Living as Jesus Lived

This year I have a theme that will be embedded in all of my sermons, teaching, and life: to live as Jesus lived, to love as Jesus loved, and to serve as Jesus served. Yesterday we looked at what it means to live as Jesus lived. Now by this, I am not talking about following the Jewish law, but to use Jesus as the ultimate example of how to live out our Christian walk.

So, what does it mean to live as Jesus lived?
Philippians 2:5-8 says,

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!"

Humility and obedience are two of the characteristics of Jesus mentioned here. So for us to live like Jesus we must be both humble and obedient. Humble enough to do the tasks that we are called to do--especially when they are small tasks that may go unnoticed by others. Obedience involves learning to put God's tasks precedence over our own selfish desires. Humility and obedience go hand in hand. It is nearly impossible to do one without the other.

The final way we can learn to live as Jesus lived is to know the Word of God. When Jesus faced temptation, it was the Word of God that gave Him strength. Do we really think that if the Son of God relied on Scripture to overcome temptation that we have any better way to overcome temptation today? I'm afraid that if the Biblical illiteracy I see in churches today is any indication, it is no wonder that we have so many people who fail when faced with temptation!

There is more to living as Jesus lived than just these 3 things, but they will play out when we look at "loving as Jesus loved and serving as Jesus served." Let's just start with what we have so far and begin right now to live as Jesus lived!