How can you tell if a person is a Christian? This was the question I asked this morning in church. It was my turn today to preach the sermon, and our teaching team at Calvary has been doing a series on the book of 1 John. Now anything that John writes about has to do with what is real; as an eyewitness to the life of Jesus Christ he was concerned about setting the record straight on who Jesus was and what a life of following Him looked like. So the passage I got to speak on was 1 John 2:7-17, which is about an old yet new command (to love one another), walking in the light versus walking in darkness, growing in the faith and not loving the world.
Jesus personified love. His life demonstrates that God is not "pie in the sky" but rather He is involved in the real world. When Jesus renewed the command to love others He qualified it by adding, "Love, as I have loved you." Jesus didn't love people like people love people. Human love can be so self serving and fleeting, but Jesus' love was unconditional and sacrificial. How many of us can say we love enough to die for someone else? As a parent I would gladly do that for my daughter. But would I take a bullet for pedophiles, rapists, war criminals and serial sex-killers? Jesus did, but it wasn't a bullet but rather a nail (make that three) that He took for the whole world. And He did it so that the world would be restored back to where it was in the beginning, before sin (mine and yours) messed it up.
So how does Jesus work to renew the world today? He does it in the lives of those who follow Him. And how can we tell who is a follower of Jesus? We see it when Christians love each other. This love isn't just lip service, but rather it shows its true colors by action. If we say we love God but hate (detest, abhor, withhold love, show contempt or indifference) those who follow Jesus then you are not a Christian. It's not an easy thing to say, especially since as I get older I see less black & white and more gray (or maybe I'm seeing things more in color, which is distinctive but varied). But John the eyewitness to Jesus saw the real McCoy of love, and compared His love to the pale shadow of love we live by.
As we grow in our faith our love and character will mature, along with our understanding of God's mission to press the reset button of life. But we have to be careful about the things of the world that compete for our love. It's so easy to get caught up abusing sex, food, chasing after things, etc. and become proud because we forget that God has provided everything that ultimately will fade away. It's also hard to love others who we frankly can't stand or find their faith suspect. Can I actually love a man like Terry Jones, a pistol-packing preacher who wanted to burn the Koran just to make a statement? Can I love those who profess faith in Christ (I'm referring to the Westboro Baptist crowd here) but say that God hates homosexuals (which He doesn't), and that God is punishing us by allowing soldiers to die in combat (which He's not)? What about Christians who live a homosexual lifestyle? Can I accept the idea that someone can actually be saved and yet deny God's plan for one man to be in union with one woman? These are hard questions for me, and they are for you too. And yet while God may not be calling us to condone, He is calling us to love.
We mature in the faith when we love each other, and not the world. When we love, we grow up and we reach out, because the love we as Christian have will tell the world that Jesus loves with an unconditional love. Will we then withhold our love for the things of the world, and love our brothers & sisters? Let me leave you with a final thought from Brennan Manning's The Ragamuffin Gospel. He writes, "Though Christ no longer visibly moves among us, we minister to Him in the ragamuffins within our reach. In the upper room, the man like us in all things but ungratefulness spelled out the game plan of gratitude: “Love one another as I have loved you.” To Peter on the sea of Tiberias He said, “If you love me, Simon, son of John, tend my sheep.” Quite simply, our deep gratitude to Jesus Christ is manifested neither in being chaste, honest, sober and respectable, nor in church-going, Bible-toting, and Psalm-singing, but in our deep and delicate respect for one another.”
That is how you can tell if someone is a Christian.
1 comments:
Wee also got asked this question in church last week, from from the perspective of Acts 8:9-25. Did Simon truly believe? Was he even a Christian? The question discussed in small group communities was "What difference is there, if any, between repentance and admittance; between confessing sin and feeling bad over your sin; between worldly sorrow and Godly sorrow?" Very interesting discussion.
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