This Year I Want to Be More Like Jesus - Updated Version

Lately on social media, I have seen a list of ways to be more like Jesus this coming year. From what I can tell, it was written (or at least popularized) by Craig Greenfield, author of the book Subversive Jesus. In fact, the original Facebook post added the caption "Be like Jesus...Subversive."

This list-meme has gained some popularity, and more than that, it encompasses some fairly popular ideas about Jesus that themselves deserve some analysis.

In light of this, I have decided to endorse the core content of this list. However, I figured I would add a bit to it to clarify each point (my additional comments in parentheses). Why? Because a lot of people can mean a lot of different things when they endorse a list like this. 

Besides, I too can be subversive.

This Year I Want To Be More Like Jesus

- Hang out with sinners (...and lead them to repentance and, therefore, abandoning their former sin: e.g. Luke 15, 19:1-10, cf. Matthew 21:31).

- Upset religious people (...including progressive Christians who like to talk about what “Jesus said/never said” but would brand Him a hateful fundamentalist if they took into account all of His words in the New Testament and His endorsement of the Old Testament).

- Tell stories that make people think (...which includes stories where the protagonist who represents God kills everyone, or where God sends His angels to throw people into hellfire, or where Jesus Himself is the judge who finally condemns the wicked – those are all on the table: Matthew 13:20-30, 36-43, 24:42-51, 25:31-46, Luke 20:9-18).

- Choose unpopular friends (...like young-earth creationists, people who still believe that biological sex determines gender or that God designed marriage to be between a man and a woman, and people who hold to biblical inerrancy).

- Be kind, loving, and merciful (...which sometimes includes telling people things that they don’t like in the hopes that it ultimately leads to their betterment: e.g. Luke 13:3, Revelation 3:17-19).

- Take naps on boats (...I can’t argue with that one lol).