By The Editorial Board
In June 1891, the late Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon asked his congregation an important question: What Would Jesus Do? The question later appeared in a religious fiction novel by Charles Sheldon in 1896, and the phrase officially became mainstream after a Michigan youth leader created the famous bracelets with the phrase boldly printed out in 1989.
Somewhere since the time of Charles Spurgeon, we have forgotten the meaning of this question. Instead, it has become a familiar saying that is slapped on bracelets, T-shirts or bumper stickers and fails to make it into our daily life.
According to a 2024 Pew Research Center poll, 62% of U.S. adults and 67% of Texas adults identify with Christianity.
Belief is visible on every corner in Waco: white steeples cutting into the Texas sky, crosses reaching above highways, churches marking every street and worship nights strung with fairy lights and soft acoustics. It is seen in the iced coffee and open Bibles, the carefully underlined pages and the verses-of-the-day posted before class.
Our faith has been reduced to something we can post about, be seen wearing or performatively attend.
And, often, the way we live is not more than this.
The actions and behavior of Jesus have been reserved for judging others and justifying gossip, rather than orienting one’s own decision-making toward Christ.
“What Would Jesus Do?” has been watered down to an empty and hateful phrase barked when someone does not believe another person is living in a way that is accurate to their perceptions of Christ.
This is not the heart behind WWJD.
Often, the way we converse about politics, social issues and each other does not reflect the character of Christ.
Christianity is not intended to be defensive or aggressive, but instead welcoming and loving.
We claim persecution when people do not agree with us; we spout hateful rhetoric behind the safety of a keyboard; we forget the Bible verses we have strategically placed in our bios; we have become the moral arbiters of others’ lives with no judgment upon our own.
In the New Testament, the Pharisees are often seen debating and arguing with Christ. They hold too tightly to the law and their idea of right and wrong and fail to see Jesus when he is right in front of them.
Modern Christians adopt the role of the Pharisee all too often, assuming that we know the answers.
Asking the question “What Would Jesus Do?” is easy. Answering it is much harder — maybe impossible.
Around 2019, Casey Schultis expanded the rhetorical “What Would Jesus Do?” question by adding “He Would Love First” (HWLF).
Time and time again, Scripture shows Jesus loving people in the place of judging them: John 4 and the conversation with the Samaritan woman, Luke 19 and his dinner with Zacchaeus, the corrupt tax collector and, most notably, John 8 with the woman caught in adultery.
“Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone,” Jesus commands in this story, and one by one the woman’s accusers leave, until it is just Jesus.
And he lets her go.
Jesus, who had never sinned and could have thrown the stone or condemned the woman, lets her go free.
So, What Would Jesus Do?
Jesus would love the individuals around him — with a love that is not found in drama, conflict or gossip, but rather seeing every person as equal and inviting them into life with him.
