The more people that I talk to in life, the more I realize a common factor among people who follow Jesus really really well. Any guesses on what it is?
Consistency.
Yep. I’m convinced that it’s the secret sauce for becoming more like Jesus in your life. And of course, consistency in things like Bible reading, prayer, and going to church are huge and will (hopefully) cause you to look and act more like Jesus every single day. But I’m talking about consistency in a different way.
Consistency of character.
Do you know the kind of person I’m talking about? The kind of person who is the same no matter where they are, who they’re around, or what they’re doing. The kind of person who is just honest about how they’re feeling and what they’re going through. Man, don’t you just love those kinds of people? I have a few on my mind right now as I’m writing this. Due to their consistent character they are instantly more trustworthy, easy to be around, and climb the ranks of those that I want close to me. And dare I say… I think they’re more like Jesus because of it.
One of the huge things that I learn from being around people like this, is that they don’t separate their spiritual life from the rest of their life. They are always Christian! It doesn’t mean they’re perfect (not by any means) but they don’t live their lives in segments or spend their time switching things on and off.
It always rubs me the wrong way when I see someone who is around a Church typesetting and you can watch them flip on the “Jesus switch.” They begin to talk in a different tone of voice. They use words that no one ever uses in normal conversation (aka “Christianese”). And it begins to feel like a show. Ew. Did Jesus ever do that? From my reading of Scripture, no.
I believe He was who He was. It didn’t matter what He was doing, who He was around, or what He was feeling, He was Himself. He was honest and open and this made Him even more trustworthy, authentic, and magnetic. He had a consistent character.
I strongly believe this is exactly what Paul was alluding to when he said this in 1 Corinthians…
31 So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
Whatever you do. Do it for God’s glory. Eating. Drinking. Scrolling. Talking to friends. Working. Gaming. Playing sports. Dating. Do it all for the glory of God. In other words, develop consistent character.
One of the most exhausting things we can do as human beings is put on different masks to fit with different groups. If you have more than like two people in your life, this gets real tiring real quick!
When I was in junior high I fit into a lot of groups. That may sound awesome at first glance, and there was definitely pros I learned to develop with that personality type, but the reality is that it makes it really hard to “fit in” with a lot of groups, but belong to none. I found myself as a 7th grader balancing so many different masks depending on what group I was currently around that I lost really vital pieces of my character. I found myself extremely anxious and unsure of who I was because I couldn’t keep up the facade of wearing multiple masks and what each group wanted from me at that particular time.
I was the exact opposite of consistent in my character.
And because of that, I was also the exact opposite of Jesus in my character.
What would it look like for you to develop consistency in who you are? How can you follow what Paul says in 1 Corinthians and live your life for God’s glory no matter what you’re doing? How can you begin to no longer separate your spiritual life from the rest of your life, but instead live for Jesus and like Jesus every single day? This is the responsibility of all mature Christ followers. Today is the day to begin to live it out.
