Do we need to answer the question: What does it look like to be a Christian?! If so, why? I believe that following God or Christ is an unpredictable story...Therefore, I don't see the point in trying to reconcile what it looks like to follow Christ or be a Christian. It will look like whatever God deems necessary, which can be ugly, scary, wild or even immoral by some standards. Do we need to have an answer to the question What does it look like to follow Christ? If so...why?
I think there are at least three things to keep in mind here: first, there is a real since in which following Jesus looks different for different people because people come to him from such diverse backgrounds. So when Jesus says ‘follow me’ to the taxcollector, his journey and the struggles that will be at war against him in his journey will look and feel different than someone else.
Second, there is also an aspect in which following Jesus will look/feel the same for everyone. Jesus confronts all of us – to pick up our cross and follow him, to deny ourselves, to be first we must be last, if we want life we must give up our life – and says following him means that he and his desires are more important (and better for us!) than our own.
Third, I would say it is important to know what it ‘looks like’ to be a Christian especially for someone who is not a Christian but might be considering becoming a Christian. While there is some mystery at play, Jesus encourages interested seekers, nevertheless, to ‘kick the tires’ and ‘look under the hood’ of Christianity. In this way, knowing what it will look like to be a Christian is important as someone ‘counts the cost’ of following Christ.
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
The diversity with which Christians can exhibit picking up their crosses, denying themselves, and being last while letting others be first seems immense, right? I agree that it's a very good idea to present all those pursuits to any audience, but the greater extent to which the speaker actually describes the subjective mode of being Christian would in my mind limit the beauty of such a message unless it is dropped on a very intimate friend. Can Christians smoke crack, murder, and do worse? I think so, but I hope that they don't. So I think that Christians still sin and that's important.
ReplyDeleteIt's important because the message of Christianity is that Christians and all others are sinners in need of a savior for said sins. Accepting Christ as a savior doesn't make the savior less necessary, right? I guess that I don't see the difference in savior necessity among Christians and a non-Christians. They both still sin. They both need forgiveness. Therefore, I think that saying a Christian MUST look different than a non Christian is just plain untrue (I would like to understand if I'm incorrect).
I love the idea of a self checkup. I love the idea of improving character at a cost of sacrificing selfishness interests. I love it all. Following Christ would be a cost for anyone. However, based on my current understanding, I think that I should really discourage the notion that Christians look a certain way.
Thanks for your thoughts, Brian. You make a great point that both Christians and non-Christians need Jesus. By this common need, we are all indeed the same; Billy Graham's need for Jesus is as great as...(fill in any notorious sinner here).
ReplyDeleteHowever, when someone becomes a Christian and experiences the grace, love, and forgiveness that Jesus offers they also get something else: Jesus gives them real power to change. Sin enslaves us and would eventually kill us, but in becoming a Christian we get a new master who loves and renews us. One of the truths of Easter that we celebrated yesterday is that with Jesus' resurrection, those who are united in him, also are raised to 'newness of life' (Romans 6:4). This means that Jesus' power in the believer enables victory over sin and hence the expectation in the New Testament is that believer's live does look different over time. This is process is MESSY and is fleshed out over a lifetime of following Jesus in the context of community.
Read Romans 6:15-16 and let me know what you think it means...
It seems to me that loving God and loving my neighbor is the ideal, and that God empowers me to do that as best I can, stumbling along the way to be sure, but where I fall short God's mercy and forgiveness are ready to be claimed so that I can pick myself up and keep on keeping on. My own journey will look different from anyone else's, but I would hope that most everbody I encounter will see something "different" and attractive in me that comes from who I am as a Christian.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading those verses, here's what I'm thinking.
ReplyDeletePharisees had the understanding that they obeyed the laws and were thus righteous. However, Jesus was clearly not hip to such thinking. Why not? The Pharisees lacked humility and built their identity around the idea that they were righteous. We need to avoid that ego building opportunity, correct? If so, then I think it's dangerous to build up an idea that Christians have a "look" to which they must compare themselves to recognize their true identity as a Christian. This look could easily be created from any description to answer the question, "What does it look like to follow Jesus?" So I'm not yet convinced that answering this question is a necessary path to head down the pursuit of Christ.
Something can be different about people, but I think it has little to do with what they look like. My thought is that because it's not necessary that people look righteous to be Christians, God's presence may just be the reason that they do. I could say further that because it's impossible for any person to look righteous, God's presence may just be the reason that they do. I do not believe that I'm seeing anything different when I see a Christian versus a nonChristian. Thus I'm lead to believe that it's not them that I'm seeing but the face of Christ when I see righteousness.
