If there is one thing I have learned in my life as a follower of Jesus is that it is impossible to live like Jesus. I mean, after all, He was God! He lived a perfect life! If He is my standard, I’m throwing in the towel right now.
But thankfully, we aren’t called to live like Jesus. We are called, however, to like Jesus.
Don’t be just like Jesus . . . just like Jesus.
That is, God wants us to love Jesus. Loving Jesus leads to obeying Him (John 14:15), which certainly allows us to reflect Him in our lives, but it will never make us exactly like Him (not even in heaven!). I think the best thing we can do is be ourselves for Jesus. So don’t try to be Jesus. Just be yourself for Jesus.
Biblically as well, we are not called to be like Jesus. We are just called to a part of Jesus (1 Corinthians 12-14). None of us can be like Jesus by ourselves. We can only be like Jesus in a community of others who are also trying to be themselves for Jesus. The Bible calls this living as the body of Christ. Those who are toes live like toes for Jesus, letting those who are elbows be elbows. No part should try to be the whole person.
So stop trying to be like Jesus. You can’t do it, and He doesn’t want you to try. There’s only one Jesus, and you are not Him. Instead, just like Jesus by being yourself for Jesus.
Aarrgh! Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I have been practicing walking on water every day!
David,
You make me laugh! If I ever make it to NZ, we will have to meet up!
HEY! I was reading Vince Antonucci’s new book I Became a Christian and All I Got was this Lousy T-Shirt with my wife tonight, and here is what we read:
“If you invited me to your church this Sunday to speak, here’s how I think I’d start my message: ‘Stop trying to be like Jesus.'” (p. 107).
I really did not read this chapter in his book before I wrote this post. Vince must have looked into the future and read my mind when he was writing that book…ha ha. More likely I got this statement from one of Vince’s blog posts and didn’t realize I was plagiarizing him. Or, we were both just thinking the same thing.
Actually, though, that is about as far as the agreement went. Not that we were disagreeing, but he went a completely different direction than I went. He used the statement to write that when we try to be like Jesus, we fail because it’s not in our nature to be like Him. But when we abide in Jesus (he explains how in the book), we let Jesus live His life in and through us so that we do end up being like Jesus. Actually, it’s Jesus being like Jesus in us.
Yeah, that’s good too…
“Actually, it’s Jesus being like Jesus in us.”
That’s kind of creepy.
More on topic 🙂 ,
I don’t think trying to be more like Jesus is a bad idea for anyone, even heathens like myself. The Jesus of the Bible is a lot like us. He bends some rules to help his mother. He loses his temper. He makes bad decisions. To me, that was always the beauty of Jesus – he wasn’t perfect. Trying to make him so is to set an impossible standard, one that just piles baggage on the shoulders of those who misunderstand. We can never be perfect, so we shouldn’t beat ourselves up or criticize others because we fail to be. The fact that we will never find the utopia, however, is no reason not to keep trying.
He was just a man. An exceptional man, to be sure. Even if you believe he was also God, he was still, while he was here, just a man. That was always such a wonderful idea to me.
How is it that someone who describes themselves as a heathen can grasp something that many Christians fail to grasp – that while Jesus was here He was operating as just a man (whilst still being God). I don’t agree that He wasn’t perfect, but that one thing is enlightened!
Bullet,
I always love it when you interact here! You make me think, and I love your perspective on things. I do, of course, think Jesus was more than just a man, but I also think that far too many of us (especially Christians) put way too much glitz on the man. I mean, it’s taboo in some circles to even think that Jesus might have gone to the bathroom or had body odor and bad breath.
Oh, and Vince didn’t actually say that in his book…the part you thought was kind of creepy. That was my summary of what I understood him to be saying, so I might be wrong…
1 Peter 2:21 (Read all of 1 Peter 2)
For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps
Roman 12: 1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
It never hurts to obey the teachings of our Lord and Saviour and to emulating him. We are sinners born into sin, but as part of sanctification we try to live our lives in a manner pleasing to him. To know him you must read his words and put on the armor of Christ.
?!?!?!
Paul did say “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” Emulation is part of discipleship. It is for that matter also part of a father/son relationship. So whilst I appreciate the sentiment, I don’t think it is Biblical.
Perfect.
Paul did say “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” Emulation is part of discipleship. It is for that matter also part of a father/son relationship. So whilst I appreciate the sentiment, I don’t think it is Biblical.
I appreciate you trying to take some of the pressure off of us, but this isn’t Biblical. Of course we are to try to be like Jesus – every day, every way. In addition to some of the other comments already, Jesus specifically told people to emulate him when he washed the feet of the disciples. Now you can say “That was about humility”, but keep going and you will see that Jesus and His disciples called us to be Christlike over and over again. I need grace as much as anyone, but let’s not cheapen it.
Well, I am not cheapening grace, I am trying to make it free. And yes, we are to grow into Christlikeness, but not by our own effort and willpower, and definitely not through legalistic sets of rules and lawkeeping.
It is free. Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus. That much is not being disputed. So we are not being legalistic at all.
We still would not go about living sinful lives, stealing from others, having sex with a different women every day, beating up people we don’t like,
Being a born again Christian involves being discomforted by sin. We tolerate our nature as fallen beings but we still always strive for Gods standard of absolute righteousness.
Um if anything, the bible tells us to NOT be ourselves lol God tells us we Must DIE and be born again. God also says “whoever claims to live in him, must live as Jesus did”.
