{"id":39252,"date":"2015-07-09T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T15:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=39252"},"modified":"2017-10-24T14:21:05","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T21:21:05","slug":"stop-calling-yourself-a-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/stop-calling-yourself-a-christian\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Calling Yourself a Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"
I think all of us “Christians” should stop referring to ourselves as “Christians.”<\/p>\n
Nor should we ask other people if they are a “Christian.”<\/p>\n
I have two lines of reasoning for why we should stop saying we’re Christians.<\/p>\n
When the term “Christian” was first invented, it was coined by an outside group of “pagans” who observed the way Jesus-followers behaved and recognized the similarity between what they were doing and what Jesus did. And so they called these Jesus followers “Christians.”<\/p>\n
In other words, the first “Christians” did not take this title for themselves; it was given to them. <\/strong><\/p>\n The term means “little Christ,” and while some scholars think that it was maybe intended to be a derogatory term (sort of like Yankee Doodle), I do not think so. I think the people of Antioch noticed how “Christ-like” the people were who claimed to follow Him, and so they started to referring to this Christ-like followers of Jesus as “Christians.” It was a way to identify them and talk about them.<\/p>\n The Christians of Antioch were not known for their hate, venom, judgmentalism, or religious pride, or even for their good theology, pious life, and vast Bible knowledge. Instead, They were knowing for looking and acting and behaving like Jesus Christ, and as a result, they were “called Christians” by those who were not Christians.<\/strong><\/p>\n If the watching world started giving titles and nicknames to those who proclaim to follow Jesus today, what sort of titles do you think they would give us? <\/strong><\/p>\n I am not sure I want to know … but I doubt it would be “Christian.”<\/p>\n But this leads me to the second line of reasoning for why we should stop calling ourselves “Christians.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you truly are a “Christian” you don’t have to tell people.<\/strong> They will know it. How? By your love.<\/p>\n Those who truly act like a “Christian” do not have to tell people they are a “Christian” because people already know it.<\/strong> They know it by your love.<\/p>\n I walked by two guys in the store the other day who were both wearing Christian t-shirts. One was saying to the other, “Yeah, they all hate me at work, but that’s okay, because I’m standing up for Christ.”<\/p>\n Now, I cannot say for sure, but I imagine that since I heard this about five days after the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage, that this man’s idea of “standing up for Christ” consisted of telling his coworkers that LGBT people were headed for hell, were destroying our country, and were signs of the collapse of modern society and traditional marriage.<\/p>\n Some religious people think that “standing up for Christ” in today’s culture means telling others that God hates gays. Just check out some of the comments on my post from two days ago.<\/a><\/p>\n Look, I don’t know where you stand on the gay marriage issue. I don’t care.<\/em> What I do know, however, is that wherever you stand on gay marriage, the proper response to gay people is love.<\/strong> <\/p>\n The same goes for other groups of people some Christians love to hate. Like Muslims. Whatever you may think about the Muslim religion, the proper way to treat a Muslim is with love.<\/p>\n Love is the proper (and only) response to ALL people, no matter what they believe or do, if we are followers of Jesus.<\/p>\n If you want to represent Jesus to people, don’t do it by hating or condemning them.<\/strong> (And don’t use the line about how you “Love the sinner, but hate the sin.”<\/a>)<\/p>\n Anyway, back to the conversation I heard in the store, I wanted to tell this guy who was proud of his “stand for Christ” that just because people hate you for what you say doesn’t mean that you are standing for Christ.<\/p>\n In fact, in the Gospels, the only people who really hated Jesus were the religious people. Those who were condemned and judged by the religious people loved Jesus and hung out with Him and were accepted by Him.<\/p>\n2. They will know you are Christians by your love (John 13:35)<\/h2>\n