WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN?

What is a Christian? There seems to be a lot of confusion in the press as they try to make a moral equivalence between Christianity and Islam. After all, religion is religion isn’t it? First, what a Christian is not. A person is not a Christian because they are born in a “Christian” nation. You are not a Christian because you were baptized as an adult or a child. You are not a Christian because you were born to Christian parents. You are not a Christian because your name is on a church roll somewhere.

What is a Christian? A Christian is one who has been called by God out of their sin. They are in a real, daily relationship with Christ. In that experience with Christ, a person’s sin have been forgiven, they have been made a new person. And God gives us the Holy Spirit to seal our salvation and to help us in our living. The Christian is committed to keeping the commandment of Jesus: love God and love your neighbor. Those two commandments covers a large complex of ideas that govern a Christian’s life. It does not matter what denomination that one might belong to, being in a daily relationship with Christ is the basic definition of being a Christian. The commitment to the two commandments causes us to live by certain morals and ethics. And, living by these commandments unites us as the people of God and compels us to gather as the local church where we worship God and serve each other and give a witness to the world.