Jesus was more interested in teaching people how to behave rather than what to believe, discuss.

On the other hand, it may be argues that Jesus’ sole purpose was teaching belief. This view has also been adopted into modern day Catholicism, as Pope Francis said that if non-believers follow their conscience, it is possible for them to enter the kingdom of heaven. Furthermore throughout Jesus’ time on earth he performs miracles in order to aspire belief not alter behaviour. Via raising Lazarus from the dead and giving a blind man site he instilled wonder and belief for his followers to spread, in no way changing their behaviours. Also, it is thought that God is a logical being and as such respects human free will. This deduction is made as love that is not freely given can surely not be credited as true love. God had to give man free will as so man could learn to love him willingly. As such the human embodiment of God in Jesus Christs should surely not be trying to alter the behaviour of the people he allowed to be free in the first place.

Per Contra, Jesus teaching behaviour can also be seen in many other parables such as the parable of the Good Samaritan. In the parable a badly beaten man is left for dead on a road, a priest and a Levite walked by and did nothing but the Samaritan did and helped him on his road to recovery. When Jesus told the story to an expert in law he asked which was a neighbour to the beaten man. To which he replied the one that showed mercy, Jesus then told him to go and do likewise. This is a clear and direct example of Jesus teaching people how to behave rather than what to believe. In addition, other parables such as the parable of the sower, Jesus preaches that the effect of God’s word depends on the heart of the person receiving it. It is suggested that our faith and our lives exemplify the "good soil" in the Parable of the Sower, this is seemingly a behavioural point rather than belief, as God’s word is not being preached but rather how to receive it.

There may also be an argument in saying that Christ was not teaching behaviour as such but instead that any action instilled by his teaching is just giving his followers beliefs credibility. As in the book of James, the quote “Faith without works is dead” is taken. Showing that in the eyes of God if belief is not acted upon it is pointless. This is a contradictory point to the argument that Jesus was preaching the Beatitudes in order to subdue his followers thus protecting them from harsh Roman oppressive actions.

In conclusion, I believe that although Jesus’ main aim may have been to teach his followers beliefs he ended up altering their behaviours more so. The Beatitudes teachings of submissive is clearly correlated to surviving under Roman rule and parables such as that of the Good Samaritan teaches how to behave towards your neighbours.