Love or Fear?

Today, during a little bit of class discussion time in my public speaking class this morning, we were talking about ethics in regards to speeches. We were asked to give some historical instances of times when speakers have been unethical in public speaking. Some of the obvious ones that came up were Hitler and other dictators in history, but a person brought up religion, Christianity specifically, and using a fear of hell to gain followers.

Now, I won't spend too much time here, seeing that I'm typing this from my phone, but I feel that this is an issue that needs to be addressed in today's Christian "culture". Too often I've seen some "hellfire and brimstone" type preaching, especially growing up traditional Southern Baptist. Much of the time this has been done in a way that strikes fear into people, where people don't come to have a relationship with Christ, but save their own skin, or just cover their bases. This is obviously not how we are called to spread Christ, but in trying to come away from that I fear we still, as a whole, are still missing the boat.

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love."- 1 John 4:18

We are not called to guilt, or strike fear in people, to repent and follow some rules, but to show people how a real relationship with Christ will change their life and outlook. We can't go and not tell people of the reality of hell, like many modern churches do, but on the reverse side, we can't go around saying "repent or burn" either. We must preach the love of Christ, that he wants a relationship with us, but at the same time, in a manor of love, be real with people.