"What would George do?"

Former US President GW Bush, along with his wife Laura, was back at the White House recently to unveil the officially commissioned portraits of the former President and First Lady that will hang alongside paintings of previous occupants of the White House, including, said Bush, that of "the first George W"!
The former President has clearly lost none of his humour (and charm!) while out of Office.  He suggested that, while contemplating great affairs of State, President Obama, in seeking inspiration for the right decision, might profitably gaze upon the Bush portrait and ask himself, "What would George do?"  You can watch the ceremony highlights here.
Anyway - and here's the relevance of this - it is now commonplace among Christian believers, in seeking to act righteously in ethically complex, grey situations, to find clarity by surmising the answer to the question "What would Jesus do?"  In fact, a whole WWJD? cottage industry has grown up around this notion that we can determine what our own behaviour should be in any given situation by 'simply' imitating what we might reasonably expect to be the practical outworking of Jesus' own inner thoughts and feelings.
This, however, was not the Apostle Paul's way. Paul's behaviour in every situation was governed by principles and convictions honed from a deep theological reflection of the significance of Jesus (and the Cross) within God's plan of redemptive history.  In other words, Paul's reasoning was not What would Jesus do?, but rather 'As a redeemed child of God, what should we do in light of what Jesus has done?'  So, rather than trying to imagine what Jesus might do in any given situation, it is the practical outworking of the Gospel in our lives that itself should determine our life and lifestyle.  Tim Keller has helpfully highlighted that Paul's rebuke of Peter (Gal. 2) when the latter was beginning to withdraw from table fellowship with converted Gentiles under pressure from the Judaizers, was because Peter was "not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel" (v14).  
Let's learn to live not by second guessing the mind of Jesus, but live as those who, by God's amazing grace, stand before him in covenant relationship - justified, adopted, and indwelt by the sanctifying Spirit of God - and who are learning to live in line with Gospel truth.