Preaching

and

Practising

Jesus didn’t just talk
—He did.

We’ve all heard the words, “Do as I say, not as I do.” When someone tries to teach like this, it feels like they are saying, “You should do this, but I don’t think it important enough to do myself.” It can be hard to take them seriously.

If all we had in the Gospels were the words of Jesus, and no account of the way He lived, we might suspect that what He taught was just a good theory for life. The challenge is that Jesus consistently practised what He preached. In fact, the Gospels are full of incidents where Jesus not only did what He commanded others to do, but went even further.

His actions speak louder than words.

Jesus’ actions consistently involved healing the broken, loving the unlovable and reaching out to those who were on the sidelines. Jesus says to His followers in John 13:34, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (NIV).

In the next verse, Jesus claims that this love of other people is to be the defining characteristic of those who follow Him: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Jesus’ life was full of love and giving. It was also full of including those who had been excluded by others. When Jesus’ disciples tried to stop young children having access to Him, He rebuked them, and included the children (see Mark 10:13-16). This kind of behaviour challenges us to reach out to those sidelined by society—and by religion.

By reaching out to those society had forgotten—lepers, beggars, prostitutes, the crippled and the sick—Jesus challenges us to reach out to those society overlooks today.

By crossing barrier after barrier in the name of love, Jesus confronts us with the reality that following Him is about love, about giving, and about living a new way.