Influencers are individuals with large or highly engaged social media followings who hold considerable sway in specific industries such as beauty, fashion, fitness, travel, and food. Known for their authenticity and innovative approaches, they use their specialized knowledge and authority to influence target audiences. Source; Sprout Social (an influencer)

This idea came to me as I watched one of these unreal reality shows where people from sports, movies, television and social media came together to complete. The show announced the name and title for each, NFL pro-bowler, Olympian, actor, actress and then there was that final category, personality influencer.

So how is what I am doing any different from a media influencer?

I stand by the Word of God. I am not a proselyte, I do not advocate for any “brand” of Christianity, only that Jesus Christ is the Word and the Word speaks for itself.

Deuteronomy 11:18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”

The concept is not new. The Word taken to heart influences the soul and is seen outwardly in what we do and how we think.

• Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
• Psalm 41:6 And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
• Psalm 55:21 His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
• Psalm 119:11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

The Word tells.us of right attitudes and wrong attitudes. When God’s Word is not on the heart, the words of the mouth spreads vanity and the iniquity hidden within.

Here is a novel idea: read the bible, in any one of its acceptable forms, take it to heart and then discover what happens to your heart, soul, mind, attitudes and actions.

Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

Luke 6:45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (influencer)

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Is this really a new commandment?

Matthew 22:36-40 English Standard Version

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

That was the great commandment under the law but we live by grace. How does that differ?

Jesus demonstrated love. He showed us what agapē love looks like. We can see that love in Matthew 22:38 is the word agapaō. While agapē means love feast, agapaō means to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly. The comparative between the two is not in how Jesus loved us perfectly, it is in how we love ourselves.

Self love can never be as perfect and God’s love, it has an element of sinful history which God does not possess. No matter how much we feel forgiven, no matter how much we are grateful for His sacrifice for us, the memories of our past lives remain.

The law holds on to judgment, grace does not. If we deem ourselves unworthy of God’s love we will discover it is much harder to demonstrate God’s love to others. Justification is a declarative judgment from God’s Holy Court that changes His view of us. How we view ourselves is another matter.

Perhaps agapaō love takes us back to the point where Jesus said to us that how we treat our fellow man is how we treat him, a demonstration of grace, not an act of obedience. When you fix a meal and share it with a neighbor, do you preface the act with “My God commanded me to do this.”? No, the act itself is the demonstration of grace.

Our motivation for acts cannot be obedience, it has to be the abiding love we have for the one who saved us, changed us, and continues to guide us.

For the love of God is not declarative, it is at the heart of who we are as children of the Father.