I recently read the book, In His Steps. Published in 1896, it was the originator of the popular "WWJD" -- "What would Jesus do?" Now, the book was ... mundane. It was a fictional story of a pastor that urged his congregation to ask, "What would Jesus do?" and then do it. The premise was interesting and, perhaps, even challenging, but it was mundane in that the definition of "What would Jesus do?" was specifically and repeatedly defined as "What do you feel Jesus would do?" It was purely subjective and individual. And the author felt thoroughly compelled to repeatedly affirm that no one could say for anyone else what Jesus would do. As an outcome, all of what Jesus would do revolved around ... the mundane. The newspaper editor was quite sure that Jesus would never print a story about a prize fight. The lovely girl with the lovely voice was convinced that Jesus would never take a God-given talent and earn money with it. And the preacher was staunchly opposed to "that Satan, rum" and was doing all he could to eliminate saloons. I wanted to ask, "Umm, excuse me ... has anyone thought of ... oh, I don't know ... looking at the Jesus of the Bible for this?" Because it seemed to me that, for instance, the certainty that Jesus would seek to impose Prohibition after reading how He made water into wine would be somewhat contradictory.
We are to be imitators of Christ (Eph 5:1; 1 John 2:6; 1 Cor 11:1, etc.). Part of that is God's purpose and function (Rom 8:29). But there is a better way to imitate Christ than "How do you feel about it?" That would be the product of knowing about Christ. Based on that, we can make "guesses". No, in order to imitate Christ, it is necessary to know Christ -- more than just about Him.
We are to be imitators of Christ. It is necessary to know Him to imitate Him. Thus, our entire focus in life should begin with the focus Paul had:
I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil 3:8-11)Our example for life is the Christ we know. Our motivation is our love for Him. Following Him fully is spiritual worship. Anything less is mundane ... in both senses of the word.
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