Be Like Christ
Meme courtesy of Sky McCracken
Oboedire | April 21, 2026
Writing in the previous post about Christ, it is natural to move to consider Christlikeness as another big-picture word in the spiritual life. In the first creation story, we are told that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26). Eastern Christianity distinguished between image and likeness. The image is given, but likeness is formed through intention and discipline. The term for this process is theosis. [1]
In the New Testament, Paul conveyed the same idea in passages about the mind of Christ (Ephesians 2:5-11) and increasing conformity to Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). Christlikeness is the one-word summary of the Christian life. Indeed, spiritual formation is the lifelong process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others. [2]
While this is true, it calls for some idea of what it means to be like Christ. Without this, we do not know if the lifelong process is on the mark or wide of it. There is a deformed Christlikeness. The MAGA Christology of (Not) Christian Nationalism is the glaring example of bogus Christlikeness in our day.
Instead of it, we find what Dallas Willard called “a curriculum of Christlikeness” elsewhere. He located it in the life Jesus taught and lived in his message of the reign of God. [3] The abundant life Jesus said he came to give (John 10:10) is clearly the life produced in us as we abide in Christ (John 15). It is a life rooted in love and bearing its “much fruit” (Galatians 5:22-23). This is why Christlikeness has come to be sumned up in Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit. [4]
[1] Michael Christensen and Jeffery Wittung, Partakers of the Divine Nature (Baker Academic, 2008).
[2] M. Robert Mulholland Jr., Invitation to a Journey (IVP, 1993).
[3] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy (Harper, 1998).
Steve Harper 2024
Courtesy Photo
The Rev. Dr. Steve Harper is retired seminary professor who taught for 32 years in the disciplines of Spiritual Formation and Wesley Studies. Author and co-author of more than fifty books.. He is also a retired elder in The Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.