Ten Things You Can Do To Be Like Jesus Christ
TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO BE LIKE CHRIST
Be perfect… if you can.
Try to imitate someone who is perfect! If you are a follower of Christ, that’s what you are asked to do. After all, to truly be a Christian is to be like Christ. And yet, if you have been a follower for any length of time, you know you cannot really be like Him. Nevertheless, that’s what you are called to do.
1 Peter 2:21 (NLT), Jesus Christ is your example, and you must follow in his steps.
1 John 2:6 (NLT), Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.
Ephesians 5:1-2, Imitate God in everything you do. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Jesus Christ.
These are just a few of the many Scriptures that call for us to be like Jesus. There are, however, a few big problems. First, Jesus was perfect, and you cannot be that. Second, as God manifest in the flesh, He was all-knowing, and you are not. Third, Jesus could perform miracles at will. And, although you may pray and receive a miracle, you cannot perform them as did He.
But, again, you are called to be like Him. The big question, then, is how? How can you truly be like Christ? You cannot be perfect, know everything, and perform miracles, but, as it turns out, there are some ways that you can be like Him. Here are a few…
TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO BE LIKE JESUS
BE HUMBLE
Number one, be humble. Perhaps a better way to say this is, don’t be self-centered but be others-centered. It was pride, and self-centeredness, that caused Adam and Eve to eat the poisoned fruit. Had they cared about God more than they cared about themselves they never would have fallen. However, at that moment, they were not humble. Jesus, on the other hand, truly exhibited humility toward others. We see this in Philippines 2:8 (NLT) where Paul wrote, that Jesus humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Certainly, as the Son of God, He did not have to come to earth, live in our squaller, and die for us. To do so required a great deal of humility. Which is, to put it simply, thinking of others' well-being more than you think of your own wellbeing.
SERVE
Number two, serve others. As God, Jesus did not have to serve others. But He did. He humbled Himself and helped people who were in need. This is counter-cultural. Most like to be served, not to serve. And yet, Jesus, in His own words said, “I came not to be served, but to serve others” (Mark 10:45). If then, you really want to be like Him, choose to serve those who need to be served.
Let’s stretch this thought a little bit – choose to serve those who “need” to be served. When you choose to serve people who don’t need to be served, are you truly serving them? Or are you hoping for something in exchange? So, when choosing to serve, choose to do so for those who cannot do anything for you in return. In this way, you will be like Christ.
One more thing on serving others, Jesus didn’t serve everyone who was in need, and you can’t serve everyone who is in need. But Jesus did serve some people, and so can you. The enemy will want to discourage you from serving because he’ll point out how little your service blesses others – so why bother? But what if we all did for someone what we wish we could do for all?
LOVE SACRIFICIALLY
Number three, choose to love others in a way that cost you something. John wrote, “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16 NLT). “Real love”, as John put it, is demonstrated in Jesus’ sacrificial death. There is nothing you can do to repay that kind of love. But you can choose to love others the way that Christ has loved you. It won’t be easy. It’ll go against your selfish desires. But it is where true Christianity resides. Paul says that everything you do is worthless if you don’t do it with selfless love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
How do you love others sacrificially? First, begin praying for others in a God-honoring way. That means, when people wrong you – you don’t retaliate, you pray that God will bless them. It means when people are less than they should be – you don’t gossip about them, you pray that God will bless them. Second, add selfless love to your selfless service. You can serve others without loving them, but you cannot truly love them without serving them. Imagine the power of selfless love combined with selfless service – is there anything more Christ-like?
BE STRONG
Number four, build your moral strength.
I think Jesus was a physically strong man. After all, He grew up in a carpenter’s shop where they only used hand tools – no power tools. He made a whip, turned over tables, and drove the moneychangers out of the temple. No weakling could get away with such a thing. He fasted for forty days in the wilderness. Forty days in the wilderness with an empty stomach is not for the faint of heart.
Jesus’ physical strength, however, is not what you need to emulate. Rather, it is His moral fortitude that you should seek to copy. He was morally strong in the face of Satan’s temptations. He stood strong against the religious elite who had corrupted His house. And He was strong in facing all the temptations that you and I face (Hebrews 4:15). These are just a few of the ways that Jesus demonstrated His self-control. If you want to be like Jesus, build your moral strength.
How do we build Christ-like strength? We do it by studying and praying His Words. Don’t just study the Bible, pray the Bible. Read it, ask God to reveal its depths, meditate on it, and you will grow in moral stature.
