Series: On Being A Christian
#1: Defining a Christian
Defining what and who is a Christian is an easy as nailing Jello to a wall. What makes a Christian? What are the qualities and characteristics of a follower of Jesus? If you were to ask people shopping at Wal-Mart if they were Christians, most would probably affirm that they were. That is not surprising in that we live in a country with Christian heritage and foundational societal guiding principles of Judeo-Christian worldview. Generally in America today if you are not Moslem, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist or atheist then you are a Christian. Christian is the religious default setting. But what makes a person a Christian. When you look at people you see all kinds of Christians: Dr J, George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, John McCain, Jesse Jackson, James Dobson, Phyllis Schafley and Jane Fonda. Ironically both Adolf Hitler and Mother Teresa were Christians. A couple weeks ago, Phil told me the story of a young man whom he knows who came to America from Russia to attend Eastern Seminary in Philadelphia. As a class project he began a Bible study and it grew so big that he started a church. One night an intruder broke into his home to rob him. As the intruder held him and his family at gunpoint, the pastor began talking to him about Jesus and becoming a follower of Jesus. To that the armed intruder intoned, “But I am a Christian!” Go figure! What makes a Christian?
Then the deeper question: can you and I know that we are Christians? Know as a matter of spiritual certainty and not as pride or arrogance?
This question has been asked since Jesus came into the world. In his 1st letter the Apostle John sets about answering this very question. John was the youngest of the 12 disciples of Jesus, and in fact the only one to die a natural death. It was about 95 AD that John wrote this letter to the early followers of Jesus. Since Jesus’ death and resurrection, Christianity exploded on the world scene. Coming with it were also many different kinds of counterfeit and aberrant variations of Christianity as seen in the likes of the false gospels of Judas and Thomas and other pseudopigrapha, or false writings. Into this confusion John who had first-hand knowledge of Jesus’ teachings set out to “set the record straight” and to quell the confusion as to what it means to be a Christian.
In this letter John gives 3 evidences of the Christian faith--obedience, love, and belief. Over the next several weeks we will be looking at each of these in more detail. We notice in John’s 1st letter that he outlines these 3 evidences 3 specific times. He is saying that there are 3 essential evidences of the Christian life and that when all 3 are present we have a truly stable and secure life. Please note that John is NOT saying that some have obedience, others have love and still others have belief. Or perhaps a really super Christian has 2 of the 3 evidences. Like a 3-legged stool each and every one of those legs count. It is ironic that I often here something like this: I am a true Christian because God is love and we are to love everybody, or I am a true Christian because I have the correct beliefs, or I am a true Christian because I obey every command of Jesus.
In the opening 4 verses of this letter John makes 2 things very clear: his authority and his reason for writing. He lays out his personal knowledge that goes right back to Jesus Himself. In fact it goes right back to “the beginning.” Obviously since John knew Jesus personally while they walked on this earthly sod, the beginning was the very source Himself, ie Jesus. John was there. He was no Johnny-come-lately. John emphasized the relationship he had with Jesus. John was not so much interested in religion as a set of ideas, or a philosophy of life, or a collection of rituals, but of his relationship with Jesus. So, from the beginning Christianity has been about a relationship with Jesus and about that John knows first-hand.
Now, there is a second understanding of “beginning” as well. Did this gospel only come to the fore with the coming of Jesus? Did Jesus and the disciples foist this gospel onto the world’s scene? In a nutshell, the answer is no. The connection and link to the patriarchs of the Old Testament and to the history of the Hebrew people is unmistakable. What John has to share with us about the nature and character of Christian faith is “from the beginning.” It is timeless.
Note also that Christianity is not about a lot of abstract ideas. To John it is a life—a life with Christ. Notice the verbs in these verses: seen, handled, seen, seen, heard. This the basis for John’s authoritative writing—“I was there.” When a little boy was asked who Jesus was, he replied, “He is God with skin on.”
John says in verse 2 that “the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life.” He is saying that by the very nature of the gospel is such that we have to give testimony to it. If the gospel is a set of ideas, or simply a philosophy, or a set of rules or ethical demands then whether we share that with others comes down to personal choice. But Christianity at its core is a relationship—with Jesus. The Bible says the love of Christ constrains us, propels us, motivates us, encourages us, and moves us.
Christianity is not something we put on or add on. It is not an appendage that we can simply remove or take off and put it away in the closet. It is not something extra or additional or optional equipment. It is who we are. It is at the heart of our very being. It is every much a part of us as our brain, or our heart, or our lungs, or our thyroid. You can’t live without these physical organs and you can’t live without Jesus.
Some years ago Chuck Colson was invited to speak at his alma mater, Brown University. The president of the university chided him about not talking about this Jesus-stuff. Chuck Colson replied that he could not not talk about Jesus because Jesus was at the core of his own life and being.
Over 50 years ago the Indian Parliament adopted the guarantee of religious freedom in India. It was also debating a provision that prohibited proselytizing which is the attempt to make converts. Ironically a high-cast Brahmin and a Hindu spoke before the Parliament session and said that if making converts became illegal they would involve themselves in an irreconcilable contradiction. He said, “We have guaranteed religious freedom, and if we now prohibit the making of converts from one religion to another, we will be limiting Christians from practicing their religion. Their god, Jesus, told them to go and make disciples. They have to try to draw others into their faith, or they are not being Christian.”
The very nature of the gospel makes it an integral part of our identity, our character and our personality. But what is it about the gospel that makes our testimony to it so vital a part? It is the togetherness of the gospel, the relationship between God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the relationship we have together as followers of Jesus. In verse. 4 John tells us that the nature of real Christianity is for one purpose: fellowship. He goes on in verse. 4 to say that he is eager for us to have the same joy that he has discovered in fellowship and relationship with Jesus. Where is joy to be found in this tragic, sorrow-laden world? It is in a family where love reigns, where we can be ourselves and give ourselves to one another.
Where does salvation from sin come into all of this, you may ask? Let me ask you this: what is the short-term and long-term result of sin? It is separation and alienation. Sin destroys fellowship. The fellowship we have with God and the fellowship we have with one another. If you lie about me, I am not going to trust you and where there is no trust there is no fellowship. If I steal from you, you are not going to trust me, and where there is no trust, there is no fellowship.
So what has Christ come to do? Did He come only to make us “fire-proof” i.e. out of hell and into heaven? That is only one part of God’s salvation. Jesus came to cleanse us from our sin and make us able to once again enjoy that fellowship with Him and with one another.
This is John’s goal in writing. He does not set out to make converts, not to be a rabble-rouser, nor to stick it in the eye of the Roman and/or Jewish leaders. Rather he wants to draw more people into fellowship and relationship that he has found in Jesus. You and I were made for this relationship and fellowship and to this we have been called.