What it means to be a Christian
When we believe that Jesus, who was born of the virgin Mary and partook of flesh and blood as we, was the Son of God, God's Anointed One, then we are born of God, we overcome all evil in this world, and we are Christians (1 John 5:1,5).
The whole essence of being a Christian is to love - to love with a pure love, the love of God (1 John 3:14; 4:7). Christianity consists of loving Christ, keeping His commandments, loving one another and loving everyone. To love a person does not only mean to be pleasant to him, but to tell him just what he needs to hear, even if it hurts. It means to do him the thing which will be to his greatest profit for eternity, even though it may go hard against his own will. He who is absorbed with his neighbour's eternal benefit is truly a Christian.
We must be born again if we are to be Christians. No-one can be a Christian by his own power, strength of character, will-power, knowledge, sense of righteousness etc., (John 3:6,7). Everything of ourselves is corrupted by sin. God demands that we get a NEW heart (Ezekiel 18:31). This is not an unreasonable demand, since God Himself offers to GIVE us a new heart freely (Ezekiel 36:26,27). All we have to do now is to go to God simply in faith and ask Him for such a heart and by faith recieve it as a gift.
To be a Christian is also to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:19,20), to have given up our enemity towards Him and to surrender and submit to Him entirely.
To be a Christian means to repent and to be converted (Acts 17:30), to be the exact opposite of what we were (as the children of Adam). It is to be righteous when others are unrighteous; to be patient when others are impatient; to be diligent when others are lazy; to be exact when others are inexact; to speak the truth when others flatter, tell lies and are hypocritical; to be meek and longsuffering when others are quick-tempered (1 Peter 1:15).
To be a Christian is to be saved. A work of salvation has begun in his inner being and it is constantly developing. It is right to say that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8). But our salvation is not yet complete. We shall be saved finally if we endure to the end (Matthews 24:13). Little by little, a Christian is saved from more and more of all the sin which so firmly clings to him (1 Peter 2:2-NASB).
"The disciples were called Christians" (Acts 11:26). To be a Christian means therefore to follow in the footsteps of Christ and to walk as He walked (1 John 2:6).
To be a Christian is not to be religious but to actually do the will of God in one's life (Matthews 7:23). It is to subject ourselves absolutely and totally to Christ as Lord of our lives. This means that our own will must be denied so that the will of the Head (Christ) alone is done.
Since to be a Christian is to be a disciple (Acts 11:26), it follows that only one who has fulfilled the three conditions of discipleship listed in Luke 14:26,27,33 can truly be called a Christian. There we have the entrance test for being a Christian. Our relationship to parents, marriage partners, children, possessions and to our own self-life must be according to the teaching of Christ there. Then we are Christians.
To be a Christian is to have victory. It is a great misunderstanding to think that all it means to be a Christian is to be a forgiven sinner and to continue in a life defeated by sin (1 John 2:1,13). We cannot get victory all at once and so it is written that if we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1,2). But we have to press on until we break through to a victorious life and become overcomers.
To be a Christian is to be happy BOTH in prosperity and in adversity. It is to be rich in happiness. Anyone can be happy in the day of prosperity; and so this is not even worth mentioning. But to be happy in the day of adversity is something supernatural and this cannot be achieved without being a Christian.
A Christian is one who has a good conscience; all his affairs are in order and therefore he is one who cannot be shaken. He who fights against such a Christian actually fights against the Lord.
To be a Christian is to return evil with good. Everyone is friendly towards those who are good to them and evil towards those who are evil towards them. But to be a Christian is to be ABSOLUTELY GOOD -- to have such an overflow of goodness in our heart that we have both the desire and the ability to pour forth goodness from our heart's good store at all times and in all situations. Then we rejoice in returning all evil with good. Thus we ourselves are happy too.
To be a Christian is to serve and give ourselves for the Salvation of humanity. The children of Adam only think about themselves, their own advantage and their own pleasure and gain. Self-love rules their lives. To be a Christian, however, is to be absolutely unselfish. It is to think about the needs of others, and what would be good and profitable for them; and then according to ability to help them in that. Christianity is to save and to give all that we have - of spiritual and temporal goods. Both wordly and religious people love to be served. But a true Christian loves to serve, like his Master. Love constrains a Christian to use as little as possible on himself so that he can have the most possible for others. To be a Christian is to live for others.
