To Walk as Jesus Walked

Jesus Walked in LOVE

You may remember the What Would Jesus Do? movement back in the 1990s? The initials WWJD? appeared on bracelets, key chains, and many other paraphernalia. Interestingly, the phrase comes from a popular novel written nearly 100 years earlier. Charles Sheldon’s book, In His Steps. Apparently, Sheldon borrowed the question from another Charles, the famous British preacher, Charles Spurgeon.

So here we are, some 30 years later. Would you say our world is better or worse than it was 30 years ago?

The phrase sells a lot of bracelets, but it breaks down in practice. The truth is, in most situations, we can’t do what Jesus did.

His miracles, raising the dead, and healing the sick, were proof of His deity and not intended for imitation.

But we can be Jesus.

If Christ lives in us (Gal 2:20), we can exercise His grace to a lost and dying world.

How?

1 John 2:6 tells us, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”

Looking at the steps Jesus took while on this earth teaches us a lot about how we ought to live.

We’re going to start with the obvious and hardest step:

Jesus walked in LOVE.

Every other step flows out of this one. We can’t walk as He walked unless we first walk in love.

“He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:8

If God is love, then we must know Him if we are to walk in love. How do we know Him? John tells us, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” 1 John 2:3

Not only that, John says, “whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.”

The word ‘truly’ here is the Greek word alēthōs, meaning it is a sure thing. And the word ‘perfected’ is teleioō, meaning accomplished or consummated.

So, John is telling us we can be certain the love of God will be accomplished in us when we keep His commandments.

Not God’s love for us, which is perfect in itself, but our love for God, which remains imperfect until we express it in both word and deed.

Let’s begin our journey here, Beloved. Opening our bibles to the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), let’s make note of the commands Jesus gave us, and consider:

How do Jesus’ words in Matthew chapters 5 and 6 give us a new way to think about God’s commandments?

Can we apply any of them to a current situation we may be facing?

How do Jesus’ words in Mark 7-10 give structure to our daily living?

What do Jesus’ words in Luke 6 and 10 add to our understanding of what we read in Matthew and Mark’s account?

What is the new commandment Jesus gives us in John 13?

Next time, we’ll talk about how keeping His commandments changes our perspective and leads to the next step in walking like Him.

Shalom.

Photo Credit: @priscilladupreez on Unsplash