WWJD About WWJD?
Albert Hsu
October 1, 1998
WWJD? By now most people have seen these four letters somewhere. For the uninitiated, the letters stand for "What Would Jesus Do?"—the phrase popularized by Charles Sheldon's 1896 novel In His Steps, in which a pastor challenged his congregation to ask themselves that question before making any decisions.
WWJD has become one of the most significant evangelical trends at the end of the twentieth century, rivaling even Jesus fishes and Veggie Tales in popularity. The slogan has appeared on coffee mugs, lapel pins, paperweights, and a host of other knickknacks. There are now devotionals, Bibles, books and CDs based on WWJD.
WWJD has encouraged a generation of teenagers to live lives of Christian discipleship in the midst of daily life. It has helped many Christians make their faith public and visible. It has encouraged many to be more consistent in their character and integrity. And in many, many cases it has created opportunities for witness.
But we ought to ask whether the trend is entirely positive, or more significantly, whether it goes far enough.
WWJD does have some limitations, and they aren't just the frivolous uses of the phrase ("What color shirt would Jesus wear?"). Here are some possible problems with WWJD:
1. WWJD does not necessarily provide the ability to do what Jesus would do. Just because you know what Jesus would do does not mean that you will be able to do it. WWJD assumes that having the knowledge of what is right will result in the correct choice. But it is not as easy as that. On the contrary, this is often a source of frustration for Christian young people, who know what is right, but still find themselves doing what is wrong. Like Paul in Romans 7, I may know what is right—what Jesus would do—but I find ...
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