Live Like Jesus
n the recent discussion about the conference we attended (Original or Not: The Last Twelve Verses of Mark), there were some questions in the comments about whether or not wrestling over the validity of a relatively small snippet of Scripture mattered. And in some ways, I would argue that it does matter.
But ultimately, like so many questions regarding theology, doctrine, canonicity, etc., we must realize that our major pursuit must be Jesus. It doesn’t matter how many of our theological ducks are lined up, or how fine-tuned our textual criticism skills are, or how much we know about church history, or what creeds we can recite, or what church roll our name is on, or what seminary we graduated from, or who endorses our books, or who reads our blogs — if we aren’t living the way Jesus told us to live, it means nothing.
We cannot afford to separate our life from our beliefs. Jesus calls us to a life that is far greater in scope than theological expertise.
Recently, one of the many blogs I read in my feed reader (and I wish I could remember which one so that I could tip the hat to them — if it’s someone reading this, please let me know, and I’ll give you credit) mentioned a recent interview with Tony Campolo.
OK, wait. I see some of you rolling your eyes. I know what you’re thinking, because I was always led to think that way about Campolo, too. Stop it! Let’s hear the guy out.
It’s about a 10 minute video, found here. And in it, Tony is sure to ruffle some feathers. But he made some pretty strong comments that I think we must reckon with and not dismiss so easily. For example, his concluding remark:
If your enemy hungers, feed him; if he’s sick, care for him; if he’s naked, clothe him. Its radical stuff, but until we start living the way Jesus has called us to live, we ought not to call ourselves followers of Jesus.
I don’t know about you, but that hits pretty hard in my book. Now, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not endorsing every single thing that is said in this interview. (For example, there’s a bit of a misquote regarding Jesus’ statements regarding “An eye for an eye”. Jesus did not say that he was giving us “a new commandment.” However, Jesus did say, “But I say to you” which could be easily taken, then, as a commandment. And the point that Jesus was making is still quite valid, with or without the misquote by Campolo.)
But even without endorsing everything in it, I think there is much validity in what is being said. Another point that resonated with me was the following (perhaps not exactly quoted — it went by fast, and the host was jumping in at the time):
[On judgment day] its not going to be “Virgin Birth … strongly agree, somewhat agree…” Its gonna be “I was hungry, did you feed me? I was naked, did you clothe me? I was sick, did you care for me? I was an alien, did you take me in? … because I’m not up in the sky somewhere, I’m waiting to be loved in people who hurt.”
Now, I know the response I have received here on my blog before when I ventured into the areas of talking about what doctrinal points are absolutely necessary to agree on. But for those who have questioned me on this, I would pose this question: How do we view the words of Jesus in this regard? Why does Jesus seem to put so much emphasis on how we treat one another, and especially those less fortunate than we?
There’s a lot of talk these days in circles identifying with “the Emerging Church” (which I’m still not sure how much, if at all, I would be considered part of, or how much I even want to be considered a part of it) regarding being “missional”.
As far as I can tell (correct me if I’m wrong, emerging readers), “missional” refers to the concept of actually living out our faith in the world around us by seeking to meet needs, build relationships, and love the people around us. In short, it’s the idea of living the same way that Jesus taught us to live.
I’ve felt a lot along these lines for several years. I previously shared on this blog some thoughts about ways I used to reach out to homeless people in Austin, TX, when I lived there.
So what am I doing now? Well, one of the things in the works for Christy and me is a move toward being licensed for foster/adoptive care in our county.
We have no idea what this will lead to. We have heard reports from other foster parents (who have come to speak to the class we’re taking as part of the process) who have had over 50 kids go through their home in the years they have been fostering. I don’t know if that’s where we’ll be.
Our primary motivation for being licensed is a desire to adopt a young child. But we’re also seeing the possibilities of fostering and seeking God’s direction in that. If that’s what He wants us to do as we seek to live like Jesus, then I want to be completely on board with His plan!
Pray for us as we finish up the licensing process. We could be licensed by the early part of the summer, and from there, who knows what will happen?
All I know is that I want to live like Jesus. If I don’t, I agree with Campolo that I really have no right to call myself a follower of Jesus. Go watch the video and see what you think.
Until next time,
steve 
April 18th, 2007 23:44
Chills, Steve, chills ran across me when I heard the term ‘Red Letter Christians’. I have been imploring the people that show up at our house for fellowship to ‘forget the rest and just go back and read the red words’. The context for this comment was our struggle to find what it means to be a Christian. A true Christian. And what true community and church are. Obviously I didn’t mean to really forget the rest, I just wanted to clarify.
My journey has taken me to Honduras where God showed me community and compassion taking place. My journey has taken me out of the mainstream church, into a quasi-emergent/purpose-driven church, into my home, into small discipleship groups, into blogs, into inner-city Philly to meet up with friends following out those red letters at the simple way and ultimately into the red letters myself and individual time with God.
