Want a Christian?

I was talking with a friend two nights ago and the issue of wisdom in choosing a marital partner came up. He said a key word. In essence, he said, ‘Getting involved with a Christian is always better. You don’t have to worry about trust and if they fall they don’t take pride in it or make a habit of it, reveling in or relishing it’

I cast my mind back to encounters I had had with certain ‘Christians’ and I knew the issue of what exactly was a Christian was a bone worth crunching.

Believe it or not there had been periods in my life when I had thought everyone with a Christian name was a Christian. And if you had been born a Christian? You definitely had something over me!

Of course, I paid for my silly notions.

Yes, I couldn’t imagine anyone declaring for God and doing otherwise- until I began to understand what it means to be a Christian. It is a sad truth that people can call themselves Christians but without knowing what it is to be a Christian or what is really expected of them as Christians, they end up not being Christians. 

 

 The Word of God says in Romans 2:28-29:

²⁸ For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
²⁹ But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

 

For real, without even knowing what it is to be a Christian how do you even know if you are one or if you have even truly decided to be one? And if you do not know who or what a Christian is how would you choose a Christian as a friend or partner.

Well, with the way I was I ended up with what I was- church-flitting, nice-spitting infidels with neither moral backbone nor spiritual strength, forget power.

Yeah, I was all that and I got the same I was like flies to spilled soda. I had a Christian name and so did they. None of us were Christian. Why else would there be the Invisible Church I hear of; the true Church of God composed of not church goers but people who are really serving God?

I read somewhere that going to church doesn’t make you any more Christian than 'parking' yourself in a garage makes you a car. Well, a Christian would always go to Church but going to Church doesn’t make you a Christian.

I have since learnt that being a Christian is a relationship not a set of rituals. It’s obedience to the Word of God not head knowledge. It’s a lifestyle not a garment that you put on and put off at will. It is a commitment; it is dedication even through the weird looks you receive from even weirder people, the put downs you get from people you should pull up and persecution that comes even from your own head and your own body.

Christianity is unwillingness to fall and getting back up when you do knowing fully well that staying down does not give God glory neither does it make you any better or even better loved by God- Christ already paid all the price there ever was to pay, is to pay and ever will be to pay.

Christianity is not turning back when your church members turn on you and your pastor turns out to be something else.

It is a lonely walk you might be priviledged to share with certain people; a lonely walk because you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Your heart is set on Christ, your eyes fixed on Him and it’s all about no other person but him.

Yes, as a Christian it is better for you to get involved with another Christian. Yes, you would not have to worry about trust. Relationship-wise you would have far less reasons for degenerate worries. But before you go searching for one, ask yourself, are you?