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Believer Vs. ChristianThere is still a massive percentage of Americans who call themselves Christians. So then why isn’t there more good in the world? Why can’t we feed our poor? Why can’t we heal the sick? Why can’t we love our neighbor as ourselves? Why are our churches impotent, hollow wastelands of religious expression instead of being the living, vital expressions of the body of Christ they were meant to be? Why?Simple. Because most of the people who call themselves Christians are not. What does it mean to be a Christian? If you live in America, it usually means you attend a church that claims to preach primarily (but not solely) from the Christian bible. You attend church regularly every Sunday morning and sit for an hour in a pew, sing a few songs, put some money in a bucket and generally pay your spiritual membership fee by simply being there. (Staying awake is optional.) Or being a Christian might mean that your grandfather was a founding member of a church in town and your mother is a well known religious fixture in the community. Or maybe you simply belong to an organization with a seemingly Christian affiliation. Or maybe you call yourself a Christian because every now and then you go to that youth group or that bible study because that hot chick also attends, and you’d call yourself a lump of coal if you thought it would impress her. This is what it means to be a Christian in America. That is why calling yourself a Christian in this country is meaningless. But then again, calling yourself a Christian in any country is just as meaningless. Why? Because the word Christian means Christ-like. It’s an identifier culled from your way of life, not your words. It’s to be attributed to you by others, not yourself. The early church did not refer to themselves as Christians, but rather they called themselves what they were, believers. They were believers in the one true God Yahweh, in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit He sent to us all on the day of Pentecost. They believed in the salvation power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and they believed that Jesus’ ministry on Earth continued through them as long as they allowed Him access to their lives. They believed the choice to open up to Him was theirs, but that the results of their obedience belonged to Him. Jesus Christ was revealed in their lives to the rest of the world. Upon witnessing this, it was the rest of the world who called them Christian. The identifier “Christian” was not theirs to claim, nor is it ours. Is Jesus Christ failing to show up in your life? Does your life radiate around “what can God do for me today?” When your friends describe you, do they discuss primarily your job, family or social activities before your Christianity, if they mention your Christianity at all? Do those who have never previously met you say that if you hadn’t have told them you were a Christian, they never would have known? If the answer is yes, then you’re not a Christian. Let me ask you this. Can you be a lying Christian? A cheating Christian? A lascivious Christian? A homosexual Christian? A murderous Christian? An abusive Christian? A Christian thief? A Christian adulterer? A Christian rapist? A Christian idolater? In short, a Christian sinner? The answer is a simple one that has been made complex by our distortion of what being a Christian means. I was listening to a sermon once during which the pastor raised this question. His answer was yes, you can be. This is why in a nutshell. All sin is viewed equally by God. A murder or a lie both create a boundary of sin between you and God which needs removed. Someone involved in sexual promiscuity or idolatry is equally in bondage in God’s eyes. Someone who has accepted Jesus Christ for salvation is not perfect, but will continue to sin from time to time. Jesus accepts everyone as they are, but in the words of Max Lucado, he loves us too much to leave us that way. Jesus works on us throughout the course of our lives, perfecting us over time as we open up and let Him work. Committing a sin after you have accepted Christ’s gift of salvation doesn’t mean He rejects you, so this pastor concluded that you can be a Christian sinner. I agree with the pastor’s intent to one, show that all sin is sin and we should not try to categorize one sin as worse than another to appease our own egos by making us falsely conclude that our own sin is trivial while another’s is horrid, and two, show us that God doesn’t walk away when we goof. He doesn’t approve of our sin, but he doesn’t turn His back on us when we do sin either. God is always there wooing and guiding us back to holiness and righteousness. What I disagree with is that pastor’s understanding of the word Christian. If he had said you can be a lying believer or a cheating believer, it would have been correct in the sense that you can be a believer in the saving power of Jesus Christ and still be trapped in bondage to a particular sin. BUT, the simple fact of the matter is that there is no such thing as a lying Christian or a cheating Christian, because to be a Christian means to reveal Jesus Christ in your life. Lying, cheating, sinning in any way these are not actions of Jesus’. When you are engaged in these activities, you are not identifying yourself as one belonging to, expressing or otherwise revealing Jesus Christ. Being a believer involves your heart and mind. Being a Christian involves your words and deeds. I can hold to the truth that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, the only way to reach God the father, and not do a single, public thing about it. I can secretly believe but give the impression in social situations that I have no idea who Jesus Christ even is. I can deceive others, all the while clinging to the truth in my own heart. I can lead others astray while quietly repenting for doing so. This is one of the things Jesus meant when He said faith without works is dead. What does your inner life mean if all it produces is death? In Rick Joyner’s book, “The Final Quest” he meets several people in Heaven who were failures in life because of hatred, lust or some other form of disobedience, yet they are in Heaven today because of their refusal to let go of the gift of salvation Jesus brought. They believed in salvation, but failed to believe in other gifts of His. This raises the question, what does being a believer mean? I erred earlier (albeit intentionally so I could raise this question now) when I said that you can be a lying believer or a cheating believer. My error was in not specifying what kind of believer. You can be a believer in salvation through Jesus Christ and lie at the same time. You cannot be a believer in speaking the truth of Jesus Christ and lie. You can be a believer in salvation and be a homosexual, but you cannot be a believer in sexual holiness and be a homosexual. You can be a believer in salvation and reject the gifts of the spirit as being from God, but you cannot be a believer in the Holy Spirit and reject His gifts. We are intended to walk from faith to faith. Does this mean we need God fresh and new every day, every hour, every minute? Yes, of course. Don’t rely on yesterday’s faith to get you through today. But this means so much more. You can hold to faith in God in one area and totally reject Him in another. You can believe in the salvation power of God and reject the physical healing power of God. Salvation is the starting point and it is certainly the most important, but it is was never intended to be the stopping point. Again I refer to Rick Joyner’s “The Final Quest” for an analogy to better explain my point. During the struggle described within, the “believers” are fighting Satan’s horde while standing on the mountain of God. The mountain has many levels, the foundation of which is salvation. There are higher levels to which you may climb that are named after other truths of God such as prayer and the unity of the brethren. You can remain on the level of salvation and not be a believer in prayer, and you’ll still be on God’s mountain. When the time comes for your physical body to give up and you leave the Earth, Jesus’ blood will still have washed away your sin and you will still enter through the gates of Heaven, but during your time on Earth you forfeit so much of what you could have had, and your place in Heaven will be lessened because of your refusal to accept more of what God intended for you. I am a believer in Jesus Christ. I am a believer in so many more things, but some of them are changing. In some beliefs, I am in error. (Now if I only knew which beliefs were wrong, I’d simply change them.) In some beliefs, I am standing on solid rock. I am a believer. I know that I’m not perfect and I need to seek God, His kingdom and His righteousness first and everything will fall into place as I see Him, hear from Him and obey Him. So am I a Christian? When you meet me, that is up for you judge. I am the pen. Back to the top | |||||||