I believe the thing most misrepresented by us pastors, teachers, and “Christians” is the tone of Jesus and His teachings which, consequentially, misrepresents the heart of God. The definition of the word “disciple” used by Jesus quite literally means “to mimic”. If we are to choose to truly be mimics of Jesus (the heart of God), we must learn (just as the 12 that followed Jesus did) to speak, teach, and communicate in the same tone as Jesus did (and does…He’s still very much alive and speaking.)

Therefore, it’s vital we communicate (especially when re-presenting the heart of God) from a place of love and rest as Jesus did lest we skew the true motivation behind our very existence.

I propose that to communicate or teach God as if He is disappointed or angry at us is to devalue or translate that Jesus really didn’t do all that He claimed to accomplish. Jesus bore all the wrath of God. God is not angry. Our messages shouldn’t be either. 

Two filter questions I recommend for any message, talk, teaching…etc.:
1.) Is the attitude of what I’m presenting the same as that of the Father’s character in the parable of the Prodigal Son?
2.) What is the motivation behind what I’m presenting? Love yields love. Fear yields fear.

*For clarity sake: Anger is a good emotion, and to even more reiterate the humanity of Jesus, the Gospels note a few times of Jesus experiencing anger. However, Jesus was sinless. Therefore, he never sinned in his anger. Communicating anger by tone or connotation in a demeaning or “put-down” manner would constitute as sin. So to claim that Jesus’ communicated tone in this manner would be completely false.

*Good to have: I recommend having/using a Jewish New Testament Commentary when studying things of this manner in the Bible.