To be a Christian is to be thankful and satisfied at all times. Almost everyone, everywhere complains and murmurs about something or the other. They are also occupied with accusing someone or the other all the time. This is true in houses, in the streets, in the market place, in buses and trains. Everywhere we hear a flood of complaining and accusation. The only ones people do not accuse are their own selves. A Christian presents a rare and beautiful contrast to all this misery. He is always happy, thankful and satisfied - and has not a single thing or person to complain about, or to accuse, or to be dissatisfied with (Phil. 4:4; Ephesians 5:19,20). A Christian has such a wealth of goodness deep down in his heart that all external matters are so unspeakably small in comparison, that he finds nothing in the world to be upset about. At the same time, having received such a taste for the good, the true Christian is perpetually dissatisfied only with himself, for he hungers after more and more goodness.
To be a Christian is to be composed and calm at all times. When an emergency arises, people get into unrest. This is because their conscience is not clear, they love money and they are afraid to die. The Christian, on the other hand, has nothing and no-one to fear and nothing which he is afraid to lose. He is always of a calm spirit (Proverbs 17:27), because he knows that God guides everything for the very best.
A Christian is one who is patient and who can endure until he reaches the goal. For a true Christian there is just no such thing as giving up. He is strengthened with all might of the Spirit to all patience and endurance (Colossians 1:11). He brings forth fruit with patience (Luke 8:15).
A Christian is one who is always of good courage, because God Who has all power in heaven and earth, is with him. "God does not give us the spirit of discouragement" (2 Timothy 1-7-Norwegian translation). Even if external things pile up on his head, a Christian is always of good courage, because he is loved, kept, led and guided by God.
A Christian is one who does not seek the honour of any man but only the approval of God (Galatians 1:10; John 5:44). Those who seek to please wordly or religious people will have to suit their tastes and therefore will have to be more or less ungodly. A true Christian however is invariably dishonoured by wordly and religious men because he lives completely for God and seeks to please God alone. When he finally leaves this world, he goes to meet God with a good conscience to recieve eternal glory and honour from Him.
To be a Christian is to be full of the Holy Spirit and power so that rivers of life flow out from his innermost being (John 7:37-39). Since he has an unbroken connection with the inexhaustible fountain of the Holy Spirit, he is never dry or in a bad mood. A Christian has always something spiritual to give to others, even without any preparation, for this same reason. As Jesus was God's Anointed, so His followers are anointed too.
To be a Christian is to be totally uninfluenced by the spirit of the times. In every generation, there are certain sins and certain effects of those sins which are especially prominent and which characterize the masses. There is a spirit in this and it is called 'the spirit of the times'. Fashions (in dresses and other matters) are also part of this spirit. It is this spirit which is particularly difficult to withstand. All those who do not personally possess a Divine power in their lives are always indulging in these fashions and the spirit of the times in every way. They are slaves and they drift along with the stream like pieces of dead wood. But a true Christian, having life can be likened to a fish that swims against the stream. The Christian being led of Christ defies the spirit of the times. The unbeliever is like a puppet that jumps and dances as other people pull the strings. But a Christian is unaffected by the fashions of the times. Neither the majority nor the masses can move him. He allows himself to be led only by Christ, his Head.
To be a Christian is not only to do that which is right and good to yourself; but also to bear and forgive all the wrong that others do to you (1 Peter 2:12,23). Since a true Christian is so rich in happiness and goodness, he "can afford to" suffer wrong. Even if he loses everything in this world, it matters nothing to him, since he shares all of heaven's riches with Christ (1 Corinthians 3:21). Christ suffered cruel unrighteousness. It is an honour for us to suffer with Him (1 Peter 4:16).
A Christian is one who seeks the eternal and not the temporal. A Christian knows at all times that one day he will have to give an account for his life and for all the things that he has done in his body - whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:9,10). He therefore seeks the things that are above and not the things of this earth. He gathers treasure in heaven and not on the earth. He is rich in God and not in this world. The Christian may not have had much in this world, but when he dies, he goes to eternal and perfect riches and glory.
A Christian is one who is anxious about NOTHING, because God is with him. He feels safe and at rest under God's care. No-one can hurt even a hair of his head without God's permission.
