Jesus Is ______: Find a New Way to Be Human

by Judah Smith

He finishes with, “You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor but hate your enemy,’ but I say, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

“What?” They look at each other. “Pray for those who attack me? I’ll pray, all right—’Lord, destroy them all!’ That’s my prayer. What’s he talking about? Love them? That’s crazy.”

“But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

There is a rousing round of silence. People are thinking, It was hard enough to be righteous before. I could barely keep up with everything the Pharisees told me do to. But this? This is impossible. Exactly. That was the point.

Jesus wanted them to know that if they intended to live by the law, they couldn’t just pick and choose the parts they liked in order to feel good about themselves. They had to follow all the law or they might as well not follow any of it.

Jesus wasn’t being mean. He was showing them their own inconsistencies. In their hurry to be good, they had redefined holiness so they could fulfill the law on their own. They had moved the goalposts. They had found ways to justify themselves in their own eyes. They had deluded themselves into thinking they could be perfect.

The point was Jesus.

Remember, this is Matthew 5. If you read straight through to Matthew 11, you would see Jesus’s point. He was setting them up to understand a truth that would set them free. “Come to me,” he says in Matthew 11:28. “Are you weary? Are you carrying a heavy burden?” That was everyone listening, you realize. “Come to me, and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy; my burden is light.”

There is nothing more uncomfortable for people than a constipated Christian.

Was the point of religion just getting God to do what we wanted? Or could we find a way to grieve our loss without being shipwrecked in our faith?

‘Everything is meaningless,’ says the Teacher, ‘completely meaningless!’ ”

with knowledge and skill, then must leave the fruit of their efforts to someone who hasn’t worked for it. This, too, is meaningless, a great tragedy. So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety? Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless” (2:21–23).

Righteousness. “And this is not all that is meaningless in our world. In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless!” (8:14).

Talent. “I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time” (9:11).

8. Education. “But, my child, let me give you some further advice: Be careful, for writing books is endless, and m...

At some point, we need to exit the hamster wheel and take an honest look at our lives. If we are not happy with the income we have now, or with our job, or with our marital status, we will never be happy. Those things cannot change an unhappy person into a happy person.

That’s not to say the pleasures of life can’t bring temporary happiness. Of course they can. Money can buy happiness. It’s fun to buy new things—it just isn’t the kind of happiness that lasts. Then we have to buy more things. Drugs and alcohol make us happy—for a few hours. Then we are left emptier than ever.

Ironically, the meaning of life is not found in this life. When Solomon said, “fear God and keep his commandments,” he was saying that life is not about being happy. It’s about ...

For many of us, that’s a little ambiguous. Where is God? How do I see God? How can I be in awe of God? God is not ambiguous. He is not ethereal or undefined. God reveals himself in Jesus. Jesus is the awesomeness of God, the glory of God, and the ultimate manifestation of God. He is God with skin on.

When you are in awe of Jesus, it’s amazing how uncomplicated marriage can be. It’s amazing how uncomplicated running your business can be. Life makes more sense when we don’t make it about ourselves.

But I am a feelings guy, and when my emotions are out of whack, I know it—and, unfortunately, so does everyone else.

I’ve discovered when that happens, it’s usually because I’ve forgotten what is important. I’ve lost sight of Jesus.

I’ve let the pressures and disappointments of life hi...

Some of us sing songs every Sunday about how good and powerful God is. We tell him we surrender our lives to him. Then we go to work on Monday and strive and stress as if it all depended on us. We make life about ourselves: about pleasing ourselves, about accomplishing our goals, about making things happen in our strength. It’s a subtle, unspoken switch that flips in our minds from Sunday to Monday, but the results are plain:...

I don’t know about you, but I prefer rest, peace, clarity, joy, and purpose. That’s a list I can get excited about. Once Jesus is the focal point—once he is the culmination of life and the pinnacle of our existence—everything else makes sense. Life becomes simp...

“Come to me,” Jesus calls to us today. “Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you ...

How can family be so blissful and so painful at the same time? How can they be so loyal and yet so . . . weird?

I’m not talking about my family, of course, since most of them will read this book. I’m talking about yours. I’m just trying to feel your pain. Families are loud. Families invade your personal space. Families tell you that you’ve put on weight since they last saw you. Families smell like pretzels. Families eat the last piece of leftover pie, the one you hid under a paper plate in the fridge. Families think it’s cute when their kid beats up your kid. “Ah, he gave him a bloody nose. So cute. Well, you know, boys will be boys.”

For your reading enjoyment, I’ve gathered some quotes on family from a few of my favorite theologians. I found them online so I know they are legit, because ...

is wonderful. Family gives us a place to belong, an identity, a sense of value. Our family loves us no matter what. They encourage us and believe in us. When done right, I think it is the greatest source of joy this side of heaven. But ultimately, our family is not the key to our happiness.

Some people tie their emotional stability—or lack thereof—to family. If they aren’t happy, they think it’s because they come from a bad family, or because they don’t have a family, or because they have a bad marriage or bad kids. If their family would just get their act together, they would be happy.

We do the same thing in other areas of life. We think, If I just had that career, I would be happy. Or, If I could just make that mu...

All of us are pursuing happiness and joy. No matter what each of us believes about God or life after death, we all want happiness and joy. It is one of the ultimate goals of man. Thomas Jefferson famously called the pursuit of...

Desiring happiness, peace, and joy is not wrong. But how we pursue them is important. For example, my right to happiness cannot involve depriving you of your right to happiness. You’ve probably heard the expression, “The rig...

Most of us are decent enough people to not stomp on everyone else just to be happy. Our real problem is that we search for satisfaction in the wrong places. And we come up empty. So, like Solomo...

Trying to find happiness of the soul by grasping at the little pleasures of life is like trying to build a sandcastle in an inch of water. The harder you work and the faster you scramble, the more things cave in around you.

For some people, the thought of Jesus laughing seems irreverent, like happiness means he wasn’t holy or something.

“God is more concerned with our holiness than our happiness.” I think holiness is the key to happiness, and I think happiness can be the purest expression of holiness. Really, you can’t separate the two.