In our days there is great talk about “fake news”. This is the term used to describe the news that isn’t totally true, the distorted or invented truth created to manipulate the understanding of those who receive it.
For decades the media no longer transmit impartial news. Today the news is transmitted loaded with the opinion of those who sponsor it, and have become so misleading as the world of marketing, where the very ordinary products are presented and sold as extraordinary ones. Based on the collective aspirations a narrative is created and afterwards something is sold as being capable to satisfy that aspiration. This something can be a product, a person, an idea or anything else.
Instead, Jesus Christ’s life story is called The Gospel which means the good news! That is, news of unquestionable truth and undoubted quality; news of interest to all of us. However can the Gospel be considered “fake news”? The Gospel itself answers that question by stating that “by their fruit you will recognize them”. The fruit or result in the lives of those who transmitted it and received it in a span of more than 2000 years is the uncontested proof that the Gospel is indeed the good news.
While marketing seeks to present the ordinary things in extraordinary terms, the Gospel presents the extraordinary things in ordinary terms. The outstanding teachings of Jesus were always given through parables mentioning every day common situations that everyone could understand.
Not to be manipulated by the media “fake news”, we need to learn to sift it through the filter of the Gospel, and announce the good news with our life.
- How much fake news do you hear every day?
- What fruit has the Gospel produced in your life?
(Recognized by the fruits, Mathew 7:15-20 / Jesus and the parables, Mathew 13:34-35)
Commissioner Torben Eliason is the Territorial Commander of the Southern Africa Territory.