Everyone and everything is harking back to the 90s at the minute. What that means is people like me are getting old. Programmes are being made offering retrospectives on stuff I remember living through and think wasn’t that long ago. Adverts are using the music I grew up with to market their nonsense to me. Kids are now wearing the clothes I have always worn (so I’m in fashion again) but calling it ‘retro’ and ‘vintage’. So, in the spirit of reliving the 90s, I got to thinking about WWJD bands.

If you’re from the 90s, you’ll remember people wearing the little rainbow bracelet with WWJD on it. The letters stood for ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ The idea – which I understand and was well intentioned – was an attempt to get people to think about their choices with at least a nod to thinking about Jesus and his approach to the issue before determining what to do. So, the theory was people might think about Christ and the gospel and then modify their choices and behaviour in the light of Christ. It was a well-meaning attempt to get Christian people to live in light of their profession of faith.

But as with many well-meaning things, I’m not sure it was actually all that helpful. Partly because of reality, partly because of who was asking the question and partly because of what the question naturally did and didn’t encourage. So, in no particular order, here is why they weren’t always super helpful.

We’re not Jesus

One key problem with WWJD is the framing of the question. A slightly more helpful question – but a clearly much more leaden acronym that wouldn’t fit onto a bracelet – would be something like: what does the bible say Jesus would want me to do? But I accept WDTBSJWWMTD is less pithy and fairly forgettable. Even WWJWMTD (What Would Jesus Want Me To Do) is still a mouthful. But that is really the question if we are talking about acting in line with our profession.

The problem with WWJD is that the question assumes some direct correlation between what Jesus would do and what we ought to do. And I don’t suggest there is no relationship between those questions, just that there isn’t a direct one. Because we’re not Jesus, there are clearly things Jesus would do, and did do, that we aren’t going to do because we’re not him.

So, at a wedding when all the wine runs out, I know what Jesus would do because there’s a story in the Bible about specifically what he did do. But I also know that what Jesus would do isn’t what I am going to do in that situation because I can’t do that! I similarly know, when faced with the reality of sin in the world, Jesus went to die on the cross to pay the debt of all who would believe in him. But in the face of sin today, I’m not going to do that because a) it’s already been done and b) even had it not been done, I’m not the Son of God so I can’t accomplish that. WWJD only helps us when there is a direct correlation between what Jesus would do and what we should do; but much of the time there isn’t because I’m not Jesus.

We misunderstand/misrepresent Jesus

The reason why my unhelpfully long WDTBSJWWMTD is the more important acronym is because we only really know what Jesus would do if we understand what the bible says Jesus would do; and we only understand what we should do such as we understand why and how what Jesus would do and what Jesus wants us to do are not the same question.

The problem with jumping straight to WWJD – particularly through a marketed band in which every individual asks the question for themselves – is that we just end up with millions of Jesus’s made in our own image. WWJD really becomes the pithier version of What Do I Want To Say Jesus Would Do So I Can Justify What I Want To Do (WDIWTSJWDSICJWIWTD). WWJD can in effect become a proxy for what do I want to do with a spiritual veneer.

WWJD is only ever going to be helpful if it is actually based on the biblical Jesus. Even then, it will only be helpful if we understand the biblical Jesus and his proper relationship with us. But WWJD tends to let us write ourselves into the role of Jesus and encourages us to act accordingly. Many of us recognise Jesus did lots of things that we aren’t going to do – so we see we aren’t going to crucify ourselves for the sins of the world quite like Jesus – but then fail to reckon with the fact that if there are a bunch of things we can’t or shouldn’t do because we’re not Jesus, we have to be careful at assuming we necessarily know the things we ought to do just because Jesus did them. But knowing that we don’t just do what Jesus, copy and paste, WWJD can encourage us to effectively overlay what we want to do onto Jesus, as little more than a soothing mechanism for doing whatever we want to do.

It failed to address the heart

Leaving aside the issue of what Jesus did and whether we necessarily ought to do it, WWJD ultimately failed to address the heart. The emphasis was firmly on what would Jesus DO? Even the essential aim behind the matter was a question of what should we then DO. Whilst it is not entirely wrong to think about what we should do in the light of Christ, the biblical approach to that question tends to focus less on what we should do and more on remembering who we are in light of what Christ has done. If we can remember who we are, we are more likely to live in light of it. That might involve knowing what Jesus wants us to do as his children, but it centres more on the question of who we are in him, what union with Christ means and our adoption as sons means in reality.

WWJD only gets us as far as behaviour change. If you know your Old Testament at all, despite numerous attempts at behaviour change, the biggest problem for Israel was their lack of heart change. If their hearts had changed, their behaviour would have changed, but without changed hearts there was little surprise there was no godly behaviour. WWJD aims at getting us to copy Jesus – which isn’t always the right thing to do exactly – and doesn’t reckon with the fact that what Jesus actually did was die for us, pay for our sin and then send us his Spirit to change our hearts. Jesus doesn’t ask us to change our behaviour, he promises to give us a new heart and that will cause us to change. WWJD puts the emphasis on our doing and changing to copy Jesus whereas scripture puts the emphasis squarely on Jesus changing us so that we might be more like him.

In the end, it is the Spirit that makes us more like Jesus. And that becoming like Jesus – whilst it will have an effect on our behaviour – is more about Christ-like character. Of course, as we become more like Christ in character we will think and desire more like Christ which will inevitably work its way out in what we do and how we live. But the emphasis isn’t on us simply copying Jesus, but on the Spirit changing us so that we think like Jesus and then, inevitably as he changes our heart, mind and will, our behaviour follows suit.