BE A FIGHTER
Number five, choose to fight for what is right. The problem with being a fighter is, outside of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, it will destroy you. I’ve seen Christians who are raring to fight every evil in our society, but they lack Divine direction. When you read the Gospels, you’ll read that Jesus cast out demons, confronted hypocrites, and attacked the robbers selling overpriced sacrificial animals. He was a fighter. But Jesus didn’t cast out every evil spirit that was in and around Jerusalem. And Jesus didn’t confront every sinner about their sin. As God, He could have, but He didn’t. He chose His battles wisely. We know there were times that He avoided conflict. He wasn’t a foolish fighter. He was wise.
If you want to be a true follower of Christ, choose to be a wise soldier – one who chooses their battles wisely.
MAKE PEACE
Number six, be a peacemaker. Your world is anxious and worried. They are wounded and hurting. This includes your friends at church, at work, and in your neighborhood. They need peace in their minds, healing in their hearts, and restoration in their souls. Jesus did this for people. He did it through His words and His touch. In Matthew 5:5 He challenges us to work for peace. This is an oft repeated refrain in the epistles.
How do we make peace? Jesus did it by giving people the hope of heaven. He didn’t make the poor rich, He said, Blessed are the poor and because heaven is theirs (Matthew 5:3). Just before He went to the Cross Jesus said, I’m leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart (John 14:27). And in the next verse, He tied this gift to the promise of heaven.
If you want to be like Jesus, make peace in people’s lives by setting their minds on heaven.
FORGIVE
Number seven, choose forgiveness. The only person who was perfect and therefore did not need to forgive anyone (including you) went to the Cross and offered forgiveness to everyone. The irony, then, is that you will accept Christ’s forgiveness toward you and yet choose to withhold it from others. If this is you, it is truly petty foolishness. It’s like being forgiven billions of dollars in debt and yet choosing to harass someone over a few dollars.
If you want to be like Jesus, forgive a lot. Matthew 18:21-22 (NLT) says, Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!” That’s a lot of forgiveness.
One more thing on forgiveness, if you choose not to forgive, not only will you not be like Jesus, nor will you be forgiven. Jesus says in Matthew 6:14-15 (NLT), “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Choose forgiveness.
PRAY
Number eight, pray! Jesus prayed and He prayed a lot. As the Son of God, He did not have to pray. However, as a man of flesh, He knew He must pray. Luke wrote that Jesus often separated Himself from the crowds so He could pray (5:16). We know that Jesus would rise early to pray, that He would go to a garden or the wilderness or a mountain to pray, and that He occasionally prayed through the night. He was a man of prayer.
If you want to be like Jesus, develop your prayer life. Grow your knowledge of prayer. Build your faith through prayer.
PASSION FOR HIS HOUSE
Number nine, be passionate about Jesus’ house. John 2:17 (NLT) says, Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” Luke wrote (4:16 NLT), When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. It was His habit to go to church and He was passionate about it.
Given Jesus' zeal for His house, it must break His heart when His children are so careless with His house. They’re thoughtless about the way they go to church. They show up late and they’ve given no thought whatsoever to how they’ll enter His house. When they do arrive, they’re cavalier about the way they do church. They lack focus, they’re distracted by their cell phones, and for some reason, being in His house makes their bladder weak.
This cannot be. If you want to be like Jesus, you must be zealous about His house. That means loving the buildings (even when they are temporary), being faithful to gather with His family, focusing your attention on the Lord of the house, and serving the children of the house. It is not optional, you cannot truly be like Christ if you do not care about the things for which He cared.
PERFECTION
Number ten, you cannot be perfect, but you can pursue perfection. Jesus said, But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48 NLT). If you really want to be like Him, you must chase after being perfect. The apostle wrote it this way, I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us (Philippians 3:12-14 NLT). This must be your attitude – I’m not there yet, but I’m chasing after it.
Every other man has or will make mistakes. From them, we can learn what not to do. Not so with Christ. With Jesus, we can only follow and pursue His perfection.
QUESTION
Of these ten things, what is one thing you can begin doing right now that will help you to be more like Jesus Christ? Pick one, write it down, and put it in a place where every day you will see it as a reminder of your passion to be like Jesus. And when you see, go ahead and say a prayer, “Father, I want to live my life on this earth as Jesus lived His life on this earth. Help me, I pray, to be ______ just like He was. In Jesus’ name.”