Recently I wrote a post entitled 3 Things Jesus never said and while I thought the post might be popular and maybe a little controversial, I never imagined how much people would respond to it. As a follow-up to that post I would like to share the things I think are the three most underrated things followers of Jesus get. Thanks to Tebow’s eye paint most people know about Christ’s offer to save the world from sin and his offer of heaven, so I picked a few points that are a little further off the beaten path. If you are a Christian (follower of Jesus Christ), these things may still be a little surprising to you, but they are already yours if you want them. If you are not a Christian, here is a little peek behind the curtain.
Here are three underrated things Jesus offers his followers:
Purpose and direction
I’m constantly surprised at the lack of purpose most people have in life. Life without purpose is meaningless. I think that is one of the reasons Donald Trump is such a fascinating study. He has given many people who had no purpose in life a purpose. Tons of people find their entire purpose in life by hating and resisting him. Still others find their purpose as his supporters. I think much of his success lies in his ability to give people a purpose.
While I’m not a fan of people finding purpose in a politician, I am a fan of people finding purpose. I think purpose and direction are crucial in order to live a healthy life. In my opinion any purpose worth having is going to be a higher purpose. It will most likely be a spiritual purpose because humans were created to be spiritual creatures. You don’t have to be a student of history to realize that almost every civilization throughout all of time has believed there to be a higher power and a spiritual realm.
Jesus and his worldview offer purpose like no other. Jesus will give direction to your life. When Jesus was asked what the most important things in life were he boiled it down to two things: Love God with all your heart and soul and strength. And love other people. That’s it.
Times change. Circumstances come and go. Feelings vary. But when you have a purpose in life beyond yourself you can stay steady through the change. Jesus gives purpose.
Imago Dei
There are several religions in the world, but they are not all the same. One of the biggest differences is the Judeo-Christian worldview is the only one that offers humans ultimate worth and value. The Bible contends that humans are made in the very image of God, that they are in fact, God breathed. That means that every single human you have ever met or will ever meet bears the image of their creator.
Jesus was once asked by a man who was under Roman rule if he should pay taxes to Rome or not. In response Jesus asked for a Roman coin and then asked the man whose image was on that coin. The man admitted the coin bore the image of Caesar, to which Jesus responded, “give to Caesar what is Caesars and give to God what is Gods.” The point? God created you in his image. That means His image is on you.
There is no more valuable thing on this earth than a human being. You are of ultimate value to the one who created you. You bear the Imago Dei.
Knowing your self-worth will solve most of your confidence problems and knowing the worth of others will solve most of your relationship problems.
A good father
I wrestled a lot with what to call this point. I landed on “a good father” because so many people didn’t have one of those. Let me try to explain it like this. People often think of Christianity as a list of rules. A list of do’s and don’ts, that are mostly don’ts. But that’s not true. There is a study that shows that children who grow up with a good relationship with their father get into less trouble with the law. That’s kind of how Christianity works. It’s built on relationship not rules.
Let me try to explain it one other way. People often imagine God as an angry father who only loves them and is only proud of them when they do good things. But that’s not how it works. Instead, imagine you have a wonderful father who loves you very much and is always proud of you no matter what you do. You don’t try to do good things to make him proud of you, instead you do good things because he already is proud of you. You don’t try to earn his love, instead you attempt to return that love by your actions.
When you try to earn God’s love you will always fall short, but when you try to live up to the love that is already there you can’t fail.
The Bible says that Christians are clothed in Jesus. That means when God looks at you, he sees his Son. He doesn’t see what you are, he sees what you are becoming. God is in the process of making you perfect and he can already see the final product. I can’t think of anything more underrated than that.
