Jesus is the greatest example in Scripture on how to live according to the will of God.
But notice that even though He is the greatest example, this still does not mean that we are to live and act exactly like Jesus. Aside from being impossible, any attempt is just foolish.
Why? Because we live in different times, with different cultures, and are facing different issues. The life of Jesus is the perfect way of living for a Jewish Rabbi in the First Century AD who lived in Palestine under Roman rule. If all this is true of you, then go ahead and try to exactly follow the example of Jesus. And while you are at it, check yourself into a mental institution.
Yet while we cannot exactly follow the example of Jesus, we can nevertheless learn from Him, and how He lived, so that we can follow His example and live in similar ways in our own times and places and cultures.
So I don’t believe we are to live like Jesus as much as we are to live like Jesus if He were living in our time and place and culture.
And, in fact, He is. If you are a believer in Jesus, then you are to be Jesus in the world.
The question then is not, “What would Jesus do?” but rather, “What would Jesus have us do?”
When you asked this question yesterday, my first thought was that of course there’s no way we could live exactly like him. If I tried to act like Jesus, I’d be demanding drinks from women at wells, I’d be telling dead people to rise, and I’d be telling people I was the son of God and man. I don’t think it’s just because of cultural differences that we can’t act like Jesus. That said, I like the turn of phrase at the end. “Like Jesus in the world.” Indeed.
Of course a person cannot live like Jesus, because it takes all of us to BE Him. Christ Himself IS the Church, and together WE can be Him.
For any of us to try to live like Him by ourselves is futile.
(I think we are saying the same thing, just felt like typing)
Swanny
I like the Swanny’s addition.
Jeremy, I know I’ve said this before, but it always seems to me like you would like those Viola books, because in essence you are saying many of the same things. (I’m still not clear on what you disagree about. Then again, sometimes I’m a slow learner.) His latest, Revise Us Again, indirectly hits on this topic. Finished it a month or so ago, loved-loved it!
Jennifer, Swanny, and Esther,
Thanks for the input and the clarification. Yes, I agree. The church is the incarnation of Jesus in the world. We are Jesus.
Thanks for pointing that out. Oh, and I have all of Viola’s books and am working through them. I think I have read 3 or 4 of them so far.
Church is not the Incarnation of Jesus, where it is in the Bible.
Church is the Body of Jesus, He being the Head ( do not ignore the head )
The purpose, definition and the result of Jesus Incarnation is quite different than what Church is assigned with.
we are to live like or live in Jesus does not mean we the Incarnation of Jesus.
Jesus dies FOR our sins ( the sole pupose of Jesus Incarnation )
BUT
we either die IN sin or
die TOWARDS / UNTO sin.
If I were really living like Jesus then the religious authorities would be following me around, trying to entrap me. As it is, we rarely cross paths.
I like to think in terms of trying to follow Jesus, using your idea of trying to live like Jesus might were He physically present today.
“If I were really living like Jesus then the religious authorities would be following me around, trying to entrap me. As it is, we rarely cross paths.”
Wow. so so true.
“If I were really living like Jesus then the religious authorities would be following me around, trying to entrap me. As it is, we rarely cross paths.”
Wow. so so true.
i dont see it that way whose to say that the same battles Jesus fought we also face but differently because i dont separate my own self righteous tendencys which we all have pride still lurks within every believers heart.Until we surrender it all to Christ it will still try and take us from the path of Grace My interpretation of greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world is not neccesarily the devil but the devil that i am.Everytime i choose to live by the flesh i am becoming more like him and so i am an enemy to Christ if i live like that.That is why Jesus says if we love him we would follow his commands not legalistically as under the law but because of his grace and mercy towards us. brentnz
This is an exercise in true but superfluous semantics.