As I sit here in my study this morning I am wondering how being a Christian is defined? What is a Christian? According to both current culture and according to the Bible?
Being a Christian or calling yourself a Christian is a proclamation to the world that you are now a follower of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and that you will now live your life according to the example set for us when He walked this world 2000 years ago. Being a Christian means that you now have no other higher priority or purpose in your life than Jesus Christ and Honoring God with how you live. A Christian is not just someone who believes in God but someone who also acts in accordance with God’s will and lives no longer for themselves but for the glory of God and the building and establishing of His kingdom.
How do you become a Christian?
Some people say that to become a Christian all you have to do is confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life and now you are a Christian. Others would say that to be a Christian you must be saved and baptized and then walk according to the Bible, and others say that becoming a Christian is impossible on our own and is only possible if God first calls us and leads us to Him by His Spirit for we cannot choose God but God must choose us first and only then we can come to God and draw near to Him.
I tend to believe that becoming a Christian is a mix of all those knowing that God works in mysterious ways.
God calls us, He truly does, and when God calls us, we must respond, we must give an answer. How you respond to God calling you is by either accepting Jesus Christ as Lord of your life and living for Him or…..not, refusing the call of God and continuing to live for yourself, your answer is given by how you live your life.
By accepting Christ as Lord of our lives we place him first and He is now the priority and above all else in our lives. We no longer are the priority of our own lives and can no longer live to serve ourselves and our own needs, wants and desires, but rather now we must live in obedient submission and service to Jesus Christ and God the father.
Becoming a Christian is quite simple when God leads you, all you have to do is accept Him, but it takes a lifetime to show yourself to this world and to God that you are a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ and honored God with your life.
What a Christian is not?
This can be a touchy subject but a Christian is not someone who goes to church or someone who says “Yup I love Jesus and he is my friend” or someone who gives money to the church occasionally and tries to be a good person.
In this day and age, we have accepted and allowed whomever to call themselves a Christian, yet a Christian is defined by how they live out their life and not by 1 or 2 acts they may do or have done.
A Christian can be many things and can mean many different things to many people however all Christians must have a few basic things in common; submission and obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord of their life and having given to God priority over their life, keeping God first and foremost in all they do, aware they now are representatives of the kingdom of God. If God and Jesus Christ are not prevalent in someone’s life and they do not have the character and the Spirit of God about them then their Christianity can definitely be in jeopardy.
We are not called to judge Christians in service to God based on their appearance or how they stand before God, but we are called to call them to account and judge sinfulness and how they behave and represent the kingdom of God.
You can tell a lot about what someone believes by how they live their life and if you want to be a Christian your life needs to be in alignment with how Jesus Christ lived, showing and reflecting your continued belief in God always.
What does the bible say about being a Christian?
The bible is given to us by God and is the inspired word of God.
It tells us the story of creation, the history of man and God and the relationship between them. It tells us about the birth and creation of Judaism and its rise and their many the many, many years of tumultuous relationship with God and then tells us of the birth of Jesus Christ, the One and only Son of God and the salvation for all mankind, given in Christ Jesus.
God’s holy scripture, the Bible, is given to us that we might know the character of God and who He is and what He desires from us.
Therefore we must study and meditate upon the Bible daily, keeping it ever before us that we might know it and it may be written upon our hearts. The Bible says that “those who love me (Jesus) will obey my commands”. Jesus also says “if you believe in me and call upon my name, you will be saved.”
And in the book of James it is told that “faith without works is dead” and elsewhere that “by our actions we will know you, by the fruit you produce in your life you will be known.”
The Bible says many things about Christianity and Christians and what it means to be considered a follower of Christ, but I think what sums up what being a Christian is about best is from Jesus who says “if you love me you will walk as I have walked and do what I have done and even greater things than these.”
That is what it means to be a Christian and a true follower of Christ, to live your life according to the example of Jesus Christ, trying to emulate and become more and more like him.
Laying aside your own self that you may take up the cross of Christ and run after Him, becoming more and more like Christ daily, that is the fruit we must bear consistently and regularly in our lives to be considered a Christian according to the bible.
What value is there in being a Christian?
Some might say “Well, what value is there in being a Christian if I must give up all that I am and all that I want, my own dreams and my own desires? Why would I give those things up to follow after a God to be His servant? Having to walk in obedience to a God I don’t know and to a God who is just out there, in the universe, and is this nebulous thing.”
I would respond to that person informing them that God is the creator of all things and He created us, and he desires and longs for relationship with His creation, you and me. That just because you do not currently have a relationship with God and do not know His ways and how truly good God is, does not mean that it’s not true or can’t be done.
It simply means that you are currently ignorant of and have not yet recognized God and His goodness and the immense value that comes with being in relationship with God and a follower of Jesus Christ.
Understanding comes when God moves us and we begin to acknowledge that we were created for eternity and that when we pass on from this life there is another life, an existence that will last forever, and our fate for eternity is decided by how we live our lives here on earth.
If we live our lives here in selfishness, greed, and lust, seeking after only that which we desire and want, chances are we will not have the eternal life that we would desire. Yet if we submit ourselves to God and choose to live for Him, Honoring Him with our lives while here in this world, we will be both blessed here and in the life to come.
Suffering and persecution are promised to those that love God and desire to live a life that is holy and righteous.
Christianity is not an easy life and we are promised many trials while in this world but we know who we serve and know what is promised for those that love God.
So we consider the sufferings, trials, and persecutions in this world to be mild, not even worth considering, when compared to the future glory held for us in Christ Jesus and the hope that we have in God the Father, creator of Heaven and Earth and of all created things.
Does being a Christian mean I have to change who I am?
If you have not yet considered Christianity and have not yet called yourself a Christian or come to know the Lord, that’s okay, (though I would encourage you to pursue God and to call out to Him and see if He does not reveal Himself to you) however once you do take on that mantle, that title of Christian, you are now defined by that title and held accountable to live according to all it means.
It now define’s you and regulates how you live, who you are, what you do, and how you walk in this world. If it doesn’t then I would question your belief and sincerity about being a Christian.
Being a Christian means that you do change, it requires it, you cannot become a Christian without a change in your life, because you are now in a relationship with God and being near God, knowing Him and His power, changes us.
We are changed by the power of God and enabled by Him to stop being who and what we were, because we have died to ourselves, to this world, to sin, and have been set free in Christ.
We have died to everything this world has to offer and have been raised up, born again in Christ Jesus. Therefore we are now one in Christ, having died to this world, we now live in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us and gives us life.
Therefore, we must learn and be taught and live by the Spirit and though we yet walk in this world, we are strangers in it because it knows us not, having been born again we are new creations in Christ, holy and consecrated in Christ to serve and please God, walking in truth, power, and authority to do what Jesus did.
Filled with the promises of God for this life and the next we are but ambassador’s here in this world, and as such we must walk in such a way as to represent the place where we are from, not the place where we currently. Living as ambassadors of Christ we do not represent ourselves or our own wants and desires, but we represent the Kingdom from which we come from and to which we shall all return and give an accounting to.
As ambassadors living here on earth from the Kingdom of God, we must represent ourselves well knowing we represent Jesus to the world. When we take on the title of Christian we have now taken on the title of ambassador and must be constantly aware of how we no longer represent ourselves and no longer live unto ourselves.
But instead we live unto the Kingdom of God, bringing glory and honor to that Kingdom, to God’s Kingdom, all in the name of Jesus Christ.