How very scary a world it is when those we put our trust in to lead us into the right direction are leading us directly to Satan himself.
To be ourselves is to be content with who we are. To be content with who we are is to be content with sin. You are preaching a message of tolerance towards sin.
You are essentially telling us to give up. To throw in the towel. To be the corrupted beings that we are.
God wants us to constantly strive for edification and improvement, THAT is scripture.
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. 1 Peter 2:21
Jesus is the primary example. The apostles are other examples.We cannot BE His examples but it is better to strive toward that goal than to accept anything less than God’s standard of true righteousness. We fall short of it and we should always remember that but we should still try to please God to the best of our ability nonetheless.
We should want to be great. We should want to seek greatness as well. Not for our own Pride and to be happy with ourselves, but because it is God’s will.
I have struggled my whole life with trying to be like Jesus. What is it really mean ‘to be like Jesus?’
My friends told me that I am so kind, generous, forgiving, loving and it is rare. But I constantly find myself in the pitful of being taken advantage of.
I am searching for what it is truly means to be like Jesus.
Take a look at Galatians 5:22-23 – The Fruit of the Spirit; this is God’s gift as his Children when we obey him, seek him, and love Him with all heart and mind intentionally.
But what about his character of being bold; to speak up for what is right, courages, abiding his law…?
Thanks Jeremy for this post. I think one of the messages here is that we shouldn’t try to be like Jesus with our own means. I tried doing that and I can tell you I failed miserably. Last night, I told Jesus that I failed him. I told him I can’t be who he wants me to be. I am impatient, I love to procrastinate, etc. Reading this made me realise that I failed because I am just a human being. I concluded that I didn’t want to try (with my own means) to be like Jesus anymore. Instead, I wanted to surrender myself to Jesus so that he can help me to be like him and I am 100% sure that he can do it through the Holy Spirit because He is our powerful God. Praise the Lord!
Also, if we could, by our own means try to be like Jesus or if we could by our own means become Jesus, then we don’t really need him anymore, right? I feel like it is not that we surrender and decide that we don’t want to be like Jesus. It’s more like we surrender to Jesus to ask him to make us more like him.
1 John 2:6
“…5but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
THE ONE WHO SAYS HE FOLLOWS CHRIST SHOULD STRIVE TO BE LIKE CHRIST.
Hello Jeremy:) I like your post; it is important to be with other believers, Proverbs 18:1 says ”A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment.” Many go off by themselves, and then create an idea of God to shape their own desires.
However,
1 John 2:6 directs us that “whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”
1 Peter 2:21 says “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”
1 Corinthians 11:1-2 notes “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.”
I agree with you that a community of believers is good, and instructed by God. But, it is the Holy Spirit in us, walking by the spirit, rather than the flesh, as the flesh was shucked off. “Christianity” is following Christ; becoming like Him, following His footsteps. That’s literally everything. 🙂
God bless you my brother,
Noah
I appreciate the fresh look on this topic, but this is definitely not biblical.
1 John 2:5-6
5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God[a] is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
The Bible is still important.
What about the humanity of Christ? He was fully God but also fully man. He did not dip into the divine to benefit himself. He obeyed His Father in His humanity.
Thank you, you have no idea how much I needed to hear this message today.
For boys that refuse to be anything like their dad. My mom saw I had no role- model to look too as to what to be a man. So she said( if you are going to be like any other man, this is the man that you want to be like) and she began to tell me about Jesus. And even if she didn’t. I practiced and practiced and was baptized in water as I was growing and calling my self a Christian the whole time. I hungered for him. I searched for him. In the beginning the book was milk to me but I out grew that and wanted more. He turned the milk into bread. But it still didn’t not give me what I hungered for and one day it happened. Baptized with blood and a fire. The convection that burned from within, it came from knowing that I accepted his blood to pay for my sin. That is not the man that I am and I did not say that stupid fraise that with a cold, dead, lifeless emotionless. I’m sorry. I showed something something greater. He chose me. I did not choose him. He came and accepted me while I was in my sin. And once I stepped out of a personal relationship and entered into an intimate one. He started to feed me exactly what I wanted. It was true. It was raw it’s what I needed to grow and get big and strong. By his hands I was fead. I have lived in the hell that he walked through and came out with the key. I the key is love. And I showed it. Love is sacrifice. I know the truth about love. In this place. I love you but you turn around and hurt them. And then you say I’m sorry. I have learned to love like that. But my love is so much greater. And I will stay in this hell every time then to have his blood on me. He hand fead me our whole life. And I know him and I know what he smells like. Yes I want to be like Jesus. But he is your savior. He is everything. I am not. And I did not know what a lion even was. We looked identical to me. And while he was feeding me he told me the truth. What a lion is and what a lion does. And I can’t believe I thought I was a Christian. Why are you so afraid? You need to learn about acceptance. I am everything I wanted to grow up to be. 7 because that is the number I got when I took what you put in and x it by 7 and it gave me 0 you took 1000 times more than what you put in. I am giving 7 and I am doing it for him. Seven years to practice and If you have something to say let me tell you. I don’t know what an I’m sorry is. I have never seen one. I have never smelt one. And I don’t think one exists
Romans 8 says “…for those whom He foreknew, these He also predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son that He might be the first of many brethren…” We are in a process, a refining process.