This phrase, “What would Jesus do,” is often abbreviated WWJD. It became popular in the late 1800’s in the United States and is the theme of Charles Sheldon’s Christian novel entitled, In His Steps. This classic Christian novel is one of the best selling Christian books of all time. The basic premise of the novel stems from a confrontation that a small town church pastor had with a homeless man who challenged him to take seriously the claims of Christ; especially when it came to dealing with the poor – which so many Christians, he claimed ignore. This, in turn, led the pastor to challenge his congregation to not do anything without first asking, “What would Jesus do?” This challenge becomes the theme of the novel.
I find this concept of, “What would Jesus do,” a valuable tool to help me make decisions on issues that the Scriptures don’t address very directly. This can be especially true in the area of modern-day ethics. Even when the Scriptures are fairly clear on an issue this challenging question can be a valuable way to help people, Christian as well as non-Christian, see what is the best answer to a moral situation.
I remember many years ago, back in the 1990’s, that I was discussing the issue of abortion with another member of my church. He told me that he didn’t think that abortion was wrong and that we should leave the decision up to the pregnant mother. Rather than showing him all the reasons why abortion was morally wrong I told him to go home and think about what would Jesus do if he was counseling a woman who was contemplating an abortion. The next Sunday he came up to me in church and said that Jesus would never consent to an abortion and that he had changed his mind on the issue.
In my novel, Children of the Womb, I present the readers with the following thought scenario. While Jesus doesn’t directly address how he would counsel a woman who was seeking an abortion in the scriptures, consider the following:
“Can you picture a woman seeking counsel from Jesus Christ on what to do with an unwanted pregnancy? Can you picture Jesus Christ, the personification of gentleness, compassion and love, telling that woman that abortion would be the best course of action under her circumstances? And now just imagine Jesus Christ accompanying this frightened and confused woman, now twenty weeks along, to the abortion chamber? And finally, can you picture Jesus Christ standing by her side, gently holding her hand, and telling her everything will be OK, while the abortionist begins to tear away the baby’s tiny arms and legs from its body and then proceeds to crush the baby’s skull before he removes it from the womb and tosses it into a garbage pail? Jesus Christ is without a doubt the most influential and compassionate person who ever walked the face of our planet. Even those people who deny his deity acknowledge that he was a great man and a wonderful moral teacher. The mere thought of Jesus consenting to and participating in an abortion is impossible to imagine. If Jesus came to help heal the sick, love the poor and help widows and orphans, don’t you think that he also would try to save the lives of our most precious and innocent members of society – the baby in the womb?”1
As a Christian if you identify with the name of Jesus you should also identify with what he stands for. Hopefully prochoice advocates may at lease stop to reconsider their stance on abortion after reading the above scenario.
The next time a difficult decision comes up we need to pray and ask for spiritual guidance as well as place ourselves in the posture of what would Jesus do.
1 Curt Blattman, Children of the Womb. (Bloomington, IN: 1stBooks Library, 2003). pp. 168-169.