What it means to be Christian

1 Corinthians 9:19-27 (my translation, modified literal)

“Because, being free from everything I enslaved myself to everyone, so that I might gain more; and I became to the Judeans as a Judean, so that I would gain Judeans; to those under a rule as under a rule, not being myself under a rule, so that I would gain those under a rule; to those without a rule as without a rule, not being without a rule of God but within the rule of Christ, so that I might gain those without a rule; I became weak to those weak, so that I would gain those weak; to everyone I have become everything, so that I would rescue any of them at all. Yet I do everything because of the Gospel, so that I would become one who holds in common together with it.

Don’t you see that, on the one hand, everyone running in a stadium runs, yet on the other hand one receives the award? Run such so that you seize it. And every person who competes abstains from everything, those on the one hand then so that they would receive a decaying crown, but we an undecaying one. I then run such as not uncertainly, I box such as not hitting air; but I wear out my body and and lead it into slavery, lest I myself become somehow unqualified after preaching to others.”

This is St. Paul living out what Jesus taught in every Gospel,

“If anyone wants to follow behind Me, let him disown himself and pick up his cross and let him follow Me. Because whoever would wish to rescue his soul will destroy it; yet whoever would destroy his soul because of Me and the Gospel will rescue it.” (Matthew 8:34b-35, my translation, modified literal)

St. Paul removed from himself everything that he had once held an attachment to, everything with which he once identified himself with, in order that he might gain Jesus Christ:

“But those things which were a gain to me, I have held these things to be damages because of Christ. But on the contrary I am also holding everything to be damages because of the superiority of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my owner, because of whom I lost everything, and I have held it garbage, so that I would gain Christ...” (Philippians 3:7-8, my translation, modified literal)

St. Paul just let go of everything which got in the way of Jesus Christ, whether it was a personal possession, a heritage, a doctrine, or a religious rule which might have been dear to him. Like Christ, he emptied himself even as he told the Philippians:

“Be mindful of this thing among you which is also in Christ Jesus, who existing in the shape of God didn’t treasure being equal with God, but emptied Himself taking a form of a slave, becoming in the appearance of a human being;” (Philippians 2:5-7, my translation, modified literal)

St. Paul emptied himself becoming everything to everyone because Jesus Christ emptied Himself becoming everything to everyone. He recognized that those rules, cultural, societal, or religious with which we make to bind ourselves and to which we cling are arbitrary and must give way to Jesus Christ living His life through us. What good is a Gospel preached with which we ourselves are not participants? What good are we if we disqualify ourselves by holding on to other things and not sacrificing ourselves, disciplining our own minds and bodies to adhere to Christ instead of everything else?

Pardon my French, but St. Paul wasn’t screwing around. His adherence to Jesus Christ was no joke. Because of this, he wrote:

“Become mimics of me just as I also am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1, my translation, modified literal)

And this is the heart of what it actually means to be a Christian. Listening to, following, and imitating Jesus Christ and giving up everything which gets in the way of Jesus Christ regardless of what it may be. The heart of what it means to be a Christian is Jesus Christ.