Define: Christian

(Picture model: Thank you to my beautiful friend, Montana, for letting me use her picture♥)

     I’m a writer. I love words. It’s what I do. And, if I’m ever in the midst of searching for the perfect word, I’ll get in Google and search for a similar word using their dictionary. All you have to do is type “define: word,” and you’ll get its exact meaning.
     And lately, I’ve been thinking about the definition of a certain word.
     Or, more specifically, what it means to be a Christian. How do we define: Christian?
     The most surface-level is a believer in Christ...but James 2:19 says that even the demons believe. I don’t know if anyone would say that demons are Christians. So we’ll take it a step further: we must be a follower of Christ. That would set us apart from the demons.
     So we believe and follow—that makes us Christians.
     But how do we follow?
     Psalms 119:133 lays it out like this: “Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.” In the Old Testament, God’s Word was the Law, but in the New Testament, His Word is the entire Bible. And, though I’m definitely not the end-all, be-all for the definition of being a Christian (that definitely belongs to God!), let me tell you what it means to me.

• Follow God’s instructions. 
• I mentioned above that believing in God is only one part of being a Christian. We must be willing to follow God’s instructions, which He’s laid out in the Bible. He’s made His desires and His heart very clear, and, as Christians, we should desire to follow Him. But here’s the thing: we will always fall short. Romans 3:23 assures us that, for better or for worse, everyone falls short of God’s perfection. We can never follow God’s instructions to the T. That’s the whole reason we’re Christians: because we admit that we need Jesus to be perfect in God’s eyes! But there’s one thing I want to point out: we are all sinners. Which means that none of us are perfect. Not you. Definitely not me. Not your preacher (isn’t that a shock?). No one, from Mother Teresa to a drug dealer down the street, is perfect enough to not need Jesus, to follow every instruction God has left behind for us. So, what then? What are we to do if we understand that we are not perfect?
  We can start by opening our minds. It offends our pride to admit that we could have things we need to work on, but it’s true. Everyone has things in their Christian life that they could do better. And we can’t let our pride get in the way of being corrected. When someone approaches us and tells us something that we don’t want to hear, that could be damaging our witness, pushing us farther away from God, or pushing others farther away from God because of the way we act, we should (to put it bluntly), shut up and listen! That doesn’t mean that you should take their advice. You should always consult with God and read his Bible as it is written, not how you feel it should be written and see if there’s any merit in what was said to you. Never be so prideful that you reject all correction and snap back: “judge not lest ye be judged.” Pride is the original sin. Pride is in all of us. Once again: pride is in you, pride is in me, pride is in your preacher and everyone from Mother Teresa to the drug dealer down the street. We can all follow Jesus better. It takes someone who is actively trying to be a follower of Jesus to recognize that fact.
• Have an active relationship with God. 
• Here’s what I would like for everyone to understand: being a Christian is not about escaping Hell. We shouldn’t judge our actions about what will or won’t “get us thrown in Hell.” That’s like looking at your spouse and saying to yourself, “How much can I hurt him/her without them actually divorcing me?” ...Um, hello! That’s not a relationship at all. If you’re only acting in self-preservation to get out of Hell, you’ve missed the sweetest part of being a Christian: being with God! How sweet a marriage can be if you aren’t looking to avoid divorce, but to cherish marriage. The same is true with Christianity. How sweet it is when we aren’t looking to judge our actions by how to avoid Hell, but when we’re looking to have a full relationship with God. When we pray. When we read the Bible. When we treat Him not as a parole officer or ball and chain, but as the Man with the keys to our deliverance. As the person who will set us free from the ball and chain of our sin. To believe that a relationship with God is so much more than just (maybe) attending church and (maybe) saying a prayer every once in a while. The Bible assures us that God already knows us—and the sweetness of Christianity is getting to know Him more and more with every breath. 
• Show love.