To be a Christian is to be ABSOLUTELY RIGHTEOUS and ABSOLUTELY MERCIFUL. When we are converted, our faith in Christ is reckoned to us for righteousness, even though we are still unrighteous (Romans 4:3-8). But this is just the beginning, not the end, Therefore it is written, "Let everyone who names the Name of Christ depart from iniquity... and follow righteousness.....for everyone who DOES righteousness (alone) is born of Him" (2 Timothy 2:18,22; 1 John 2:29). To be a Christian means to be righteous in ALL our ways. Therefore if a man has stolen some thing or committed some other unrighteous deed, when he becomes a Christian, he returns these things and sets all these matters right as soon as possible. If he is in debt, he begins at once to pay back his debt. There is no way of avoiding this. Those who do not do righteousness in such and other matters are not Christians and will certainly not enter the kingdom of God. Likewise also in the matter of mercy. Since God has been so exceedingly merciful to us, it requires that we be totally merciful to others too. There is no way of avoiding this either. To be a Christian is to be merciful to others just as God has been merciful to us. (James 2:13-16; Matthews 18:21-35).
To be a Christian is to continually recieve grace and power so as to put off all conscious sin so that we can be presented before God's face holy, unblameably and unreprovable (Jude 24:2; 2 Peter 3:14).
And finally, to be a Christian is to do that which is impossible according to human standards. It is everyone's experience that when they apply themselves to do that which is good and perfect, they find it to be impossible. Then they have two choices before them - either to give up (which is what most people do) or to seek help from God. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). It is faith in Christ that gives the power to do the impossible (Matthews 17:20;19:26). Without God's help I can do nothing good. But with His help, I can do all things (Phil. 4:13). In ourselves, we are hopeless and incorrigible. But as Christians, by the power of God we are able to do that which is naturally impossible.
- Elias Aslaksen
When we believe that Jesus, who was born of the virgin Mary and partook of flesh and blood as we, was the Son of God, God's Anointed One, then we are born of God, we overcome all evil in this world, and we are Christians (1 John 5:1,5).
The whole essence of being a Christian is to love - to love with a pure love, the love of God (1 John 3:14; 4:7). Christianity consists of loving Christ, keeping His commandments, loving one another and loving everyone. To love a person does not only mean to be pleasant to him, but to tell him just what he needs to hear, even if it hurts. It means to do him the thing which will be to his greatest profit for eternity, even though it may go hard against his own will. He who is absorbed with his neighbour's eternal benefit is truly a Christian.
We must be born again if we are to be Christians. No-one can be a Christian by his own power, strength of character, will-power, knowledge, sense of righteousness etc., (John 3:6,7). Everything of ourselves is corrupted by sin. God demands that we get a NEW heart (Ezekiel 18:31). This is not an unreasonable demand, since God Himself offers to GIVE us a new heart freely (Ezekiel 36:26,27). All we have to do now is to go to God simply in faith and ask Him for such a heart and by faith recieve it as a gift.
To be a Christian is also to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:19,20), to have given up our enemity towards Him and to surrender and submit to Him entirely.
To be a Christian means to repent and to be converted (Acts 17:30), to be the exact opposite of what we were (as the children of Adam). It is to be righteous when others are unrighteous; to be patient when others are impatient; to be diligent when others are lazy; to be exact when others are inexact; to speak the truth when others flatter, tell lies and are hypocritical; to be meek and longsuffering when others are quick-tempered (1 Peter 1:15).
To be a Christian is to be saved. A work of salvation has begun in his inner being and it is constantly developing. It is right to say that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8). But our salvation is not yet complete. We shall be saved finally if we endure to the end (Matthews 24:13). Little by little, a Christian is saved from more and more of all the sin which so firmly clings to him (1 Peter 2:2-NASB).
"The disciples were called Christians" (Acts 11:26). To be a Christian means therefore to follow in the footsteps of Christ and to walk as He walked (1 John 2:6).
To be a Christian is not to be religious but to actually do the will of God in one's life (Matthews 7:23). It is to subject ourselves absolutely and totally to Christ as Lord of our lives. This means that our own will must be denied so that the will of the Head (Christ) alone is done.
Since to be a Christian is to be a disciple (Acts 11:26), it follows that only one who has fulfilled the three conditions of discipleship listed in Luke 14:26,27,33 can truly be called a Christian. There we have the entrance test for being a Christian. Our relationship to parents, marriage partners, children, possessions and to our own self-life must be according to the teaching of Christ there. Then we are Christians.
