I stopped in the airport when I saw the cover of The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs. The cover was fascinating! It shows a bearded guy with a linen ephod and red coat set against a background of a modern city.
The back copy said it was the story of a non-practicing Jewish man who tries to live out the Bible exactly, including dress, rituals, food, growing a beard, and all of the Old Testament traditions and rituals.
As I flipped through the pages I thought it would be an interesting read simply because a guy took the time to check out the Old Testament and live it point-by-point.
I realized that it is tongue-in-cheek, sometimes a harsh look at the Old Testament, but also that living a year biblically based only on what we wear, eat, drink, or the rules that we follow excludes the gift given on the cross.
But how many of us have made our faith, even with the cross and all that it offers, much the same?
We make it about the way we dress.
We make it about how often we show up at church.
We make it about what we drink, or don’t drink.
We make it about denominational traditions.
We make it about rules.
So what would it really look like to live like Jesus here in our real-life world? And how would that change who we are, as well as our perception about our faith?
And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 1 John 4:1 (NLT)
It’s a question I plan to explore all week.
What does it mean to you to live like Jesus?
j
Hello,
for me there should be done here a clear separation between the “living like Jesus” theme for the OLD testament and the NEW testament, here is why:
From the moment of the new testament on, which tells the story of Jesus, everything changes…Jesus has saved us from constraints, which have been in place within the old testament. But he also explained further how to obey the 10 commendments in a more easier to way to grasp for us “earhtlings”.
So if you want to experience “Living like Jesus – the NEW way” you must try to obey ALL his rules he gave to us, which is not an easy task, as we all know. Jesus outlines especially that fact by outlining that just few are able to get that done in the right way.
He does not require us to grow a beard or to wear special clothes (per fortune…), but he wants us to think about how to accomplish his rules of like saying always the true, being good and help others and such…
But even if you obey these “easier” rules, many struggle with the REAL hard rules, like if someone slaps you in the face, do you hold him also the other face side like he tells us to do…? That is real, folks, whether it is meant in an physical way or other way within an attorney case with judge order. What Jesus literally says is he wants us to forgive and not “sue” others, but in real cases too! So often we weak humans circumvent his rules, because we are not trained to let go, caused by our bevavior, sourrounding or education. Jesus also wants us NOT to have any treasures, houses, money and such…that is the VERY hardest rule to obey in our western world…
That’s what I mean when I say, it is not easy to accomplish, but that is the ONLY cure against the devils fine print spider web on this planet, and Jesus tought us how to escape this fine print and cover up under his salvation…so think twice when you go for “Living like Jesus”, on HOW you wanna go for it…
At least everybody should give it a try,…if we fail with certain rules, Jesus tells us to regret and try not to do it anymore wrong, he has saved us from sin, so we can “try out”…that counts even for a murder as sinner, Jesus knows that all on earth is devils work, our weakness is just “used”, Jesus has saved everybody and gaved us second chances to do different…
But let’s be cristal clear on what we are trying out…
It’s always better to try, even if obeying ALL rules seems very hard to achieve, like one of the two sinners on the cross next to Jesus said, I believe you are the Christ was saved, YOU can be saved just by believing, that you are doing the right thing here…
Halelluja to the Lord !
Bob
Orlando