What does it mean to "be a Christian?"

 What does it actually mean to be a Christian? 

     I’m not talking about “being saved” or whether or not someone is justified before God through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. That’s dealt with. Done. That was about what He did for us.

     In the Scriptures, it calls Jesus’ followers after His ascension, “followers of the Way,” “the brothers,” or just “disciples.” They weren’t even called “Christians” (Grk. christianoi) until later in Antioch closer to 45-6 CE; the word literally meaning “pertaining to Christ,” and it appears to have begun as an epithet. What is clear though is that, from the very beginning, one wasn’t considered a disciple of Christ, or “Christian” unless he or she was living as Jesus taught, not by those within the Church at the very least, and they disavowed those who weren’t regardless of what or whose teachings they professed to follow. It’s pretty clear from Paul’s writing to the Corinthians, and from some of his other writings, that those who stopped living as Christ taught and were engaged in some behavior that clearly wasn’t what Jesus taught were excommunicated and put out of the congregations until they came to their senses and repented so they could be reconciled and brought back into the community.

     Justin Martyr, an apologist who wrote a lengthy and thorough defense of Christians and there manner of life to the Roman emperor, wrote in 160 CE, “Let it be understood that those who are not found living as He taught are not Christian—even though they profess with the lips the teachings of Christ.” Any serious reading of the letters and writings of the late first and early second century Christians, those within the second or third generation from the Apostles, will demonstrate that the emphasis on teaching was on practice, and that it was one’s behavior which defined them as Christian. It was whether or not that they followed the way of life, or the way of death, and much of what they wrote was about the kinds of behaviors one expected to see from those who followed the way of life.

     To be a Christian is to do as Paul wrote repeatedly about in his letters, that is, to walk in the Spirit of Christ, and to not be enslaved to one’s own flesh, that is, one’s own fear, aggression, feeding impulse, or sexual desires. To be a Christian is to produce what Paul called the “fruit of the Spirit” as opposed to the works of the flesh. The fruit of the Spirit is this way of life, and the works of the flesh, the behaviors which result from being enslaved to our own fear, aggression, feeding impulses, and sexual desires is this way of death. As he wrote in his letter to the Romans, “because the mind of the flesh is death, yet the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God, because it isn’t subjugated to the law of God, because neither is it possible; and those being in the flesh aren’t capable of pleasing God. Yet you folks aren’t in the flesh but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God resides within you, yet if someone doesn’t posses the Spirit of Christ, this person isn’t His.”

     The Apostle John also wrote in his first epistle, “And with this we know that we knew Him, if we should keep His commands. The guy saying that, ‘I knew Him’ and not keeping His commands is a liar and the truth isn’t with this guy; yet whoever should keep His message, the love of God has genuinely been finished within this person, with this we know that we are within Him. The guy saying to make his home in Him is himself obligated to walk in the same way just like that One walked.” He also wrote in the same epistle, “Dear ones, we should love one another, because love is from God, and every person who loves has been birthed from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love hasn’t known God, because God is love.”

     To be a Christian is to be actively practicing making your home in Him, disengaging from your own flesh born responses and behaviors, and asking Him and trusting Him to act and speak through you. To be a Christian is for people to be able to experience Jesus Christ through what you do and say. To be a Christian is to be following His commands, living as He taught, and imitating Him in His total submission to the Father so that He didn’t say or do anything the Father didn’t say or do through Him.

     To be a Christian has nothing to do with what you say you believe in. Anyone can talk a good line, but can people experience Jesus Christ when they encounter you? Can they say of you, “If you’ve met this guy or girl, you’ve met Jesus Christ”? It has nothing to do with your systematic theology either, or how correct or incorrect it is. As Paul wrote, you can have all wisdom, all faith, and prophesy mystery after mystery, but if you don’t have love you’re nothing, and it’s all worthless. I have met many Christians from virtually every denomination and church I have had contact with, and a great many more who profess His teachings, but follow their own flesh and the way of death.

     Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke, “Yet what are you calling Me, ‘Lord, lord,’ for, and don’t do the things I am saying?” And in Matthew He says, “Every person then who hears these messages of Mine and does them, will be similar to a mindful man, who constructed his house up on the bedrock; and the rain descended and the rivers came and the winds blew and fell towards that house, and it didn’t fall, because it had been founded up on the bedrock. And every person hearing these messages of Mine and not doing them will be similar to a moronic man, who constructed his house on the sand; and the rain descended, and the rivers came and the winds blew and struck against that house, and it fell and its fall was huge.” Jesus also said, “And the guy who doesn’t take his cross and follow behind Me, isn’t worthy of Me.” He would later define not being worthy of Him as not being able to be His disciple.

     No matter what kind of theology he professes, no matter how good of a “testimony” he has, no matter what he says he believes, if a person, man or woman, isn’t producing the fruit of the Spirit which compels them to live as Jesus taught, if they are living in response to the desires of their own flesh, then they aren’t being a Christian but are lying to themselves, and they won’t be a Christian until they confess it, agree with Him, and return to walking His path. 

      The person who continues to profess to be walking in the light while walking in the darkness, who continues to profess Christ with his lips yet is enslaved to the desires of his flesh, and his own hubris, recklessly risks the wrath of God by treating Jesus Christ and His Spirit with whom he was joined, His teachings, and His blood with contempt. He is like the man who showed up for the wedding feast without the wedding garment, and was thrown out into the outer darkness for disrespecting the Father and the Son. Ignorance is forgivable. Deliberately disrespecting the testimony of the Holy Spirit will not be.

     What does it mean to be a Christian? To be a Christian means to be a willing channel for everyone around you to experience Jesus Christ. This is a process. You will make mistakes. But there’s a difference between mistakes and struggling, and deliberately avoiding living as He taught and walking as He walked in submission to His Father. The Father isn’t confused about which is which, and you can’t hide it from Him.

     Quit cowering behind your wall of “correct theology” which you’ve built for yourself. If you’re going to call yourself a Christian, then live as He taught and walk as He walked as everyone who claims to know Him is obligated to do.