I enjoyed a breakout session with Jonathan Morrow on Jesus as teacher at the MAVEN Conference in Southern California today. He said loads of helpful stuff, but one section particularly struck me. He said:

“‘What would Jesus do?’ is a good question.

‘How did Jesus do what he did?’ is a better question.

Ask yourself, ‘What kind of practices, values, thoughts, priorities, relationships, and habits did Jesus arrange his life around so that he was able to live the life that he lived. We cannot behave ‘on the spot’ as Jesus did and taught if in the rest of our time we live as everybody else does.’”

We will never live like Jesus in important times if we live like the rest of the world in normal times. Morrow illustrated the idea this way:

“If we ask, ‘What would Michael Phelps do in this race?’ we would immediately say, ‘Win.’ However, we know that we couldn’t do what he would do because we aren’t the same kind of athlete he was. Phelps could only do what he could do because of who he trained to be.” In the same way, we can only act as Jesus would if we train ourselves daily to be kind of Spirit-empowered man Jesus was.

Do we need to know what Jesus taught? Of course! However, Jesus teaches truth to our mind so we may live according to that truth in our life. We can memorize all his teachings, but we will only become like him by practicing those teachings in the daily grind of life. Skill starts with learning, but is completed only by action. For those who follow Jesus teacher, learning his teaching is not our graduation, but first day of training.

So what should we do? Let’s start with baby steps.

Four Teachings to Begin Practicing

Here are four teachings of Jesus to start practicing today in small, mundane ways that we may slowly become the kind of person Jesus was in order to live the kind of life Jesus lived.

“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31)

Do good for others just like you do good for yourself. Think about it. Who’s most sensitive to your needs? When you’re hungry, who’s quickest to feed you? When you’re struggling to do well, who’s most understanding of your shortcoming? Who wants the best for you and works hard to obtain it? The answer to all these questions? You.

Jesus doesn’t teach us to stop loving ourselves, he (rightly) assumes we do. Here, he teaches us to use our own self-love as the standard to guide we love others.

Imagine how marriages would be affected if even one person in the relationship, let alone both, trained themself to be sensitive to the needs of their spouse and responded as quickly as they do their own? Would friendships fair better if we leaned in during tense times to heal the relationship rather than ghosting them? How about your workplace? Would your boss, colleagues, or employees be better or worse off if you cared for them like you care for yourself? Do you trust Jesus’ wisdom enough to train yourself to love others like you love yourself?

How funny we are. One of Jesus’ most well-known teachings is one we practice least. Yet, if we trained ourselves to live this way, to love this way, our lives would never be the same for the better.

But what do we do those we try to love hurt us?

“Forgive others” (Matthew 6:14-15)

Forgiveness is the act of cancelling someone’s relational debt incurred by them betraying your trust. When someone betrays us and repents, we’re faced with a choice: keep holding it against them or follow Jesus and forgive them?

The 2016 study by Toussaint tracked 332 participants over five weeks. They found that increased forgiveness reduced stress and lead to fewer mental health symptoms. If this is true of a five week period, how much more benefit would there be in a lifetime of following Jesus here? Living in this broken world will mean you will be hurt by the broken citizens within it. If you commit yourself to the hard and painful work of forgiving those who’ve hurt you rather than hurting them back or cutting them off then you will be more whole and human – that is, more Christ-like – because of it.

You probably know this, but, remember, the question is, “What kind of practices, values, thoughts, priorities, relationships, and habits do you need to adopt to actually live it?” If you don’t train to be a forgiving person in small ways every day, you’ll fail to forgive anyone when the opportunity arises. With your spouse, church members, pastors, co-workers, or kids, what small ways are you practicing the skill of genuine forgiveness?

If you’d like help on this, I highly recommend this book.

“Don’t worry about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34)

This is genius wisdom that the Stoics hit hard and well. As an example, Seneca pointed out, “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” What he means is we agonize far more from worrying about things rather than the actual things we worry about. Think about the nights you couldn’t sleep because you were worried about a crisis that never ended up happening. Remember the times your stomach was in knots about a problem that didn’t actually exist? Often times, we never actually experience the stuff we painfully worry over.

It is important to point out that Jesus isn’t merely saying, “Think positively,” but instead, “Think truly.” His instruction not to worry isn’t detached idealism, but a dogged realism. If we sees things as they actually are instead of what we perceive them to be, we’d finally see worry as the foolishness it is and begin to free ourselves from its grip.

Jesus provides three realities that help us see why we must not worry. First, worry is stupid because it shifts our focus from the important things we can control from the unimportant things we can’t control (Matt. 6:25). Second, worry makes the mistake that we’re on our own. Jesus reminds his followers that God is our attentive Father who knows our every need (Matt. 6:32) and will provide for every one of them. Be real, he feeds and clothes even the birds and flowers, won’t he care for you, his beloved child (Matt. 6:26, 28-29)? Third, worry is pointless since it doesn’t accomplish anything but make you feel pain (v. 27). Worrying is a fool’s errand and happens only for those who detach themselves from reality.

But, again, if we don’t practice this kind of trust with the small problems, annoyances, questions, or concerns of daily life then we won’t be able to overcome the monster of worry when the big storms hit. We can’t be confident like Jesus in the big times if we don’t train to be worry-less like Jesus in the small times.

“Seek first the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33)

How good can someone be at football if they don’t know their end zone? How good can a basketball player be if there is no hoop? Will an archer win gold if his target has no bullseye? No one can succeed in any endeavor unless they’re certain of what the goal is and aim for it. In the same way, you will never be able to succeed in life unless you know and seek the actual goal rather than the improvised one you’ve adopted along the way.

What is the goal? To know, love, honor, and enjoy God by reflecting him (1 Cor. 10:31). Or, in Jesus’ words, to seek God’s kingdom – to live according to his rule over all – and not your kingdom.

Now, ask yourself a real question and demand from yourself a real answer, not just the answer your Sunday school teacher would like: what is the controlling pursuit of your life? What is the one thing you seek above all other things. What colors or controls all the other things you do or don’t do? What do you sacrifice money, comfort, time, relationships, thoughts, or efforts for above all else? To boil it down, Jesus says you’ve two options: you can chase the temporary things of this world’s kingdom or the eternal thing of God’s Kingdom.

Of all the practical teachings to train yourself in, this one is the most practical because it doesn’t focus on what you do, but why you do it. Everything in your life flow from this and is directed to this one single teaching.

If you are like me, you’ll realize that each day brings competing goals that seek to reign over your heart so knowing that God’s kingdom ought to be our grand aim is only the first step. From there, we must ask, “What kind of practices, values, thoughts, priorities, relationships, and habits do I need to adopt to actually aim for it?” From there, we must begin our training.

To close up my musings, here is the bottom line: what you believe or know doesn’t mean jack if it doesn’t flow into what you do. You and I will never become like the Jesus we quote unless we, in 10,000 small acts, daily practice what he taught us.