What does the word ‘Christian’ mean?

What does the word Christian mean? What does it imply?

Who are the Christians and what sets them apart from others?

The word Christian means to follow Jesus Christ.

To be a Christian requires more than just intellectual agreement to the fact that Jesus exists. Being a Christ follower is More than just acknowledgement of His existence. To be a Believer and be a Follower of Christ is More than just an intellectual acceptance of a few facts.

Accepting Christ Jesus as personal Savior requires more than just saying it or repeating a sentence or even a prayer.
Just saying that you are a Christian doesn’t mean that you are a True Christian.
Just because you say you are saved doesn’t mean that you have received eternal life from God.

All of us are called by God to be His children, but few will respond to that call in the right way and some will choose not respond at all. On the Day of Judgment God will affirm or deny each of our claims to be Christ followers.

If you are a Christian your life will be changed.

You can not say “I am a Christian” and then turn right around and act out selfish desires with out a thought.

If you return to your life of sin and your confession of faith has no effect on your life, if there has been no change in your life, then you are only doing lip service alone to salvation.

Mistakes will be made. Sin is more than a mistake. Sin is deliberate. Mistakes will be made, relapses will be experienced, but the true acceptance of Christ involves seeking His wisdom and guidance, acknowledging sin and repenting. It involves yielding to Him for the answer to your problems.

Let me give you an idea of what I mean. I am a Christ follower. Sometimes I get frustrated with life events, especially when other believers refuse God’s truth, His word. I am not proud of it but it is there. I do not let them control me or my behavior and I do not act on these feeling. But they are there nonetheless. You would be ashamed of me if you heard the things I do not say. I do not express or act upon these thoughts, but I have them. I get proud and puffed up of my intellectual achievement and knowledge, just as many do but will not acknowledge it. I do not act on the emotion. This is what I consider being under the control of God’s Holy Spirit.

If I am Christian I will remember His teachings when times are tempestuous.

I have the thoughts and emotions but I do not act on them or discard God’s teachings to those thoughts or emotions when things get inconvenient and shaky.

Being truly saved, I am kept under control by God’s Holy Spirit. Jesus said that only through Him and His words would we know the Father.

If you truly love Christ and accept Him in your life, you will also love His teachings. You will study and seek understanding. You will apply them, not because you think it earns you merit points on the way to Eternity or fame, but because you love Christ and you wish to let His teachings guide You and let Him live through you.

Accepting His teaching every day, one learns to see them in their broad applications and what the benefits are.

One test I apply to me is, Do I believe what He plainly said when He obviously said it? Or do I look for a loophole? Do I carry on with what the plain text meaning is or do I look for another gospel? Do, I seek alternate translations, commentaries, books and authors to explain away the truth that Jesus was expressing?

I make mistakes; also I sin deliberately and indirectly.

This knowledge an understanding alone keeps me in my place. I do not say I am morally superior; but I am experiencing growth, maturing and growing in Christ Jesus, therefore I am experiencing change. I am beginning to show my Savior’s teaching by deed instead of word alone.

I have realized I am not alone, that we (Christians) are all in this together. We must help one another, in Spirit and Truth and with love. I did not get where I am at by my self nor with out help, my mentors guided my steps and gave me encouragement and correction. I am where I am first through the grace of God, then with the help of a whole lot of people who loved me in God’s truth.

We Christ followers are all interconnected. We must prepare ourselves the best we can, with instruction from Jesus and live by His golden rules. We must learn to communicate with Him and to remain teachable. We must create the conditions for everyone to be prepared for success, and then let God take over.

Accepting Christ as my personal Savior was only the start of being a Christian.

If I had just walked around without Real change in my life reflected in my attitude toward the Bible and life, I would question my salvation. Now I hungrily read the Gospels and find ways to apply His teachings into my life. James 1:22 tells us to be doers, not just hearing the scriptures but too apply them to our lives. Though the scriptures Jesus tells me what I must do as a person to become like Him. I want to become that person for no other reason than I love Him. I want to be like Him. I want to express my love for Him, and remember what He did for me. I am not earning my way to heaven by doing “things” but by the things I do I am expressing my love for Him.

To be a follower of Christ means I lay my will, life down and follow His plan and purpose. I die and Christ lives. It means not that every religion or philosophy is correct and blanket under the house name Christianity but that I obey Christ Jesus and no other gods that try to exalt themselves above Him.

It means that Christ’s Gospel is my truth and that I live by His inerrant, unadulterated and infallible word without choosing and picking what I will believe. It mean’s I believe God is God and everything He says about His character is true whether I agree or not. My will aligns with His revealed will through His Spirit and His word.

Jesus said I am the way…the life and the truth… Are we in His truth? Are we obeying His truth? If we are we are different from the world and the world will hate us…. We are truly set apart when we obey Christ Jesus and refuse to follow the broad path of the world.

Beloved, we must become the Church of God not the church of the world. God is one God, has one truth, one Spirit and one true Church or congregation. There no other way to follow Christ other than to do as He has commanded even when it contrast the world, causes rejection and separates us from the apostate. We will line up in agreement with His word in mouth and deed and it will set us apart. Have a glorious day in our Lord.

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