KCU/03/Individual2

Topic 6: WWJD? Question: In what ways is Jesus our model/example for living & in what ways is he not? (Be sure to do more research into the issue. If the group cannot come to a consensus, feel free to have different group members each express their own opinions.)

It seems everywhere you look somebody's wearing one of those WWJD bracelets. And the message is a good one. There's nothing wrong with asking ourselves: What would Jesus do? After all, Christians are challenged to follow Christ's example, and to imitate God in the way we live our lives (Ephesians 5:1-2). Even so, how do we take the message beyond a bracelet and past a fad? How do we make the WWJD message real in the way we talk and act? The answer is simple. Luckily God has given us a book that clearly explains exactly what Jesus would do. The Bible is our instruction manual handed to us from God to give us real life examples of how a christian should act no matter what situation arises. In order for us as christians to understand what Jesus would do and why he would do it, first we need to know some important facts about Jesus.

First of all, we need to understand that Jesus was a human, just like me and you. Sometimes it is hard to believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was a living, breathing human being. Although He was filled with the Holy Spirit, he still went through all the same things that us christians go through today in our own lives. Jesus came to this earth as a baby and left this earth as a man. Therefore, he went through the stages of life just like everyone else. Jesus was a baby, a young boy, a teenager, and a man during some point of his life. He was faced with the same temptations as everyone else was. The only differense is, that the Son of God was perfect, he knew exactly how to deal with each of these situations in the way that God would've wanted. There are multiple examples throughout the Bible where Jesus is faced with a tempting or problematic situation. God chose to put his Son through these situations in order to show us the proper was to handle them. I guarantee you that no matter what problem you are going through in your life that there is a perfect example in the Word of God that will guide you through it.

Everywhere you go, people are wearing bracelets, t-shirts, and rings with WWJD printed on them. This movement was started with a youth group in Calvary Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. They want to be realistic about their faith, to give it a tangible feeling. They know Jesus and were trying to act like him. These youths were genium in their walk with Jesus and seek ways to live a better life as a Christian but the WWJD movement became a fad. We spent too much time thinking about what Jesus would do rather than trying to do about it. We neglect the Bible and prayer and try to think our way through the question WWJD. Lets take a new approach to the question about what would Jesus do. Instead and see what Jesus did do and live our lives according to what he did. 1 John 2:6 says that “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner He walked.” So in order to do what Jesus would do, we have to believe in Him and delve into his words to find out what He did. The answer to what did Jesus do is only found in only one place: the Bible. All the things that we are suppose to do Jesus did all of them in the Bible. We are supposed to obey and in Luke 22:42 it shows us that Jesus obey God and did what he commanded. We are commanded to tell the truth, thought of others, share the Gospel, and love one another and Jesus did all of them. (Matt 5:44, 20:28, 28:19-20) There’s also a catch in reading the Bible and doing what Jesus did. Sometimes we forget that Jesus was also God and that there are certain things that only God could do. Because Jesus was both God and human, He gets both worlds. Being unique is the fundamental difference between Jesus and other humans. We shouldn’t only check out what Jesus did but also what he did that we aren’t allowed to do. In Matt 2:11, 14:32,28:9, John 9;38, and Rev 5:4, Jesus receive and accept worship and in Acts 10:25-26 Peter get the same opportunity but he didn’t accept worship because only God can accept worship and Jesus is God. As a human being on earth, Jesus judges (John 5:22) but we aren’t allowed to judge (Matt23:25, 27, 33) because only God could judge and since Jesus is fully God and fully human he could judge. When we read the Bible we should be careful about some stuff because Jesus is also God and could do things that we aren’t allowed to do. WWJD or what Jesus did do is just showing us ways to pattern our lives after Jesus and follow in his steps. Doing what Jesus did is living in obedience to God and obeying is one of his commandments. So by doing what Jesus did we are already living a christian life.