Who is a Christian? [Part 2]

Earlier today, I concluded that, if you want to find a Christian, you should start your search with people who follow Christ's way of loving God and loving others. Is that a sufficient condition?

That seems unlikely.

By that definition, millions of Muslims would qualify as Christians. Most Christians would not accept that idea, and most Muslims wouldn't either. But any Muslim who follows the precepts of the Quran loves God and treats other people pretty much the way Jesus asked. The essence of Matthew 22:37-38 can be found in the Quran -- in the second Surah, in fact. The extremists who engage in terrorist acts are about as Muslim as the Ku Klux Klan is Christian. But that's a thought for another day.  What I want to address today is the question of just what it is that makes a person Christian.

I would not think that we'd need to examine the idea that a person can be a Christian by virtue of being born Christian. Such an idea is foreign to the concept of repenting and deciding to follow the way of Christ. Yet many people's Christianity appears to be little more than an accident of birth. It's not whom they elect to follow, but what group defines their identity.

Here, I think, we can find the crux of several problems: Identity. People who claim to be Christian are not necessarily describing a religious faith, but rather an identity. It's sort of like when a misguided young man tells you what gang he belongs to. He may or may not subscribe to all of the gang's ethos, but he's part of the gang -- it's his identity.

It sounds disparaging to liken a religious group to a gang, but religious groups have often made violent gangs look like Sunday School.

One of the most dangerous things a Christian can do is to allow his or her identity as a Christian to become a matter of identification with a group rather than identification as a follower of the way of Christ. Such has been the root of a great many conflicts and outright wars -- between Christians and those of other faiths, as well as between different sects of Christian.

Most of us probably don't think we're like that, but how many politicians have made sure to telegraph their purported Christianity to the Christian voters they hope to represent? How many voters have voted their religion instead of their political philosophy?

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" (Matt. 7:21-23, NIV). 

So let's just reject the idea that a person is a Christian just because he's a member of the Christian identity group, whether born into it or joined later.

There's something more than that.