What kind of Christian are you?

In the Bible, it was recorded in the book of the ‘Acts of the Apostles’ that the disciples of Jesus Christ were first called Christians in a place called Antioch. Looking back in time, wherever people have been referred to as Christians, emphasis is usually made to their manner of life. In contemporary times, there seems to be a deviation in that when a person claims to be a Christian, it is often more of what they profess and not necessarily whether or not their way of life is in conformity with the tenets of the faith. The reason for this is because, a vast number of people do not know exactly what Christianity entails. To some, it means attending church services, getting baptised and engaging in other activities, all of which are external.

It is possible for an individual to carry out goodly exercises in the name of God, such as would endear him towards men as a child of God. Inasmuch as it is expected for anyone who is godly to do good works, the motive for doing it is no less important. This reality is revealed in the thirteenth chapter of the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians [in the Bible] and connote that even when a person does good works on the outside, he or she may not be in good standing with God. That is, being a Christian involves our motives and actions, both of them complementing each other every single time.

To be a Christian is more than just a simple decision to do the right thing or to live responsibly. It does go beyond religion in that there is no single correct interpretation of any part of the scriptures and also, God deals with us on a general as well as on a personal level. Christianity in the real sense is not about right or wrong, it’s not about good or bad, neither is it about what you believe per se. The reason is that right, wrong, good and bad are all relative terms. What one person calls good may be seen as bad by some other individual. It all comes down to the standard you’re working with.

To live as a Christian, it is expected of you to deal with the issues of life working with the Word of God as your standard. This means that whatever is said in the Holy Bible to be good, you affirm to be good and whatever is taken as bad, you hold the same position on that particular issue irrespective of what you feel and you don’t just do this as a onetime thing but consistently to the point that it becomes to you, a way of life. When this happens, the ‘Word of God’ becomes the measure of all things as against ‘man’. The truth of man may not necessarily be in harmony with the Word of God which is Truth. The truth of man is simply generalisation. The problem about that is that there will always be exceptions which inadvertently infer that every truth of man is relative to some extent. On the other hand, the Word of God as Truth is not relative but absolute; a reality which encapsulates the superiority of the Word of God over every ideology of man.

When your conduct is patterned after the Word of God, that is when you consistently obey the commandments of God which is clearly delineated in the Bible, you become a Christian by lifestyle and can be referred to as a ‘Practical Christian’. If you claim to be a Christian and your lifestyle is in contrast with biblical injunctions, you are merely a ‘Nominal Christian’. Christianity simply put is ‘accepting the Word of God as Truth and living by it’.

A ‘Practical Christian’ is actually a bona fide Christian and not a person who calls himself one but acts differently. For instance, if you say you are a vegetarian, your choice of food will either validate that or refute such declaration. So, it not so much what you call yourself but rather what people will call you when you are thoroughly examined as was the case in Antioch.

A good way to understand who a Christian really is can be derived from the definition of business. It is said that a business is an activity but not all activities can be said to be a business. This therefore brought about the need to identify the features of business in order to distinguish it from other activities. One cardinal feature of business is that the activity must be consistent, which means that a one-off activity will not constitute business. Judging by that definition, a Christian can be said to be ‘any individual who is consistently obedient to Christ in all things’. Obedience to God must not be partial but in every area of life.

The big question to ask is; what kind of Christian am I? Am I a nominal Christian, sporting myself in various fruitless religious exercises or a practical Christian who lives a life that is pleasing to God? Being sincere about your answer can actually go a long way in correcting the errors in your life and help you get on the right track. If you’re not a Christian, it is possible for you to give your life to God through Jesus Christ and become a child of God. What kind of Christian you choose to be is entirely up to you. I urge you to take God seriously and become a practical Christian no matter how much you have to give up to make that happen because in the end, one thing is certain, you will be glad you did.

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