Three Looks of the Christlike Life (The Bible, Part 4)
In The Bible, Part 3, we examined the following three truths:
- As humans, we are created to reflect the image of God.
- The image of God looks like Jesus.
- As humans, our purpose is to reflect the Christlike image of God in our world.
If our purpose is to reflect God's Christlike image, then we need to ask ourselves, "What does the Christlike life look like?"
With that in mind, here are three "looks" of the Christlike life.
First – The Christlike life looks like prayer
Pray always, with thanksgiving, being joyful in hope, patient during times of trouble. Pray for open doors to share the reason for your hope in Christ and the wonders of God’s grace.
– Based on 1 Peter 3:15, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; Romans 12:12; Colossians 4:2-3, Psalms 66:16
Jesus was a man of prayer. We often see him spending time in solitude and prayer. Meaningful prayer must become a part of our routines. The Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9-13 or Luke 11:2-4) is an excellent place to start. Throughout Christian history, this prayer has been part of daily prayer routines for most Christians worldwide.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we should pray for our friends and family. We should also pray for our brothers and sisters in faith and our local church body. Most Christians are quick to offer prayers for family, friends, and self during times of need, but we cannot stop there.
We must also pray for our stubborn neighbor across the back fence and our hard-to-get-along-with co-worker. We must pray for our classmates who cheat to get ahead and for the people in our community who often find themselves ignored. We must pray for our leaders, whether we voted for them or not, and others in positions of authority and responsibility.
As God’s unique people, reflecting the Christlike image of God, we must pray for open doors to connect with people in meaningful ways. We must pray for opportunities to have a meaningful presence in the lives of the people in our neighborhood, the people that we meet each day (thank you, Sesame Street, for the childhood song emblazoned in my memory).
The Christlike life looks like unselfish, sacrificial, joy-infused, and hope-filled prayer for people all across the spectrum, from closest loved ones to furthest foes.
Second – The Christlike life looks counter-cultural
If you are in Christ, you are a new kind of person, not like before! Don't continue to speak, think, and live as the world does. Be transformed and renewed! Don’t repay evil with evil or unkindness with unkindness. Instead, offer goodness and mercy, like your heavenly Father.
Act wisely to those outside the faith and make the most of every opportunity with them. Make sure your words are full of grace, like flavorful, healing, and preserving salt. Live a wonderfully conspicuous life, like stars in the night, known by the sweet aroma of the fruit of the Spirit growing in you – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Love your enemies and pray for those who harass you and hate you. All of these things are what children of your Heavenly Father do.
– Based on 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 12:2; 1 Peter 3:9; Colossians 4:5-6; Luke 6:36; Matthew 5:43-45; Galatians 5:22-23
Ouch.
The church of which I am a part—the Church of the Nazarene—came together in the early 20th century as a church for the poor, oppressed, and forgotten. It was a church that desired to serve the kinds of people that Jesus enjoyed being with:
- untouchables, healed by the touch of Jesus,
- women, to whom he gave honor and dignity (in a culture where they had little of these things),
- children, whom he refused to ignore,
- neglected, abused, imprisoned, and enslaved,
- ordinary working-class people, like Peter and others, who became his closest friends,
- sinners, with whom he talked and shared meals,
- many others to whom Jesus offered his Father’s grace and mercy.
Today, there continues to be no shortage of conflicts, difficulties, and needs that overwhelm people’s lives:
- people suffer under the weight of financial burdens,
- alcohol and drugs destroy lives, marriages, and families,
- families are broken by divorce, abuse & absent parents,
- wars, conflicts, and violence plague our local communities, nation, and globe.
- loneliness and depression are at epidemic levels,
We argue about which lives are sacred and which lives are not and fight political battles that we hope will take us where we want to go. We put our hope in
- various leaders and influencers,
- the results of the next election,
- our treasures stored here on earth,
- the success of our favorite sports teams,
- the next significant technological advancement that will make our lives better,
There is no shortage of people or things in whom humanity places their hope and trust. But none of these things are the answer to our human problem.
The answer remains the same – the world still needs Jesus, the One who heals and restores and in whose hands we find real, authentic, and lasting victory!
Not only that – the world also needs a Christlike church.
The church – the disciple-making movement established by Jesus – is the primary way that God works in this world. Let us be a church that sits, walks, cries, and rejoices with people while pointing in the direction of the One who can bring healing and new life.
Let us be a church that trusts in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring change, first in ourselves and then extended to others.
Let Jesus alone be our hope, and the Christlike life be our victory!
Third – The Christlike life looks like optimism
With great optimism in the grace of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus had the spiritual imagination to see where people were and what they could become. Jesus was so confident of the power of God’s love unleashed in the world that he never confronted Rome, never spoke of overthrow, and never sought Roman reform. He knew that the power of Christlike love would, in time, completely change the world—including Rome.
Sometimes I wonder, do we still believe this today?
My Wesleyan theological tradition holds an optimistic view of God’s grace. God’s grace transforms human beings from the inside out, re-creating them into new people with new life, new hope, and a new future. No one is beyond the reach of God’s grace—nobody, nowhere, at no time.
It's an election year, and many of us feel the tension in the air. It's been building for quite some time. Division and disagreement are everywhere—in our families, our churches, and our nation. No place is exempt, and no one is immune.
It’s easy to get frustrated and discouraged and to look around, look, and lose hope. We don't have to try hard to find ourselves angry and to post mean memes. It’s so easy to fire off a "mean meme" that makes us feel better. The problem with "mean memes" is that they are often not fully true, frequently unkind, and almost always unnecessary. It’s so easy to let our tongues do the same things and to let our actions reflect anything but the mercy and grace of our heavenly Father.
However, if the church will embrace the identity of Christ and truly embrace the life of Christlike love, there is reason for real, genuine, and abundant hope. Despite what we see and what people will often tell us, there are good days ahead for the church—not easy days or comfortable days, but good days of growth, transformation, & new movements of Spirit.
We are Yahweh's God-breathed creations, made to reflect the Christlike image of God in our world. This is how we live as God's unique people in each unique place where God has placed us.
How we react today and in the days ahead will profoundly affect the kind of church we leave for the next generation for our children, grandchildren, and all who will follow.
Let’s leave behind a church that looks like Jesus.
Steven E Fairbanks
Steven E Fairbanks
Steven E Fairbanks
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