On faith and work… “What would Jesus do?”

In evangelical Christian circles in the 1990s, the wearing of bracelets like the one shown above became very popular, especially with young people However, in recent years, wearing the bracelets and/or asking the question to which the bracelets refer - “What would Jesus do?” - has been widely ridiculed, perhaps because it seems na?ve, or “quaint”, or even offensive, in an increasingly pluralistic modern society. And yet, over a hundred years after the question was first posed in a classic book (“In His Steps” by Charles Sheldon), I believe it still has merit – especially for Christians engaged in secular employment.

Many of us spend more than half of our waking hours at work. Could it possibly be that being a Christ-follower should involve living a dualistic kind of existence, in which our faith-life and our professional lives are kept separate? I certainly don’t think so. While professional expectations may limit what we say and do in some circumstances, surely coherence and integrity demand that we take our faith to work and apply it in all aspects of our behaviour?

Indeed, might it not be that your workplace (or “frontline” as the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity describes it) is the most important place for the consistent demonstration of your faith to be evident? I believe that it is there – amid all of the stresses and strains, as well as the humdrum routines – that the steady, faithful working out of the difference that God can make in a human life will have most impact in a world that seems to know (or care) less and less about the gospel.

Is it na?ve to ask myself “What would Jesus do?”, at regular intervals through the day at work? Again, I don’t believe so. On the contrary, I have come to believe that it is essential, if I am to grow in my faith and to become more like Christ.

John Ortberg has put it this way, and I couldn’t say it any better - “The goal of (spiritual) growth is to live as if Jesus held unhindered sway over our bodies. Of course, it is still we doing the living. We are called by God to live as our uniquely created selves – our temperament, our gene pool, our history. But to grow spiritually means to live increasingly as Jesus would in our unique place – to perceive what Jesus would perceive if he looked through our eyes, to think what he would think. To feel what he would feel and therefore to do what he would do.”

By the way, if you have never read the book “In His Steps”, can I recommend you do so. It really is a classic.