What is a Christian?

After thinking about the church, this week I thought we would think through what it is to be a Christian.

I am sure there are lots of different readings I could have chosen when looking at this topic. 

Our 2 gospel readings both speak about commandments:

The Mark reading has someone asking, “What is the most important commandment?”

And in the John reading, Jesus gives a new command.

All are to do with love.

Jesus answered, “The most important one says: ‘People of Israel, you have only one Lord and God. You must love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.’ The second most important commandment says: and ‘Love others as much as you love yourself.’

And the new command: you must love each other, just as I have loved you.

Loving God with all that we are - OK

Love others as much as you love yourself. Not exactly what I was taught as a young Christian. I was taught love God and love others, and I don’t count.

So we have:

Love God

love yourself

Love others

love each other

what might that look like.

on Friday night we read a few verses from 1 John – we love because God first loved us. I asked the children what love looked like. They are clever children:

love looks like kindness

and hugs

saying sorry when you hurt someone

playing games together

I asked them what God’s love looked like:

The earth

People

Family

Air and water and food and animals

I told you they were clever children.

So how do we:

Love God

Love others

Love ourselves – because if we don’t love ourselves we can’t love others

Love each other as Christ loved us.

I am not suggesting any of this is easy. What might it look like in our lives.  

Love in action?

Love God: like other people we love that will mean spending time with God - for some that will be in church, others walking along the beach, or in the bush or a garden, or …
for some it will be singing, or painting or drawing or laughing or dancing or silence.

The ways we show God that we love God will be as individual and unique as each person.

Loving others? We can’t go around hugging everyone we meet.

In Galatians I think we get some clues, we love others by being peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. The fruits of the spirit within us. We love others by looking at the world from their point of view. In another place Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan in response to a question about who to love. We love when we do what is needed for someone to have life, fullness of life.

Loving ourselves? Sometimes I wonder the commandment should be love yourself the way you love others, because we will often treat other people better than we treat ourselves. We love ourselves when we give ourselves the time we need - to walk and sing and swim and play. We give ourselves permission to make mistakes. We forgive ourselves. We are kind to ourselves.

And then the new command that Jesus gave to the disciples shortly before his death: love one another as I have loved you. there is nothing sentimental about any of this. Jesus showed love in many ways – healing, forgiving, restoring to community, and dying. In what ways are we a community where people find that which is life giving and healing and hopeful?

All this reminded me of a song:

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord

And we pray that our unity will one day be restored

And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love

Yeah they'll know we are Christians by our love.

Do people see that love in us and our interactions,
do people see Jesus in us?
in our words?
In our actions?

so often when I hear people talk about what it means to be Christian, the conversation is not about love. The conversation is about:

a set of doctrines,
or a way of understanding the Bible,
or a prayer that you must pray

or what you can or cannot do or eat or say

or the length of your hair or your hem

In Galatians we heard: All that matters is your faith that makes you love others. At that time the debate was over the need for Christian men to be circumcised.

All that matters is your faith that makes you love others.

And from John: If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples.

What is a Christian? my answer is someone who loves God, who tries to live that out in loving other people, loving themselves, caring for the creation.

A Christian is someone who loves Jesus and tries to live that out in following the call to be a disciple.

A Christian is someone in whom the Holy Spirit is taking root, growing and will hopefully show the fruits of kindness and peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The way we love God, the way we follow the path of discipleship and the way the spirit acts in our life, will be different in each one of us, just as each one of us is unique.