It seems to me that modern Christians, I am one, have focused on John 3:16 NLT (For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.) We forget that the next verse, John 3:17, says God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.
The Gospel is simply the “Good News”. It is the Good News of the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed. Sometimes our current presentations make it sound more like Bad News.
People outside our Christian Subcultures tend to view Christians, not as proclaimers of Good News but as judgmental, narrow, hateful people focused on our own list of moral rules more than on loving people. I know a lot of that is their perception. BUT there are some things going on in churches that feed that perception. Sometimes it seems that although Jesus didn’t come to judge some of His followers have.
Lets put John 3:16 and 17 together. Let us back off the judging and focus on the loving. What is the nature of God? 1 John 4:8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. When the Bible describes God in the shortest of terms it simply says God is love. When our major characteristic is love we look more like the Father, more like Jesus.
2 Corinthians 3:15 – 18 NLT Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image.
What is His image? God is love.