• I’ll confess: we live in a hotbed climate right now. Everything is an issue. There are lines drawn, anger, bitter, sides throwing stones at each other, and—
  Wait, what’s that?
  You say it’s not your side that’s being angry and nasty, but the other side?
  ...By doing that, you’re doing exactly what you say they’re doing. You’re throwing a stone, calling them unreasonable, saying they’re all hotheads, stupid idiots, etc.
  The truth is this: I’ve seen hate from each side of every debate you can think of. I’ve seen people called stupid, snowflakes, boomers, liberals, conservatives, all of these used as the harshest insults one can imagine. I’ve seen people sneer “aha! GOTCHA!” on virtual and real-life platforms. They talk about the other side of the argument in the most condescending attitude, as if they’re the reason for the world’s problems.
  No.
  Know what the reason for the world’s problems is?
  Sin.
  “But they’re sinners! They’re spreading a sinful, hateful agenda! They’re worse than me!”
  No.
  We’re all sinners.
  The only difference is that some people repent for their sins, and some people gleefully embrace them. The only difference is the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And let me tell you: I find it hard to believe that anyone ever converted while being screamed at, called a slew of names, or being mocked. If anything, that just makes them dig their heels in deeper, lower their heads, and yell even louder back. Hate everything even more.
  People, where is the love that Jesus showed?
  “Love” doesn’t mean you have to accept or support everything that people do. “Love” means that you don’t scream at someone what an idiot they are. “Love” means that your heart breaks for the sin of the world, that you weep for Jerusalem like Jesus did (Luke 19:41-44). If your heart breaks for someone, you aren’t going to call them names. You’re going to hug them. You’re going to weep for the sin, pray for them, and do your best to live a life that points towards Jesus in every way so that they want what you have. Your life is the only witness people see sometimes. If you look back in the Bible, do you see who Jesus condemned the most? The Christians of the times. He called them hypocrites (keep in mind, not idiots). He was angry that the people who should have known God’s law were perverting it the most. To the sinners, the ones that didn’t know any better, or the ones that had fallen away completely, He never called them names. He called them out, but He never called them names.
  Let’s read the story of the woman caught in adultery one more time today. John 8:1-11. Jesus gives those that want to stone the woman a dare: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone at her.”
  One by one, the accusers walk away, because, as I said previously, we are all sinners.
  And Jesus?
  Jesus, who really could throne the stone? Who was perfect and had every right to condemn her, both by His own parameters set forth and because He’s the Son of God?
  “Neither do I [condemn you],” He says. “Go and sin no more.”
  This is such a beautiful picture of love that it makes me want to cry as I read it, as I type this. This is the kind of love Jesus showed people. He is a High Priest who knows all our temptations, all our struggles, and yet, remained blameless and pure (Hebrews 4:15). Love will be with people through their lowest points, when they are the most entrenched in their sin, and pull them up, hug them, and whisper, “Go and sin no more. Your life has changed. I love you.” Can you imagine how radical the world would see Christianity if we lived like this? If we really looked like love and not just a spiteful enemy?

• Be more like Christ every day.
• Of course, this is not the end-all, be-all list of what makes a Christian, a Christian. But it’s a place to start. And, whenever we start something, we should always have a goal in sight: and that goal should be Jesus. These two verses nicely sum up what a Christian’s goal should be every morning when they wake up:
  2 Corinthians 4:18— “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
  Hebrews 12:1-2— “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
  In every breath that we breathe, we should fix our gaze upon Jesus, upon what He desires, and tether our heart to His. When we desire to have a heart like the Savior has, He will readily answer our prayers. When we cast off the pride that blinds us, when we shake off the fear that paralyzes us, and when we reach for the love that calls us, we will grow each day to be more like Jesus. There will be ups, there will be downs. But that’s called being human: and it’s the desire to be more like Jesus that will pull us up every single day.

     I’m not Google and I’m not God, but that’s how I define: Christian.