If we compare how we define other ways or walks of life we accept this definition as normal.
Take a person who calls himself a Buddhist. This would be a person who follows the teachings of Gautama Buddha. Right? If you allow me to take it one step further, we can't call a person a Buddhist if they only follow some of his teachings. In other words holding the sole belief in reincarnation or Karma doesn't make you a Buddhist, nor does living at a Buddhist temple or in a Buddhist community make you a follower of Buddha.Are you following? Am I beating a dead horse?
If we look at Luke 6:46 (in the Bible) we can see where Jesus points out the people who call him "Lord" but don't put his word or teachings in practice. In Matthew 7:21-22 Jesus is even more blatant and divides those who are followers from those who are not.
So if we take those verses we can see that a "Christian" is one who not only listens but puts into practice the Word and the Will of God. Simply going to church or living a "nice" life doesn't make you a Christian, right? Even holding the position of a pastor, priest, or minister doesn't make you a Christian. I like one person's analogy about race horses. He said that you can put a mule in a race horse stall but it doesn't make him a race horse, likewise you can sit in your garage but it doesn't make
you a car. Once, I saw a VW bug with a Ferrari car shell. It looked great and I thought it was a fast, sleek, sophisticated car, until I was told that it was a VW bug under all that Cool Exterior. When the owner started the motor I could tell, and when it pulled out of the parking lot I could tell it was nothing like a Ferrari.It's what is under the hood that confirms its' true identity. You could go to a junk yard somewhere and find a Ferrari bashed up, broken, and maybe with other car parts welded on to it's chassis, to such a degree that you may not even recognize it as a Ferrari. And even though that vehicle may not look like a Ferrari it hasn't changed into a VW, a Ford, Dodge, or whatever.
The same logic applies when being called a Christian. There are many who desire to live a "good", kind, and righteous life who have joined a good church and have called themselves "Christian". But these acts (albeit good acts) are not indicators of being a Christian. Jesus said that "if you love me you will obey what he commands" and in a later verse he says
that the person who loves Him will do what He teaches (John 14). He didn't tell anyone to go to church. He didn't say live a "good" life. He said love your neighbor as yourself, he said forgive, he said seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.One time when he was asked by his disciples to show them the Father He said that if we were to see Him (Jesus) then they had already seen the Father. He was teaching by example. In His (Jesus') love for the father He imitated everything God did to the point that He could say "if you've seen me you've seen the Father". It wasn´t the church he attended, or the good life he lived that qualified him. It was His Love and His imitation, or walk. Jesus said that the World will know who are His disciples by their fruit. It is what we do, from the inside out, that defines who we are.
Can you say that you are doing what Jesus would do? Can you say that you are speaking what Jesus would say?
I realize that we all screw up every now and again but we are defined by how we stand firm or fall from the pressures that surround us. Do the circumstances in the World dictate how you will turn and what you will do? How does the economy influence you? What about the office pressures? And what about the pressure from our friends. How you stand up in the face of pressure that would have you choose another path, dictates who you are.Who are you?
Have you noticed how Hollywood makes fun of Christians? In the movie "Fun with Dick and Jane" (2005) there is a scene where Dick played by Jim Carry is trying to pee in a cup for a subsequent drug test. One of the store clerks working as a Human Resources personnel offers her pee for 100 dollars 'cause she had been of the "pipe" for 6 months. She punctuates her offer with "Praise you Jesus". Her hypocrisy is what the Worlds sees and defines as Christian. It's the hypocrisy that causes us to slap our knees and laugh. Why? Because we all know of people in church and may have participated in something similar.
They see the "Christians" that want to live a "good" life, and not the Christians that Walk like Jesus. It is the influence of those type of people that cause many youth to turn away from Christ, and embrace Atheism or Agnosticism. And it causes many others not to embrace Christianity since they too can live a "good" life without Christ.
So who are you? What does your fruit look like?
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