What Would Jesus Do?

Maybe someone has challenged you to act like Jesus. Maybe you've read or heard about Charles Sheldon's classic book, In His Steps, the story of a minister who urges his congregation to commit themselves to doing what Jesus would do. So you got yourself a bracelet with the initials, WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?), on it, and now you're ready to go out and do what Jesus would do.. If you're like many people, however, you're going to find that it's not as easy as you thought it would be. You may know what Jesus would do, but you find yourself not doing it. Or, in a certain situation, you have problems even knowing what Jesus would do.

When I was teaching at a Christian high school in Iowa, I had to attend a mandatory workshop on child abuse, how to recognize it and how to report it. One of the leaders was wearing a WWJD bracelet. As the workshop proceeded, the leader was using coarse language and making inappropriate comments. What would Jesus do? Not what that leader was doing, I'm sure, although I've known ministers who were free with inappropriate language in private conversations and even in the pulpit. I'm sure they don't see a problem with how they're conducting themselves, and that is part of a bigger problem.

One criticism of Sheldon's book is that it assumes a particular brand of Christian-an evangelical Christian, one who takes the Bible as God's Word and tries to live it as completely as possible. If you're not that kind of Christian, you may have trouble relating to the book and the actions that are encouraged.

But there's a deeper problem that applies to any Christian. Dallas Willard, in his book, The Spirit of the Disciplines, pinpoints the real problem: "To live as Christ lived is to live as he did all his life." (See details below) You see, it's not enough to have a list of how a believer should live life. Lists are easy to make, and Sheldon's book is, in a sense, a broad list of situations in which the choices are clear. The problem, however, is whether or not the believer has the spiritual foundation to not only discern what a Christian would do, but also has the spiritual toughness to actually do what Christ would do. I would say that the leader of the workshop I attended either failed to understand that he was not giving a Christlike witness or was not able to follow through on a commitment to act in a way that Christ would have acted.

How was Christ different? He did not only act in and on the lives of others; he also prepared himself spiritually to be able to act. One thing we see several times in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) is that Jesus set aside times for private prayer. He also appears to have had an intimate acquaintance with the Jewish Scriptures and how to interpret them in order to apply them helpfully to different situations.

There are many disciplines that we call spiritual disciplines: prayer, Bible study, meditation, journaling, fasting, solitude, simplicity, confession, worship, and so on. These are not intended to be ends in themselves. Someone should not brag that he has filled page after page in his journal, but rather that he has a better appreciation of himself and the work of God in and through his life. Bible study should not be an intellectual pursuit, but a life changing activity. It is through such disciplines that we become more like Christ and thus are able to act more like Christ.

Before we put on the WWJD bracelet, let's be sure we are ready on the inside to do the work on the outside.

Source:

Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines (New York: HarperOne, 1991) 5.

For a helpful introduction to the spiritual disciplines, see: Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978)