Wednesday, May 23, 2018
WWJD
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Those of us who follow the glorious game of cricket would be familiar with the name Hansie Cronje. Cronje, popularly known as Hansie Cronje, but properly known as Wessel Johannes Cronje, was an outstanding captain of the South African national cricket team. He died tragically in a plane crash almost eighteen years ago on June 1, 2002. After he died, he was voted as the 11th Greatest South African.
Hansie was also an active Christian and constantly wore a band with the letters WWJD, representing the words, “What Would Jesus Do?” The WWJD movement got started by a youth group leader named Janie Tinklenberg, from a church in Michigan USA, want to find a way to help teenagers remember the phrase WWJD. The silicone bracelets with the letters WWJD spread worldwide in the 1900s among Christian youth.
The phrase (question), “What Would Jesus Do?”, of course, predates Tinklenberg and her youth group. Very old Roman Catholic teaching included the concept rendered in Latin, Imitatio Christi (Imitation of Christ), which is believed to be the early origin of the idea stated in the English phrase “What Would Jesus Do?”
John Wesley, the minister who founded the Methodist Church, though not being on record of using these actual words, presented the concept on Christian perfection, in which a Christian, saved by grace, enabled by the Holy Spirit, will love God and love his neighbour and this will be evident in his good works to others. We would do like Jesus would do.
However, it was Charles Spurgeon, a legendary evangelical preacher in London, who is reported to have used the phrase “what would Jesus do” in quotation marks several times in a sermon he gave on June 28, 1891. In his sermon, Spurgeon cites the source of the phrase as a book written in Latin by Thomas à Kempis between 1418 and 1427, Imitatio Christi (The Imitation of Christ).
Also in the 1890s, a preacher named Charles Sheldon released a book, a novel titled, “In His Steps” and subtitled “What Would Jesus Do?” We are told that Sheldon’s novel was based on a series of sermons he preached in his Congregationalist church in Topeka, Kansas.
Hansie Cronje, before he died was banned from playing cricket. Early in April 2000, it was disclosed that Cronje and a man named Sanjay Chawla had discussed match-fixing. Chawla was a representative of an Indian betting operation. Cronje challenged his life ban in September 2001 but his application was dismissed by the authorities on 17 October 2001.
Match fixing is a big crime and Hansie left cricket and international sport in disgrace. His family, his team, and his country were all devastated. But the impact was even larger, on the global Christian community that held him up as a poster boy because of his international profile and his publicly stated commitment to following Jesus and imitating Him in life as demonstrated by his WWJD band.
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Christians at Corinth emphasises that we are fundamentally changed when we become Christians. Becoming a Christian is not joining a church somewhere. Becoming a Christian is not a Sunday activity. Becoming a Christian is first spiritual, but second and equally important, becoming a Christian is moral and ethical.
It is not possible to love God and not love people and do right by them. It is not possible to genuinely serve God and not be good to people. Every relationship, every transaction, every interaction must reflect that we are in Christ. Being in Christ is not just a set of actions, it must become our character. It must be who we are and what we do.
This character transformation is not an overnight thing. It takes work and time. Paul, again, writing to the Christians in Galatia made this point, he challenged them to walk in the Spirit but also outlined the struggle in getting there. “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” Galatians 5:16,17.
Paul emphasised, again to the Galatians, that this character change that is brought about by the Spirit takes time. The goal is that Christ be formed in us but that formation requires work. It requires work by teachers, preacher, counsellors and it requires work on the part of each of us as individual Christians.
Ministers have to be careful that Christian ministry is not reduced to preaching on Sundays and getting some shouts of Amen and some handclaps of praise. And believers have to ensure that their only engagement with their ministers is not just attendance on Sunday morning and an offering in the basket.
The formation of Christ in us is an ongoing and involved process that must constantly engage the whole church, led by pastors.
Paul said to the Galatians, “My little children, for whom I labour in birth again until Christ is formed in you,” Galatians 4:19. His work, as apostle and minister was to see Christ formed in them. When Christ is formed in us we do what Jesus would do.
We, Christian Cronje fans, were devastated. But it was a reminder that we have to work hard at being who we were called to be and that we have to be deliberate in ensuring that we yield to the Spirit of Christ so that the character transformation and Christ formation are taking place in us. Old things must pass away for all things to become new.
Think on these things:
- How have you changed since becoming a Christian?
- What changes have you seen in other Christians around you?
- Are your ministers and teachers deliberate in working with you to see the formation of Christ in your character?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that the Holy Spirit will work in us to change us as we yield to Him.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex