At the end of last night’s blog, I reference John 1:4.  This is what it says.

John 1:4 (ESV)
⁴  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The life of Christ is a beacon that will lead us to heaven if we follow it.  While we cannot emulate His moral perfection, since we have all sinned (Romans 3:23), we can develop some of the characteristics that He showed when He was here on earth by following His steps.

1 Peter 2:21 (ESV)
²¹  For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

To do this, we must learn to think the way Jesus thought.  This is why Paul said, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Chris Jesus (Philippians 2:5).  When we learn to have the mind of Christ, we will make good decisions that lead to a life well lived—a Christlike life.  What are some areas where we should be like Christ?  Let us consider a few.

The first area where we should strive to be like Christ is in our relationship with the Father.  We learn from Jesus how important doing the will of God is.  Regarding His own life, He said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4:34).  Doing the will of God gave Jesus sustenance and strength.  He lived to do His Father’s will, and so should we.  Making the will of God a priority in life is a part of following in the steps of Jesus.  Whenever we put our will before God’s, we stray from the path of Christlikeness (Matthew 26:39).

Another characteristic of our Lord that we should emulate is humility.  Jesus was the humblest human to ever grace the face of this earth.  When Jesus, an eternal being of glory, gave up the riches of heaven, taking on a body of flesh, it constituted an unimaginable sacrifice, followed by His willingness to die for the sins of man on a cross.  Notice how Paul put it:

Philippians 2:8 (ESV)
⁸  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Notice that obedience follows humility.  It is only when we humble ourselves to the point where we will obey God in all things that we have truly become like Jesus.

Another Christlike characteristic that we should possess is our willingness to stand against sin.  Do you remember when Jesus cleansed the temple?  It was not something He did after months of planning; it was His natural reaction to people doing something He knew was offensive to His Father.   The truth is, Jesus simply hated sin, and if we are anything like Christ, so do we.

Romans 12:9 (ESV)
⁹  Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

These are just a few of the characteristics of Christ that we should possess.  Jesus is indeed a light for all men.  If we live like Him, we will be as well (Matthew 5:16; 1 Peter 2:12).

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.