What If Jesus Wasn't Really God?

One of the biggest hang ups that people have about Jesus is the idea that He was God. This can be difficult for many to believe considering some of the history of his followers.  Unfortunately, somewhere in history it became more important to believe Jesus was God that it came to try to live like Him. Ask yourself what would change the world faster, for everyone to believe Jesus was God or for everybody to love the way He did?  

How different are we all really?  Take the rival gang members, they both joined their gang for community, they both probably come from broken and dysfunctional homes, and if you remove the label of which gang they are in they are almost the exact same person.  Yet they hate each other and are even willing to kill each other. Why?  Because they are supposed to. Now, lets expand on this, instead of crips and bloods now it's republican and democrat, Catholic and Protestant, white and black, Ohio State and Michigan, Arab and Jew, Christian and Muslim.  Most people groups are enemies with each other because they are supposed to be. Yet at the core we are all the same. We all crave love and acceptance, we all desire to fit in somewhere. For example, all men and women in every culture relate to the basic differences between the sexes in marriage. There are certain things we all can relate to that are the same no matter who we are or where we come from. At some point we need to ask ourselves what would I be like if I were raised in the same situation my enemy was raised with?  If I was raised in a Taliban house hold, would I think differently than any of these "enemies?" 

What if we all found a way to peer into every person we come across and find how we are alike and learn to love that person?  How might that change the world?  Instead of focusing so much on the deity of this mysterious, homeless man of so long ago, what if we tried to look at Him as just a man long enough to appreciate the love He taught?  I promise that if we did that, if we would see how remarkable it was that this guy who was raised in a culture of bigotry and hate somehow was not affected by it and found a way to love like no one else did.  Even Jesus himself didn't go around telling people he was God. In fact, most of the time He even discouraged others from doing so.  No, it was His love more than anything else that proclaimed to people who He was. Perhaps we should do the same. I'm convinced that if we study Him as a regular man it will be impossible to remain at that conclusion. The fact that He was God is a personal discovery rather than a proclamation.  Perhaps if I can just try to love like Him I won't have to convince myself or anyone else of His deity.  We can just let Him do that.