Christ - ian?
So lately i have been thinking about the debate of what a christian is or is supposed to act like, or who we are supposed to be. It seems as if every author has a different view point on what a "real" christian is supposed to be. For instance, a real christian shows the love of christ, or a real christian is in the word every day, or a real christian is loyal and trustworthy....as if one of these is more important than the other. My thoughts tend to migrate towards more authentic tells than those of outward appearance. I believe it was Jon Foreman of Switchfoot who said that a christian is not something you call yourself but rather something that a third party must say of you. That's valid to me.
Correct me if i'm wrong, but the term "christian" was coined when pagans pointed out people who were "like christ," "Christ-like," Christ-ian. Being a christian thus must be identified from an outside source to be valid correct, otherwise our own spiritual guage is measured by our own bias opinion, thus making it skewed or invalid.
How does the proposal of being a christian sound if the difference we made was not just strides in our own personal holiness and pursuit of christlikeness (our own contention for being like christ), but rather if being an authentic christian was having the faith (of Christ) that God will work in and through us displaying the light of the world through the body of Christ as it was meant to be. Beyond surface definitions, beyond our own personal piety, into something larger than we can see with our own eyes, something called the kingdom of God made known through the grace of God via those who strive to have christ live through them (us).
Christian is being identified as Christ. Taking the name of the most holy of Lords can not and must shamefully never be associated with merely me, but that of a bigger goal and purpose. Being Christ to a broken world is not easy and that is why we are to represent Christ, leave our old selves behind and truly display Christ through ourselves, not showing ourselves with Christ-esque-ness (that doesn't even make sense), but showing Christ in and through a transformed self such as me.
Levi
Correct me if i'm wrong, but the term "christian" was coined when pagans pointed out people who were "like christ," "Christ-like," Christ-ian. Being a christian thus must be identified from an outside source to be valid correct, otherwise our own spiritual guage is measured by our own bias opinion, thus making it skewed or invalid.
How does the proposal of being a christian sound if the difference we made was not just strides in our own personal holiness and pursuit of christlikeness (our own contention for being like christ), but rather if being an authentic christian was having the faith (of Christ) that God will work in and through us displaying the light of the world through the body of Christ as it was meant to be. Beyond surface definitions, beyond our own personal piety, into something larger than we can see with our own eyes, something called the kingdom of God made known through the grace of God via those who strive to have christ live through them (us).
Christian is being identified as Christ. Taking the name of the most holy of Lords can not and must shamefully never be associated with merely me, but that of a bigger goal and purpose. Being Christ to a broken world is not easy and that is why we are to represent Christ, leave our old selves behind and truly display Christ through ourselves, not showing ourselves with Christ-esque-ness (that doesn't even make sense), but showing Christ in and through a transformed self such as me.
Levi
posted by Levi at
8:13 AM
1 Comments:
Beautifully said my friend! Faith, above all, that Christ will shine through those inconsistencies! I completely agree that an unbalanced view of what it means to be "like Christ" can be damaging. I suffer from that. Good post man!
-dave-
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