What would Jesus do?

For the radio station, see WWJD.

For the song by Death by Stereo, see Death for Life.

A W.W.J.D. bracelet

The phrase "What would Jesus do?" (often abbreviated to WWJD) became popular in the United States in the 1990s and as a personal motto for adherents of Evangelical Christianity who used the phrase as a reminder of their belief in a moral imperative to act in a manner that would demonstrate the love of Jesus through the actions of the adherents. A follow-up motto answered the question "Fully Rely On God" (often abbreviated to "FROG").

History

Early Protestantism

Further information: Christian perfection, Holiness movement, and Imitatio Dei

Protestant theology since the 18th century had been divided in its interpretation of justification by free grace.

John Wesley in 1766 postulated the concept of Christian perfection, a moment in the life of a Christian at which the regeneration effectuated by the Holy Spirit results in a "perfection in love" which means that at least at that moment one is being motivated wholly by love of God and neighbor, with no taint of sin or ulterior motives in effect. While such Christian perfection is expressed in outward action, it is also the effect of grace. Indeed, Wesley could speak of sanctification by faith as an analogous doctrine to the more widely held belief in justification by faith. Because Christian perfection is also visible in outward good works and a rigorously moral lifestyle, adherents of the Holiness movement assumed that a perfectly moral lifestyle is a consequence (not the cause) of the state of grace and ultimate salvation.

1896 novel

Charles Sheldon's 1896 book, In His Steps was subtitled "What Would Jesus Do?" Sheldon's novel grew out of a series of sermons he delivered in his Congregationalist church in Topeka, Kansas. Unlike the previous nuances mentioned above, Sheldon's theology was shaped by a commitment to Christian Socialism. The ethos of Sheldon's approach to the Christian life was expressed in this phrase "What Would Jesus Do", with Jesus being a moral example as well as a Saviour figure. Sheldon's ideas coalesced with those that formed into the Social Gospel espoused by Walter Rauschenbusch. Indeed Rauschenbusch acknowledged that his Social Gospel owed its inspiration directly to Sheldon's novel, and Sheldon himself identified his own theology with the Social Gospel.

In this popular novel (it had been translated into 21 languages by 1935), Rev. Henry Maxwell encounters a homeless man who challenges him to take seriously the imitation of Christ. The homeless man has difficulty understanding why, in his view, so many Christians ignore the poor:

"I heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other night,

'All for Jesus, all for Jesus,

All my being's ransomed powers,

All my thoughts, and all my doings,

All my days, and all my hours.'

and I kept wondering as I sat on the steps outside just what they meant by it. It seems to me there's an awful lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn't exist if all the people who sing such songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don't understand. But what would Jesus do? Is that what you mean by following His steps? It seems to me sometimes as if the people in the big churches had good clothes and nice houses to live in, and money to spend for luxuries, and could go away on summer vacations and all that, while the people outside the churches, thousands of them, I mean, die in tenements, and walk the streets for jobs, and never have a piano or a picture in the house, and grow up in misery and drunkenness and sin."

This leads to many of the novel's characters asking, "What would Jesus do?" when faced with decisions of some importance. This has the effect of making the characters embrace Christianity more seriously and to focus on what they see as its core — the life of Christ.

In 1993, Garrett W. Sheldon (great-grandson of the original author) and Deborah Morris published What Would Jesus Do? : a contemporary retelling of Charles M. Sheldon's classic In His Steps. Garrett Sheldon states that his updated version "is based on many actual events in the lives of believers."

1990s

Further information: Lordship salvation controversy

A grassroots phenomenon organized by Dan Seaborn in Holland, Michigan spread nationwide in the 1990s among Christian youth groups studying it or wearing bracelets bearing the initials.

In 2005, Garry Wills wrote "What Jesus Meant," in which he examined "What Would Jesus Really Do" (also a book review in Esquire Magazine). The expression has become a snowclone, sometimes for humorous effect. Examples: What Would Jesus Buy?, "What Would Lincoln Do?", What Would Brian Boitano Do?, "What Would Johnny Cash Do?" and "What Would Wellstone Do?"

The gossip blog What Would Tyler Durden Do? is a reference to the phrase, replacing "Jesus" with the name of a character from the novel Fight Club (and the film adaptation).

2010

In April 2010 a movie called "WWJD" starring Adam Gregory became available on DVD and is based on "In His Steps".

See also

• Ministry of Jesus
• Sermon on the Mount
• The Law of Christ
• Choose the right
• Jesusism
• Christian ethics
• What would Reagan do?

External links

• Profile of Sheldon from the Congregational Church, Topeka, Kansas
• Review of WWJD The Movie