The Difference Jesus Makes

What difference does Jesus actually make? What does it really mean to think and act like a Christian? To be like Jesus … not just on Sundays or in a small group, but in the grind of everyday life?

Malcolm X used to ask people coming out of church, “What difference does your Jesus make in your everyday life and in this world?”

It’s a powerful question. And it’s one that the book of James answers head-on.

James doesn’t give us a bunch of vague religious jargon. He asks pointed questions that hit us where we live. And in James 1, we find three big questions every Jesus-follower has to wrestle with:

1. How do I deal with people who offend me?

James 1:19–21 says: “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires…”

James isn’t talking about one hot-button issue. He’s addressing the everyday stuff that pushes our buttons. Because, let’s be honest: there will always be something (or someone) that offends us.

Is anger always bad? Not necessarily.

Paul even says, “Be angry and do not sin.” Which implies anger is human, and sometimes justified. But it can also be dangerous.

That’s why James gives us boundaries for how to handle it. Quick to listen. Slow to speak. Slow to become angry.

It’s like a firepit: fire inside the ring = warmth and beauty. Fire outside the ring = disaster. Anger without boundaries leads to destruction and not just of others, but of our own witness.

Think of it like NASCAR (stay with me). Even the fastest cars have something called a “restrictor plate” to keep their speed in check. Christians have one, too. It’s called the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t just keep us from crashing. He empowers us to handle conflict with wisdom, not recklessness. Because at the end of the day, a knife in the hands of a criminal is very different than a knife in the hands of a surgeon.

2. How do I respond to the Bible?

James goes on: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22)

This is a gut-check.

It’s easy to hear a sermon, nod along, maybe even highlight a verse — and then go back to business as usual. But James says that’s like looking in the mirror and forgetting what you look like the moment you walk away.

The Bible isn’t a funhouse mirror. It’s a perfect mirror. It shows us reality, not who we wish we were … but who we really are.

And let’s be real: sometimes what we see in that mirror isn’t pretty. But that’s not the Bible being harsh. That’s the Bible being honest. And honesty is the beginning of freedom.

Because freedom isn’t doing whatever we want. That’s chaos. True freedom is living the way we were designed to live, in sync with God’s truth.

So when we read the Bible, the question isn’t “Did I agree with that?” or “Was that interesting?” It’s: Am I actually going to do something about it?

3. How do I treat people who have less than me?

James finishes with this: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)

Real faith shows up in how we treat people who can’t give us anything in return.

This kind of “religion” isn’t about self-righteousness. It’s about compassion and holiness. James says it’s both justice and personal piety.

Unfortunately, many churches tend to focus on one at the expense of the other. But if we’re following Jesus, we don’t get to pick and choose. Jesus didn’t. He spoke truth and showed mercy. He preached repentance and embraced the outcast.

Jesus once said, “Whatever you’ve done to the least of these, you’ve done to me.”

We don’t serve the poor to earn a spot in heaven. We serve the poor because heaven has already taken root in our hearts.

Here’s the bottom line: The world doesn’t need more people who call themselves Christians.

The world needs more people who live like Jesus makes a real difference in how we handle conflict, how we respond to truth, and how we treat the most vulnerable.

And what happens when we start doing that? That’s when people start to see Jesus — not just in our words, but in our lives.