Jesus Is the Way—But Your Walk May Not Look Like Mine

One of the greatest dangers in Christianity is taking something God did in our life and turning it into a rule for everyone else's life.

“God delivered me this way, so this is how deliverance works.”

“God called me this way, so this is how calling works.”

“God speaks to me this way, so this is how He must speak to you.”

“God convicted me about this, so every Christian should have the same conviction.”

Without realizing it, we can take our testimony and turn it into someone else's theology.

Our testimony tells people what God did for us.

Scripture tells us what God requires of everyone.

Those are not always the same thing.

There are truths that apply universally to every believer. Jesus Christ is Lord. Salvation is through Christ alone. Sin must be repented of. We are called to holiness, obedience, love, forgiveness, humility, and faithfulness to God.

Those things are not negotiable.

But within those biblical boundaries, Scripture reveals something beautiful:

God does not make every believer's journey look identical.

One Way to the Father Does Not Mean One Identical Journey

Jesus makes an exclusive claim in John 14:6:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

There are not many saviors.

There are not many gospels.

There are not many ways to reconciliation with God.

There is one Christ.

But saying there is only one Savior is very different from saying everyone must encounter, follow, serve, and grow in that Savior in exactly the same way.

Just look at Scripture.

Peter encountered Jesus beside the Sea of Galilee.

Paul was confronted by the risen Christ on the road to Damascus.

The Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah when God sent Philip to him.

Lydia heard Paul preaching, and Acts 16:14 says, “The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.”

The Philippian jailer encountered God in the aftermath of an earthquake and cried out, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).

Different circumstances.

Different stories.

Different personalities.

Different journeys.

Same Jesus.

That's an important distinction.

We should never compromise who the Way is simply because people's journeys are different.

But neither should we demand identical journeys simply because the Way is the same.

The Pharisaical Danger: Turning Our Standards Into God's

Standards

This is where we should pay attention to Jesus' conflict with the Pharisees.

Their problem was not that they cared about holiness. Holiness matters deeply to God.

Their problem included elevating human traditions and interpretations until those traditions were treated as though they carried God's own authority.

Jesus confronted this directly:

“For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men...”— Mark 7:8

He later told them:

“Making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.”— Mark 7:13

That should concern every Christian.

Because we can do the same thing without wearing robes or calling ourselves Pharisees.

God does something powerful in our lives, and instead of saying:

“Look what God did!”

we slowly begin saying:

“This is how God does it.”

Then another believer's experience doesn't match ours, and we become suspicious.

They don't pray like us.

They don't worship like us.

Their calling doesn't resemble ours.

Their spiritual gifts aren't ours.

God dealt with an area of their life differently than He dealt with ours.

Suddenly, instead of asking whether something agrees with Scripture, we start asking whether it agrees with us.

That is a dangerous shift.

Scripture Is the Standard—Not My Experience

This does not mean anything goes.

“Everyone's journey is different” cannot become an excuse for sin, false doctrine, or disobedience.

There must be a standard.

But you aren't the standard.

Neither am I.

Scripture is.

Paul told Timothy:

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”— 2 Timothy 3:16

So when evaluating someone's walk, the question isn't:

“Are they doing this the way I did it?”

The better question is:

“Is this consistent with what God has revealed in Scripture?”

There is a tremendous difference.

Where Scripture speaks clearly, we should speak clearly.

Where Scripture commands, we should obey.

Where Scripture calls something sin, our personal opinions cannot make it righteous.

But where God has allowed diversity, we should be extremely cautious about creating uniformity He never commanded.

God Intentionally Made the Body Different

Perhaps the clearest evidence of this is Paul's teaching concerning the Body of Christ.

First Corinthians 12 says:

“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.”— 1 Corinthians 12:4–6

Notice the language:

Different gifts.Different ministries.Different activities.Same Spirit.Same Lord.Same God.

The differences are not necessarily evidence that something has gone wrong.

Sometimes the differences are God's design.

Paul continues:

“But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.”— 1 Corinthians 12:18

Think about what that means.

God intentionally placed different people with different functions into His Body.

And then Paul asks:

“If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?”— 1 Corinthians 12:17

In other words, the Body cannot function properly if everyone becomes the same thing.

If everyone had your gift, something would be missing.

If everyone had my calling, something would be missing.

If everyone ministered exactly like your church, something would be missing.

If everyone had the same personality, testimony, strengths, and assignment, we wouldn't have a functioning body.

We would have one giant body part.

Your Gift Was Never Supposed to Make You Self-Sufficient

This also reveals something about humility.

God could have made every believer completely self-sufficient.

He didn't.

Paul writes:

“And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you'; nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.'”— 1 Corinthians 12:21

I need believers who aren't like me.

That's not a weakness in God's design.

That's part of God's design.

Maybe that's one reason pride becomes so destructive within the Church.

Pride says:

“Everyone needs what I have.”

Humility recognizes:

“I also need what God placed in them.”

Pride asks, “Why aren't they more like me?”

Humility asks, “What has God placed in them that I don't have?”

God didn't design the Church around self-sufficient super-Christians.

He designed a Body whose members need Christ and need one another.

Even Our Callings Are Different

There is an incredible moment at the end of John's Gospel that illustrates this.

