What Would Paul Do?

I was thinking about WWJD bracelets today (don't ask me how I got there) and I suddenly realized that, in so many instances, that question is irrelevant, verging on incoherent. Almost like asking, "What would my iPad do?" Jesus, while human, was (and is) also God and that makes the position from which he did and said everything completely other.

You see, I've been reading the Gospels a lot in the past two years and, as I take a mental inventory of all that Jesus did in his three years of ministry, I can't do most of it. For instance, Jesus forgave sin. Yet he affirmed the protestation from the Pharisees that only God can forgive sin. Jesus healed and even raised people from the dead. My track record in those two columns is nil. Jesus preached and spoke with authority, as one from God. Jesus walked on water. Turned water into wine. Cleared the temple. Fed thousands with a Lunch-able. You get my point.

So I was thinking—as heretical as this sounds—that a better question to ask yourself as a Christian is simply "What would Paul do?"

Hold on, before you pick up stones to stone me. Paul himself wrote "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1). Throughout his teaching, Paul seemed to have an uncanny grasp of how the Gospel impacted our everyday life. It speaks into our marriages, our employment, our relationships. The list goes on and on.

So perhaps "WWPD?" is too near-heretical to be beneficial for most Christians. But I would suggest that there are better alternatives to WWJD that actually have biblically grounded answers we can directly apply to our lives. Try this one on for size: "Based on the Gospel, what would Jesus have me do?" So, does anyone want to buy a BOTG,WWJHMD? bracelet?