So what does the word “gospel” mean?
Religion would explain the gospel as this: “Jesus coming to die on the cross.” That’s what you have heard, yeah?
But, let’s quit listening to tradition and actually study the word.
Gospel comes from the Greek word “euaggelion” pronounced
‘yu-ahn-ge-le-on’ . It literally means ‘good tidings’ or ‘good news’. Please read the above again… make sure you understand this definition for gospel. It’s important to understand because if we use a word incorrectly then the message can be marred from it’s original meaning.
[Quick-Thought]
You ever had someone you knew, who used a word in a sentence where it didn’t belong? You knew what word or meaning they were trying to get across but they didn’t use the correct word.
Example: Someone is explaining to you how much money they have made in their stocks and they say “I’m making a lot of money because of this comparable interest thing.” Then you quickly add “…you mean compound interest?”
You would only know what they meant because you had previous ‘correct’ knowledge. But if you had no idea about stocks or investing- you would think they were right and ignorance would have been passed on to you. Now we have two people using an incorrect term. How dangerous a “well delivered error” can be. Think about it… many religions, with some having only slight differences in their beliefs; But even slight deviations can be absolutely wrong.
So, gospel means “good news”. What good news?… What is the good news?…
Can it be that religion has misunderstood, misrepresented, miscommunicated the “good news”? Well if gospel means good news- then there are a lot of things that can be good news. Right? Remember what the meaning of ‘gospel’ is, not what religion has taught. Jesus used this word when He was on earth based on our definition of the word. He would not have used a word for some brand new meaning that no one would understand. So let’s look at the scripture containing this word.
Matthew 4
23) And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
I have purposely emphasized what we usually read from this verse. And then everyone says “I go about preaching the GOSPEL!”.
Well… what is it? You have stated you preach the good news, so what is the good news? Come on, Come on- tell us the good news.
Can you imagine reading the newspaper and seeing these headlines.
“A TERRIBLE THING HAS HAPPENED”
“A NEW THING HAS HAPPENED”
“WE HAVE A GREAT STORY”
That would make no sense, because you have told us nothing in this headline. So the fix to these above would be this.
“TITANIC SINKS”
“HUBBLE TELESCOPE TAKES FIRST PICTURES”
“MAN RISKS OWN LIFE TO SAVE NEIGHBOR”
Now we have the headline defined and not just a declaration.
So, what is the good news? If we say, without the understanding, “I preach the gospel!” then we have left off the definition for our declaration of good news. So let’s look at what Christ says is the “good news”.
Matthew 4
23) And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
Ahhhhh! There it is! Jesus went about teaching and preaching the “good news”… of the kingdom! That was the good news he was preaching! If I got a job making twice as much as I make now- that would be gospel (good news). If my son was accepted for a full scholarship to any college in America paid in full; That would be gospel!
So the important thing to remember is to read the bible carefully. We have allowed some words to be defined for us by tradition. We have made the word ‘gospel’ mean all of these other things. Just because a word becomes synonymous by tradition, does not make it correct. Study the word, then get knowledge of the words. Make sure you understand the definition for a word. Check several reparable sources. An incorrect definition of a word can be detrimental to your understanding of the rest of the book, its meaning, and its message. So with all thy getting get understanding. (Proverbs 4:7)
So if you preach the gospel- preach the gospel Jesus Christ preached… the gospel of the kingdom.