If I’m completely honest, I’m not sure I can be a Christian. I like stuff too much, I like living a comfortable life, I like being admired and respected and looked up to, I like people to see me with people of influence and who have a coolness factor.
I don’t like people who are hurting, who are poor, I don’t like emotionally needy people, I don’t like people who are not on my self-perceived intellectual level, I don’t like people who aren’t cool.
I really hope this grace thing is as good as they say it is.
I can’t recommend strongly enough Greg Boyd’s book, The Myth of a Christian Nation, in response to what Campolo had to say.
When I get home I’ll quote from one of my poly-sci books about how politicians evoke God to be on ‘our’ side and for political gain.
Mike
P.S. It has truly been a couple of crazy, enlightening, and encouraging days on here. Thanks again!
April 19th, 2007 07:04
Steve -
Thanks for sharing. There is so much inside me right now that I think I could write a book, but I won’t
I just wanted to say that you inspire me. Thanks for always sharing your heart like this …
Blessings!!
April 19th, 2007 09:09
Steve,
I grew up in evangelical churches where they gave kids pins for memorizing verses and rattling off all the names of the books of the Bible. All the traditional stuff…
Anymore, when I meet a Christian who is new to me, I’m not all that interested in how much Bible they know, but in how much Bible they live. And I know I’m no paragon of perfection in this myself, but I’d rather be 50 feet along on the right road than 50 miles down a side track.
By the way, I got my blog set up Tuesday, have 3 posts on it now. Let’s see if I can make a link that works:http://postmodernredneck.blogspot.com
Don’t know how that came out, it took me a couple of tries. Well, if the link doesn’t work, at least you have the address. Hopefully I’ll get the hang of it someday.
Phil Hawkins
April 19th, 2007 10:37
Steve,
Yes! New life in Christ is not about stating a creed or defending a confession. It is about life! Living a Spirit-indwelled and Spirit-enabled and Spirit-led life. Studying Scripture is worthless (yes, I said worthless) if we are not living what we are reading and studying.
-Alan
April 19th, 2007 12:04
Doctrines and creeds take a lot of abuse, but I’m not so sure they are near the root of what keeps us from following Christ. The real problems are issues of the heart. Doctrines and creeds are tools to help us understand the reality which is Christ. A hammer isn’t a bad thing, though I may be tempted to view it as a bad thing if it’s used in hate. The real problem, though, isn’t the hammer, it’s the hate.
Great post Steve. I hope and pray for God to use you and Christy in rich ways of love, by his grace, on this new adventure in him.
April 19th, 2007 22:10
Good points, Steve.
My guess is that we don’t have to look for an enemy to discover if we are true-blue Christians. Most of us don’t even like our neighbors. So, forget about loving them.
April 20th, 2007 10:23
What amazes me is that we use this language often in evangelical circles: Enter into a personal relationship with Jesus. But we live most of the rest of our lives as though there is nothing personal about God. We dont’ walk with Him, talk to Him, listen to His voice, ask Him what we should do (unless we are in desperation or it’s something really big and even then we rarely wait on Him to respond), etc. I think God is all about relationship. It starts there and it is eternal there. What is eternal life? To know God. 1 John says it over and over again.
I think what has happened is that we have the wrong picture of the character of God and thus don’t trust Him as we should to be all that He is in our lives. We are living idolatrous lives because we really dont’ see Who God Is.
April 20th, 2007 23:46
All, I apologize that I have been so delinquent in responding here. I appreciate all the good comments, but just haven’t taken the time to engage with them. I apologize.
April 25th, 2007 15:38
Loved this post. I have been so radically challenged lately – God is really confronting my typically western/1st world expression of Christianity. I’m in process of learning to obey what Jesus actually said (from loving the poor to healing the sick). As one guy put it, “We are teaching so much information about God, but we aren’t teaching OBEDIENCE. Jesus said to teach them to obey all that He commanded”. Obviously, this is part of the transition currently underway with ’simple church’ and ‘emergent church.’ Like you, I don’t know that I can fully identify myself as ‘emergent’ or whatever (even though I’ve long been outside of institutional church). All I know is that I must BE the church OUT THERE…. and the only way I can do that is to obey what Jesus said to do!
I also appreciated Mike Ross’s complete honesty. If we’re from the west, I think we all struggle with this to varying degrees. I pray God would renew our minds to see from heaven’s perspective – such a radical change that our whole value system would be completely turned upside down. That our treasure would be in eternity – all our investment would be into eternity. (I’m reminded of Jesus words, “Woe to you rich, for you have your comfort in full.” Yikes! Help us, God! 
April 25th, 2007 22:22
Sarah, I’m working backwards on responding to comments tonight, so I already welcomed you to the blog on the later post that you commented on. However, it would probably be more appropriate to welcome you on this post, since this was where you commented first.
So….welcome! And thanks for your response on this. “Help us, God” indeed!