Jesus tells Peter something about Peter's future. Peter then looks at John and asks:

“But Lord, what about this man?”— John 21:21

Jesus responds:

“If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”— John 21:22

That might be one of the simplest lessons on comparison in the entire Bible.

Peter essentially asks:

“What about his journey?”

Jesus brings Peter's attention back to his own obedience:

“You follow Me.”

Peter's assignment wasn't John's assignment.

John's journey wasn't Peter's journey.

But both belonged to Jesus.

There are times when we become so concerned with how God is leading someone else that we stop paying attention to how God is leading us.

Jesus' words still speak powerfully:

You follow Me.

Discipleship Is Not Making People Into Copies of Us

This has enormous implications for ministry.

Jesus told us to make disciples.

But sometimes, without realizing it, we try to make copies.

We teach people to pray exactly like us.

Study exactly like us.

Minister exactly like us.

Worship exactly like us.

Hear God exactly like us.

Serve exactly where we serve.

Emphasize exactly what we emphasize.

Eventually, the measure of spiritual maturity becomes how much someone resembles the person discipling them.

But Paul gives us the actual destination of Christian maturity:

“Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”— Ephesians 4:13

The goal isn't for them to become more like me.

The goal is for both of us to become more like Christ.

That changes discipleship completely.

I can teach you what I've learned.

I can share wisdom from my mistakes.

I can correct you when Scripture requires correction.

I can encourage you.

I can pray with you.

I can walk beside you.

But ultimately, I must continually point beyond myself and toward Jesus.

Paul understood this. He could tell believers to imitate him precisely because his imitation was directed toward Christ:

“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”— 1 Corinthians 11:1

The destination was never Paul.

The destination was Christ.

Unity Does Not Require Uniformity

Sometimes we confuse unity with sameness.

Biblical unity isn't everyone having the same personality, preferences, giftings, or assignment.

Biblical unity is different members being joined together under the same Head.

And Scripture tells us who that Head is:

“And He is the head of the body, the church...”— Colossians 1:18

Jesus is the Head.

That means I don't get to occupy that position in another believer's life.

Pastors don't.

Teachers don't.

Prophets don't.

Denominations don't.

Church traditions don't.

Our job is to help people know, follow, obey, and become like Christ—not to replace His leadership with our preferences.

We Need Discernment Here

There is an important balance.

We should never see obvious sin or destructive teaching and dismiss it by saying, “Well, that's just their journey.”

Love corrects.

Scripture corrects.

God establishes boundaries.

But biblical discernment requires us to distinguish between God's commands and our preferences.

Sometimes what bothers us about another believer isn't sin.

It's difference.

Sometimes what we call “wrong” simply means:

“That's not how God did it with me.”

Those are not the same thing.

Before correcting someone, perhaps we should ask:

Is this actually contrary to Scripture, or merely contrary to my experience?

That's a question that can save the Church from a lot of unnecessary division.

The Testimony Is God's Faithfulness, Not God's Formula

Your testimony matters.

Tell people what God did for you.

Tell them how He found you.

Tell them what He delivered you from.

Tell them how He spoke.

Tell them what obedience cost.

Tell them how faithful He has been.

But don't turn your testimony into a formula God must repeat in everyone else's life.

The lesson of your testimony isn't:

“God must do this for you exactly as He did it for me.”

The lesson is:

“Look how faithful God is. Seek Him.”

That leaves room for God to be God.

Look for Christ, Not Yourself

Maybe one sign of spiritual maturity is that we stop looking for ourselves in everyone else.

We stop needing everyone to agree with our preferences.

We stop needing everyone's calling to resemble ours.

We stop treating our personal convictions as universal commandments unless Scripture makes them so.

Instead, we begin looking for Christ in people.

Is there love?

Is there humility?

Is there obedience?

Is there repentance?

Is there growing fruit?

Is this person becoming more like Jesus?

Galatians 5:22–23 describes the fruit of the Spirit as:

“Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

Interestingly, Paul doesn't say the fruit of the Spirit is everyone looking like you.

The Holy Spirit produces the character of Christ.

And He can produce that character through people whose personalities, gifts, callings, testimonies, and journeys look very different from ours.

One Jesus. One Body. Many Members.

There is one Lord.

One gospel.

One Savior.

One foundation.

We don't compromise those truths.

But there are many members.

Different gifts.

Different ministries.

Different testimonies.

Different assignments.

Different stories of how Jesus found us and how He is shaping us.

And perhaps that's exactly how God intended it.

Because when everyone has something to contribute, nobody gets to believe they are the whole Body.

When everyone needs someone else's gift, humility becomes necessary.

When different people can stand together under one Lord, Christ—not our sameness—becomes the source of our unity.

So tell your testimony.

Share what God has taught you.

Correct when Scripture requires correction.

Disciple people faithfully.

But never confuse “This is how God led me” with “This is the only way God can lead you.”

We are not called to make people into our image.

We are all being transformed into His.

As Paul writes:

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory...”— 2 Corinthians 3:18

That is the destination.

Not becoming more like me.

Not becoming more like you.

Becoming more like Jesus.

And sometimes, trusting Jesus with another person's journey is part of becoming more like Him ourselves.

Pastor Scott