast to this, Jesus discards the concept of transactional theology. In its place, Jesus

provides the concept of a loving heavenly Father who pours out an unconditional love on all of

us without the requirements of transactional theology. Our thankful response to this gift of love,

Jesus preached, is to live a life pleasing to God.

This new teaching of Jesus focuses on the internal self and its development. The conversion of

this inner self from an inward, ego-centered focus to an outwardly focused love of God and our

neighbor is what the core message of Jesus is all about. This conversion drives the many

expressions of love that constitute living a life pleasing to God.

In the four Gospels, there are numerous accounts of Jesus teaching what is necessary to live a life

pleasing to God. The disciples had several years to absorb this message, so they were able to

teach it to converts later on. Most of us, on the other hand, were only taught the rules and beliefs

of our particular religious tradition. Unless we belong to a faith tradition that includes this correct

message, we are left to understand and learn this inward conversion message of Jesus on our

own.

When we look at the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we can find many places

where this new message of Jesus is taught. I admit that it is difficult to tease out this message

from all of the other information in these books. Fortunately, we have a gem of wisdom in the

Gospel of Matthew known as the Sermon on the Mount.

What is so unique with the Sermon on the Mount is that it presents a complete set of guidelines

for living this God-pleasing life. In my mind, there is no greater presentation of this new

paradigm than the Sermon on the Mount. It has been called the greatest sermon ever delivered.

I wrote my book, “The Way”, to explain the Sermon on the Mount and how it provides a step

by-step guide for inner conversion. This is all based on love of God and love of neighbor. I invite

you to explore this message.