So I guess that I take real issue with the idea that we can somehow conjure up righteousness, the presence of God, or ownership of the title Christian by looking a certain way. Being freed from sin, we still sin. Being slaves to righteousness, we find ways to serve another master, no? How does God handle our stupidity? Seriously. It's ridiculous. It blows my mind that I can know something is bad for me, yet I pursue it even though a large part of me does not want to do so. What's wrong with me?
In one sense, nothing is wrong with me. I'm perfectly imperfect just as I should be. In another sense, I have to take ownership for the fact that I can choose to align my actions and thoughts with the presence of God living in me. The Pharisees had a good explanation for what it looked like to align my actions and thoughts with the presence of God living in me, right? And they were wrong. So we should steer very clear of thinking the way the Pharisees were thinking.
I'm struggling to see how such thinking is avoidable when we define what it looks like to be a Christian.
I would like to add that I'm trying to avoid generalizing from a particular. The fact that the Pharisees did not correctly describe the Christian look does not mean that no one else can describe it. So I think that my argument rests on the idea that no one else needs to describe the Christian look mainly because there is no such look but only God's presence overshadowing the imperfections of the individual.
ReplyDelete"I think it's dangerous to build up an idea that Christians have a 'look' to which they must compare themselves to recognize their true identity as a Christian."
ReplyDeleteTrue, but only to an extent. An aspect of following Jesus is no longer living for ourselves but for the benefit of others. The Pharisees lived for themselves and in a fashion that was self-preserving. They did have a 'look' but it was not in relation to 'the other'. In contrast, Jesus said things like 'by this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another'. Here Jesus clearly expects his follows to have a certain way of life that is observable by others; a life characterized by sacrificial love. Indeed, part of the mystery of being a Christian is the the Spirit actually forms us into the image of Jesus himself (Rom. 8:29). This is not to 'conjure up righteousness, the presence of God, or ownership of the title Christian by looking a certain way' BUT is the fleshing-out of the actual righteousness of Jesu given to us as a gift - not on the basis of any goodness of our own.
As someone who was not a believer for 30 years I do feel it is important too show how beautiful Gods children really are once they have excepted Christ into their life. I ran across A LOT of "Christians" who actually turned me off of wanting to learn more about Christianity due to the fact that most were hypocrites. I would hear them speak very poorly of others and yet make very poor decisions themselves. I felt at the time Christianity was full of feeling guilty all day but going out later that night and still not having any power or drive to stop sinning whether it be getting fall over drunk, having one night stands or judging others just so you could feel a little better about yourself (that one really bugged me). That's what I saw for many years.
ReplyDeleteGod revealed himself to me a year ago and ever since then I am proud to be called a Christian and to have a beautiful relationship with God. I know we are all imperfect people but we must try to surrender ourselves to Christ and show others what it looks like to walk with Jesus (that does not include judging others harshly and stumbling out of a bar 5 hours later). If you are to call yourself Christian I feel you must show how God works in your life and if for some reason you struggle with sin on an hourly basis then step back to reconnect and reestablish your relationship with God before you run out and try to paint what it looks like to be Christian with your own actions as your canvas.
I think we need to throw out focusing on what we look like and deal with our hearts first. When we are focusing on what we look like, it's very easy to get sucked into legalism, which is precisely what Christ came to banish. "Well, as long as I appear on the outside like this, all is well." At this point, we're Pharisees. I think Jesus heals us from the inside out. When we "seek first His kingdom, and all these things will be added to you as well" (Matt 6) our lives will supernaturally be morphed by Christ into what HE wants our lives to look like. Yes, there will be some commonalities (service, sacrifice, love, mission, etc), however, those attributes will be lived out in very different ways in each person's life. If you're acting in a way that isn't natural to you, that's hypocrisy. Yes, God calls us to love his law and seek purity, righteousness, mercy, love for our enemies, etc, but He is the one to grant those things. We cannot pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and make it happen alone. So, in short, I don't think that what it looks like to follow Christ is necessarily important right out of the shoot. Seek God and ask for His wisdom and His guidance and allow him to transform your life... then you'll look however God decides you should look.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Michelle. Look at some of the church notables, for instance, Martin Luther. Not real attractive on the outside, and he was pretty mean to his wife. Karl Rahner even talks about "anonymous" Christians. I've known a lot of them over the years. By their fruits...
ReplyDelete