On the BBC News website there is an article entitled "What would Jesus do?: The rise of a slogan"It makes for an interesting read but I find myself disliking this logo quite intensely. I've always felt that it's a bit of a silly question for two reasons. Firstly, as the article points out, we don't really get much of a clue as to how Jesus conducted himself away from the limelight and so we can't really answer the question.
Secondly, we often see Jesus popping off a miracle in a variety of circumstances and whilst Jesus told us in John 14 that we would "..do even greater things.." I and the vast majority of Christians have yet to fully understand and grasp that. So looking at a WWJD? wristband when confronted with a situation is not really a great help.
I have preached on this before and feel that rather than asking the question What Would Jesus Do? for most Christians we'd be better off learning Philippians 1:27 as a memory verse and applying it to our daily situations. It goes like this:
For me I really ought to get it printed in big bold letters and have it pinned onto my dashboard. Where would you pin these words to help you in your daily walk? I particularly like the fact that the sentence begins with "Whatever", it's not the 'whatever' of stroppy teenagers but rather the whatever that covers every situation and eventuality with no exceptions.
Sadly WHCYIAMWOTGOC doesn't trip off the tongue in quite the same way as WWJD? but I prefer it!
I could not agree more. My pastor has preached about the whole WWJD phrase. One thing that he said that made sense to me is this - what has Jesus already done? And not unlike your Philippians reference, what is Christ calling us to do? It should be worthy indeed.
ReplyDeleteI agree!
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