The Dangers of Being Rooted in the Wrong Gospel

 

If you’ve spent any time in the Southeastern region of the US this time of year, you already know pollen is not a suggestion, it’s a full-blown assault on your humanity. Honestly, that feels like a real-life metaphor for the moment we are currently living in. There’s a lot in the air right now. A lot of voices, opinions, and people telling us what it means to follow Jesus. That’s exactly why we need to talk about being rooted. Because here’s the truth: we live in a time with more access to spiritual and political content than any generation before us. Sermons, podcasts, influencers, and hot takes scream for our attention. But despite all that access to information, something is still missing: We are being informed but are not being transformed. 

And those are not the same thing. What we need is to be sure that our lives are “rooted” in the right things!

To be rooted is to be firmly established, grounded, and deeply connected to a foundation. And that foundation matters more than we often realize. Because if we’re honest, a lot of what’s shaping people’s faith right now isn’t the Jesus of the Gospels. Far too many people are becoming rooted in politics, culture wars, nationalism, and/or fear. It’s a version of Christianity that looks more like a quest for control than a call to love. That’s not the Gospel. 

Jesus never called us to build power. He called us to carry a sacrifice our advantages and comfort for the benefit of others. The Apostle Paul reminds us that we are to be rooted and built up in Christ; not in ideology, not in a political movement, not in a version of faith that needs enemies to survive. And when you’re truly rooted in Jesus, something shifts as you stop trying to earn God’s love and start living from it. Because the Gospel doesn’t begin with “try harder.” The Gospel begins and ends with grace.

When those of us who identify as Christians stop resembling Jesus, we tend to replace it with a version of Christianity that draws lines instead of building and setting tables. We start deciding who’s “in” and who’s “out.” We start labeling people; LGBTQ individuals, people of different races or ethnic backgrounds, the economically struggling, those who vote differently than we do. Instead of seeing image-bearers of God, we start seeing issues to fix or enemies to defeat. That should deeply trouble us, because Jesus made it very clear what the defining mark of His followers would be. Jesus never calls His followers to correct voting patterns, pursue cultural dominance, or promote theological gatekeeping. He calls us to “Love one another as I have loved you.” 

Not agree. Not win. Love.

Let’s name something plainly: any version of Christianity that depends on political power, exclusion, or nationalism to sustain itself is not rooted in Jesus. It may use His name and quote Scripture. But it does not reflect His heart. Jesus consistently moved toward the marginalized; not away from them. He touched those society rejected uplifted the poor, crossed ethnic & cultural boundaries while intentionally making space for those others pushed out. If, our version of Christianity is pushing people away, especially those already on the margins, we need to ask a hard question: what are we actually rooted in? Because it cannot be Jesus.

And strangely enough, one of the clearest reminders of this didn’t come from a pulpit. It came from space. During the Artemis II mission, as astronauts prepared to pass behind the moon and lose all communication with Earth, Captain Victor Glover chose to use what could have been his final words to say something profoundly simple: don’t forget to love. In a moment filled with uncertainty, suspended between Earth and the unknown, the message wasn’t about power or dominance or division. It was about love, specifically loving God and loving our neighbor. And maybe that says something about what matters most when everything else fades away.

Here’s the beauty of the real Gospel: it is radically inclusive in its invitation. Not because anything goes, but because grace goes first. You don’t have to earn your place at the table or clean yourself up before you belong. You don’t have to become like us to be loved by God. You are already seen, already known, already loved. That includes LGBTQ people navigating faith and identity, racial minorities who have been the recipients of injustice caused by unjust systems, any group overlooked or oppressed, those struggling financially and feeling invisible, and anyone who has been told they don’t fit in church spaces. 

The Gospel says there is room for everyone. 

If we’re rooted in Jesus, our lives will say the same thing.

What Captain Glover echoed comes directly from Jesus. When a religious expert asked Him,

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)

These words must reshape how we read all of Scripture: everything; every command, every teaching hangs on loving God and loving your neighbor. That means if our theology doesn’t lead us to love people better, our theology is wrong. It’s possible to know the Bible deeply, argue doctrine passionately, and defend truth loudly, and still completely miss the heart of God. Being rooted in Jesus means letting love be the filter for everything; how we speak, how we disagree, how we treat people who are different from us. Especially how we treat people who are different from us.

We’ve spent too much time using Scripture as a weapon to shame, exclude, and control others. It’s time we start using what we know of Scripture to love unconditionally.

Because transformation isn’t about winning arguments. Transformation is about living out the mission of Jesus in a world obsessed with power.

At the end of the day, being rooted isn’t about how much you know. It’s about what your life produces.

And if we’re truly rooted in Jesus, the fruit will be obvious:

• Love that crosses boundaries.
• Grace that refuses to exclude.
• Faith that stands with the marginalized, not against them.

In a world obsessed with power, control, and division, the most radical thing we can do is live like Jesus.

And it starts with one simple question:

What am I rooted in?