Walking and Working as Jesus Did I Jn 2:1-6  9-6-09  I Peter 2:21

6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

            Austrian psychologist, Konrad Lorenz won the Nobel Prize in part for his work on imprinting.  He found that when goslings hatched, they would follow a moving object that quacked as their mother within the first 13-16 hours after hatching.  The geese actually thought his boots were their mother, and followed them in a line.  Bill Ishman demonstrated in the movie “Fly Away Home” that he could get Canadian Geese to follow him in his ultra-light aircraft into their migration patterns.  There is innate in us a strong and powerful God-given instinct to follow.  The real question is who do we follow?  There are politicians, scientists, economists who would love for us to follow them- but they are all flawed.  Follow the one who is not flawed- Jesus.  That is what John is encouraging here. 

FOLLOWING MEANS LISTENING-

            Jesus said “How can you say you love me but don’t do what I say?” (Jn. 14:16).   For John you cannot separate ethics from theology- behavior from belief.  If you believe something, it affects the way you live. 
In our day, there are many who find a million excuses to separate their beliefs from their actions.  I can understand some of them, but John was saying, to not deceive yourselves with rationalizing things away.

A. SOME BELIEVE IN KNOWLEDGE NOT FOLLOWING- The Gnostics of John’s day and afterwards believed that you get to heaven by your knowledge or scholarship and ethics or behavior had nothing to do with it.
There were some who thought they could reason their way to God.  God was the goal of mental activity.  It is a little bit like what Hawkings said when he wanted to discover the “Theory of Everything” which meant discovering how we began.  Hawking feels if he can pin point when and how the big bang began, then we can understand the basics of life.  But such knowledge often leads to pride and being puffed up, and away from following the lowly Nazarene who encourages us to take up our cross daily.  A person can know about God and not know God or let their belief affect their behavior.  There are many who believe there is a God somewhere, and they are content with that knowledge.  They know about the truth, but do not know the truth.  For truth is not proved just by mathematics, but by love and lifestyle.

B. SOME BELIEVE IN FEELING AND NOT FOLLOWING- I have known people whose God is their feelings- perhaps the drugs they are addicted to, or whatever else they are addicted to.  “If it feels good do it” is their god.  They are enslaved to passion and leave human beings in the dust of their feelings.  I have been to even Christian worship services where it is all about creating a certain emotional state- the light shows, the throbbing music and drums very much remind me of some of the rock concerts I went to; or even remind me of the one time in Cuba where our missionary took us to visit a voo doo worship service where the music throbbed, the people yelled, and there was an excitement there- but it was not the holy God of the cross there.

I knew a man once who had experienced a real miracle in his life.  He actually was enabled to walk when he could not walk before- and everyone in the community knew he couldn’t walk before God healed him.  But he fell back into a horrible god-forsaken lifestyle.  Too many are interested in the gifts God gives than in the God who gives the gifts.  Having an experience of God is no substitute for following God.  I know people who love to take communion or love for their baby to be baptized, but they do not want to continue to follow Christ.  The mafia would do this- they would do terrible, criminal things- then go in and have communion to get right wth God.  This passage says if you want G0d- then walk as Jesus did.  Ideally experience, and intellect go hand in hand with faith.  It is not like you have to choose between experience and God or knowledge and God.  God is the source of all good and true knowledge, and all good and loving experience. 
Barclay says in John’s day there were people who said “I know God” without being conscious of any ethical obligation whatsoever.  There were people who believed they had experienced God but they were not listening for or to him.  If God is not Lord, then He is not God.  The Lordship of Christ means that he is not just someone we believe or experience, but someone we follow. 

II. WALK AS JESUS DID- if we want to know we are in him, if we claim to live in him, we must walk as he walked.

A. LABOR AS HE LABORED- On labor day, it is important to think about the philosophy of work.  For the Christian, our work is not just for bread or to feed our family or pay our debts.  It is also to glorify God.  There are many very ancient legends about Jesus’ carpentry work.  The traditions talk about having a table or chairs that Jesus built- the finest around.  I cannot see Jesus doing shoddy work.  I cannot see Jesus whining or griping about his work.  But I see Jesus doing his best and being relationship oriented. I see Jesus taking a break on the Sabbath,  having fun on the Sabbath- doing good-eating and drinking- not being legalistic about it- and not being a slave to his work or the money it generated.

B. ABIDING MEANS REMAINING IN THE RIGHT WAY- The real meat of this verse is that we should continue in Christ, remain in Christ, communing with Christ in the way we live.  That has to do with our theme this year- being faithful and fruitful.  Sin separates us from this way.  Sin is like adding oil to the water that washes us clean.  The oil comes to the top in water, so our sins separate us from God.  Have you ever made someone you love mad at you by not listening to them?  Maybe your parents, maybe a friend or a spouse?  There is separation there.  You don’t feel like talking to the person who has angered you or you have angered.  There is alienation, separation.  I have seen it where the husband angers the wife and he gets to sleep on the sofa.  Or they stay in the same bed- but he is on the edge looking that way, an she is on the edge looking the opposite way.  So sin alienates us from God.  The Bible says, “If I had cherished sin in my heart the Lord would not have heard me.”  It’s hard for even God to listen to us if we refuse to listen to Him.  But when we are walking as Jesus walked, we can continue, remain, abide in Him. 

You cannot think of 2:6 without thinking of Charles Sheldon.  Charles Sheldon began his career in Topeka Kansas printing a newspaper that had a circulation of 12,000 in the early 1900s.  He would write newspaper articles and would always ask the question during and at the end of the article, “What would Jesus do?”  The circulation increased from 12,000 to almost 400,000!  Later his articles and sermons were turned into a classical book called, “In His Steps.”  In the 1990s many wore the rubber bracelet that said, WWJD- what would Jesus do?  This of course became the target of jokes, and was diluted into triviality.  But I believe it is still a good question to ask.  The answer, of course, is always a bit vague- because each situation’s answer is not spelled out so plainly, and yes we often project our own subjective wills in deciding what Jesus would do.  But the heart of the question is a desire to do not my will but thine.  That is the key to following and communing with Christ.