By Peter Echols

Christian.

What does that word even mean?

Do we know who we are in Christ?

 The Bible makes a clear distinction. Either friends with God and an enemy of the world or friends with the world and an enemy of God.

James 4:1-4

“What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendships with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” 

So again we should ask ourselves…

What is a Christian?

What should our lives reflect?

Where is a Christian’s ultimate meaning, joy, purpose, and significance found?

 When I think of the meaning of Christian I think of for what it is; someone who is genuine, loving, believing, and active in their faith. This person has a relationship with Christ that is real and when you think about that person, those thoughts are the first to come into your head. So therefore that person believes in the Bible and it’s truths. They would then have to come to the conclusion of the God-head three in one, new birth, sanctification, and many other realities found in the Bible. Some people within the Christian community would say they are “radicalists” but I think Christ would beg to differ. The Holy Spirit through Paul writes to us.

Romans 12:1-2

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Christ’s ministry from the time he started out preaching the Gospel did not conform himself to the world but to save it. He acted in accordance with God’s will and presented his body as a holy sacrifice, acceptable to God. In fact he was the perfect sacrifice for the world. Christ never boasted in his own deity and used it to for his own gain. 

John 10:37-38

“If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father”

His whole life was a reflection of a perfect spotless sacrifice for the whole world. No more debt in our hands for our sins that we can not do enough good deeds for. Although we will never be perfect we should strive to be perfect. Christ is perfect and we should strive to be like him daily. What does that look like? Picking up our cross living a spirit filled life dedicated to Christ to the best of our ability and letting God lead us.

Romans 8:9-15

“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you , though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. (This is the change I am hinting at) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh- for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.(This was what I was referencing early when I said ‘picking up your cross daily’) For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

 

At the end of the day Christ must be the ultimate source of meaning, fulfillment, joy, etc. because if He is not am we are probably finding that in work, family, ministry or any other number of things in our lives. But that is not what Christ wants. Although, those all are good things, they fall short of the perfect being who will never fail you or stop loving you. When you give your life to Christ the mounting change of who you are from flesh to spirit is nothing short of a miracle. That would lead us as Christians to serve Christ and worship him through Spirit not serving our fleshly desires.

1st Peter 1:14-19

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written,”You shall be holy, for I am holy.” If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or god from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”