Christianity should be a verb, not a noun. Christianity is to be lived. It shouldn’t be a mystery to the world to know whether or not I am a believer.
If I’m a Christian and others cannot tell it by the way I live my life, by the words that I speak, that’s a sad, sad thing. If I say to someone who has known me for any length of time, "I am a Christian," and their response (spoken or not) is, "I didn’t know that," then shame on me.
If I call myself a Christian but use foul language or am angry and bitter or speak words of hate toward another person, I would be better off to keep my Christianity a secret. If I’m not exhibiting (with God’s help) love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, better to be a covert operative in the family of God. If I gossip about another person, trying to cause that person harm (emotional or physical), then I give a black mark to other believers. [Update, 6/11/05, 10:18 am: None of us will live it out perfectly 100% of the time. If we hid our light under the bushel until we lived a perfect, Christ-like life, we’d be under that bushel basket until the day we died. Just wanted to clarify that a requirement for perfection wasn’t my intended meaning. I mean we should be striving at all times to live as we are called to live.]
What makes a person a Christian (an authentic, living it out, proof is in the pudding believer)? It isn’t church affiliation, although attending/belonging to a Bible-believing church — and by church, I mean more than an organization or building — is something a Christian will want. It isn’t because a person is an American, although America was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics. It isn’t because a person’s parents or grandparents were Christians. God has no grandchildren, only children. We are saved by our own faith, not the faith of our ancestors.
Salvation happens at the moment we trust Christ as our Savior, but true, authentic Christianity doesn’t happen unless we make Jesus Lord and let the Holy Spirit take charge of our lives and change us from the inside out. If I’m talking and acting the same today as I was at the moment I became a Christian, then again, shame on me.
Is it judging others if I stand in the middle of a group of people and think, *I’m the only Christian here*?
No, that isn’t judging. I’m not saying anything bad about those people. I’m just thinking — because of external evidence or lack thereof — that I’m alone in my faith. But how sad if there is another Christian there in that group and I can’t tell it about her and/or she can’t tell it about me. How sad for both of us. [Note: For simplicity, I’m using feminine pronouns rather than the cumbersome his/her or he/she.]
Judging would be if that other person said to me, "I’m a Christian," and I responded in my thoughts, *No, you’re not.*
I do not know what is in another person’s heart. So if someone tells me, "I’m a Christian," I must accept it and then I’ll start looking with expectation for the fruit of the Spirit to be manifested in her life. And if I fail to see the fruit of the Spirit in another Christian, then my responsibility is to pray for her, not to say unkind things about her, publicly or in the privacy of my thoughts.
Caveat: Yes, there are those who call themselves Christians who are Christian in name only, who have a religion (or just a label) but who don’t have a personal relationship with the living Lord. The Bible tells us there are those who have called themselves Christians and Jesus will say to them, "Depart. I never knew you." (Matt. 7:23)
But because no one except God can see into another person’s heart, how can we be sure who that is? That’s why our first priority as believers is to live our Christianity, to make our faith a verb. No one comes to God the Father except through Jesus; Jesus is the only way to God and eternal life with Him. (John 14:6) And no one comes to Jesus except the Father Himself draws them. (John 6:44)
A popular praise song from decades past included the refrain: "And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love."
If I’m a Christian and you’re a Christian, shouldn’t we be about the business of loving one another, whether or not we are still flawed and messy?
We Are One in the Spirit
by Jason UptonWe are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity
May one day be restoredAnd they’ll know we are Christians
By our love, By our love
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians
By our loveWe will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
And together we’ll spread the news
That God is in our landAll praise to the Father
From whom all things come
And all praise to Christ Jesus His only son
And all praise to the Spirit
Who makes us oneMake us one, Lord!
Make us one, Lord!
