What is A Christian? Part 1. (a 6 part series)

A Definition of Christianity and what it means. Oddly I believe I have dealt with all the questions that have come up in this subject before. BUT I will try to clarify the points I have and try to make it all a little smoother. With that is mind, let’s see what the Dictionary has to say on the subject, “Christian: n. a person who has received Christian Baptism or is a believer in Jesus Christ and His teachings.” Clinical and true, but fails to really let you know WHAT Christianity is really all about. I hope to address that. To be a Christian is to Follow Christ. You might be thinking “Well Duh!” but I challenge you to think what does THAT mean? Well Lets break the word down. “Christ” with an added suffix “ian”. The suffix ian is one that “[forms] adjectives and nouns” and Adjective is “A word naming an attribute” so Christian is to have an attribute of Christ… or, to make it easier to understand, to be LIKE Christ. How do we know how to be like Christ? Well the simplest way, unless you are actually talking to a manifestation of Christ right now, is to read the Bible and see what it says about him. What was his Character? What did he do? What did he say? Where did he go? AND why? All of that is recorded in the Bible. I have heard many people who claim to be Christian but who seem to not be following the words or deeds of Christ. In other words they are not BEHAVING like Christ would behave. In fact, they are going against the word of God. For example, Christ NEVER said the laws of God were stupid or changeable. In fact he REINFORCED those laws only saying that he came to fulfill the law and the prophets meaning he was here to die for our sins. To pay the penalty that we could not afford. Paul reinforces this point too, in the book of Romans. “ fill in quote here..” So if we are going to be like Christ, or Christian, then we have to try to show our fealty to the law. And BTW that law is the law of GOD not man’s law. When we become Christians we ought to understand we are making Christ our lord and Savior. A lot of Christians are O.K. with the savior part but they seem to miss the Lord part. We have to let Christ be Lord of our lives. A Lord is… Lord: n. A man of noble rank or high office; A nobleman. Someone or something, having power, authority or influence. Authority! He is to tell us all that we can or cannot do in our lives. That is what we give when we swear our allegiance and fealty to him. Which is exactly what you are doing when you call on him to come into your life as savior. Paul gets more to the point when he writes (again in Romans) that we are SLAVES. We are either slaves to sin or to Christ (God). But we are never really our own. The burden that a slave has can be great and the one sin brings is that a honkin BIG pain in the hoo hah. But Jesus “yoke” is light. He says so himself. And following him we will find our freedom. That is what it is to be a Christian.