Christians and "Christians"

The other day, at college I had a really insightful conversation with some of my classmates. I've found the themes repeated lately so I think it's time for me to write about it.

It was during this conversation that one of the girls said something I thought was just inspired.(if you've been reading the comments on my post yes this is Brooke's famous quote) She was talking about a person she knew who claimed to be a Christian but showed no evidence of it in their life. A hypocrite. What I would refer to as a "Christian". She then summed up her feeling about this person in a rather eloquent way. "I was like, I'm more of a Christian then you, except for the not believing in God bit!"

It's a sad fact that every one of us will come into contact with a massive number of this type of person in our lifetimes. It's unavoidable. But I want to make this clear, with no apologies. These people show with their actions that by definition they not only fail to be in relationship with God, but become the worst of His enemies.

It's precisely because of the label they give themselves. Christian. To be honest I don't like calling myself a Christian. You see it has a fundamental flaw. It's a word without a definition. It literally started as a nickname. It doesn't mean anymore then the words, jock or nerd, do to us now. It has connotations, but if you ask people for a definition they'll fail to give one, and if they do it'll almost certainly be a different to the definition anyone else will give you. This is because it's not a word with a definition, it's meaning comes from it's vibe. It's the vibe of the thing.

So, you see, the word Christian means a lot of things to a lot of people. I don't want to be to tightly associated with the word, because it in turn is tightly associated with a lot of things I'm definitely not, and a lot of beliefs I definitely don't have.

So you see, when I person identifies themselves as Christian, it doesn't mean anything in particular. Just that they associate with people, organizations, rituals and/or beliefs that in turn are associated with the word Christian.

The major faction of "Christians" in the West. The hypocritical kind, stem from one major fault line. It's in understanding one half of the salvation story. I need to reiterate concepts like sin and "hell" in a latter post, but the key is understanding that God offers release from sin and thus, an immunity to "hell".

The "Christians" understand this, they see freedom. Complete freedom. They look at it this way. I am freed from the consequences of my actions, thus I can do whatever I want. I don't even need to understand them.

This is utter ... ... just fill in the blank with every single negative phrase and expletive you can think of and it's probably a good descriptive. God does offer freedom from what we are captive to now. But He also guarantees captivity to a new master. Himself.

And so the "Christians" stop at freedom. They never move forward. They never challenge their beliefs or their behavior any further. They question nothing. Why should they? They have a self-replenishing get-out-of-jail free card, and almost always they go to a church were they are comforted and encouraged not to go any further.

But in the end these people just remain stuck half way through a process. I process of death and rebirth. They have died to a captivity they knew, but they havn't come back to life. They havn't exected the new burden of them. They havn't subjected themselves to the physics of their new world.

Jesus never said life with him would be easy. There are parts of the Gospels were he tries to talk people OUT of following him. He tells them how hard it's going to be. He says they must give up everything. He calls himself a hard man, who gathers were he did not sow, and reaps were he did lay seed. He did not ganentee what we call freedom.

People need to read the contract carefully. Becoming a Christian means selling your soul. It means becoming someone else's possession. You work for Him now. You have nothing.

There is a truth few in the West seem to understand about Christianity. The one fate that is worse then not being a Christian. Is the one in store for those that call themselves a Christian but do not bend their backs and serve their God.