To be a Christian is to have victory. It is a great misunderstanding to think that all it means to be a Christian is to be a forgiven sinner and to continue in a life defeated by sin (1 John 2:1,13). We cannot get victory all at once and so it is written that if we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1,2). But we have to press on until we break through to a victorious life and become overcomers.
To be a Christian is to be happy BOTH in prosperity and in adversity. It is to be rich in happiness. Anyone can be happy in the day of prosperity; and so this is not even worth mentioning. But to be happy in the day of adversity is something supernatural and this cannot be achieved without being a Christian.
A Christian is one who has a good conscience; all his affairs are in order and therefore he is one who cannot be shaken. He who fights against such a Christian actually fights against the Lord.
To be a Christian is to return evil with good. Everyone is friendly towards those who are good to them and evil towards those who are evil towards them. But to be a Christian is to be ABSOLUTELY GOOD -- to have such an overflow of goodness in our heart that we have both the desire and the ability to pour forth goodness from our heart's good store at all times and in all situations. Then we rejoice in returning all evil with good. Thus we ourselves are happy too.
To be a Christian is to serve and give ourselves for the Salvation of humanity. The children of Adam only think about themselves, their own advantage and their own pleasure and gain. Self-love rules their lives. To be a Christian, however, is to be absolutely unselfish. It is to think about the needs of others, and what would be good and profitable for them; and then according to ability to help them in that. Christianity is to save and to give all that we have - of spiritual and temporal goods. Both wordly and religious people love to be served. But a true Christian loves to serve, like his Master. Love constrains a Christian to use as little as possible on himself so that he can have the most possible for others. To be a Christian is to live for others.
To be a Christian is to be thankful and satisfied at all times. Almost everyone, everywhere complains and murmurs about something or the other. They are also occupied with accusing someone or the other all the time. This is true in houses, in the streets, in the market place, in buses and trains. Everywhere we hear a flood of complaining and accusation. The only ones people do not accuse are their own selves. A Christian presents a rare and beautiful contrast to all this misery. He is always happy, thankful and satisfied - and has not a single thing or person to complain about, or to accuse, or to be dissatisfied with (Phil. 4:4; Ephesians 5:19,20). A Christian has such a wealth of goodness deep down in his heart that all external matters are so unspeakably small in comparison, that he finds nothing in the world to be upset about. At the same time, having received such a taste for the good, the true Christian is perpetually dissatisfied only with himself, for he hungers after more and more goodness.
To be a Christian is to be composed and calm at all times. When an emergency arises, people get into unrest. This is because their conscience is not clear, they love money and they are afraid to die. The Christian, on the other hand, has nothing and no-one to fear and nothing which he is afraid to lose. He is always of a calm spirit (Proverbs 17:27), because he knows that God guides everything for the very best.
A Christian is one who is patient and who can endure until he reaches the goal. For a true Christian there is just no such thing as giving up. He is strengthened with all might of the Spirit to all patience and endurance (Colossians 1:11). He brings forth fruit with patience (Luke 8:15).
A Christian is one who is always of good courage, because God Who has all power in heaven and earth, is with him. "God does not give us the spirit of discouragement" (2 Timothy 1-7-Norwegian translation). Even if external things pile up on his head, a Christian is always of good courage, because he is loved, kept, led and guided by God.
A Christian is one who does not seek the honour of any man but only the approval of God (Galatians 1:10; John 5:44). Those who seek to please wordly or religious people will have to suit their tastes and therefore will have to be more or less ungodly. A true Christian however is invariably dishonoured by wordly and religious men because he lives completely for God and seeks to please God alone. When he finally leaves this world, he goes to meet God with a good conscience to recieve eternal glory and honour from Him.
To be a Christian is to be full of the Holy Spirit and power so that rivers of life flow out from his innermost being (John 7:37-39). Since he has an unbroken connection with the inexhaustible fountain of the Holy Spirit, he is never dry or in a bad mood. A Christian has always something spiritual to give to others, even without any preparation, for this same reason. As Jesus was God's Anointed, so His followers are anointed too.
To be a Christian is to be totally uninfluenced by the spirit of the times. In every generation, there are certain sins and certain effects of those sins which are especially prominent and which characterize the masses. There is a spirit in this and it is called 'the spirit of the times'. Fashions (in dresses and other matters) are also part of this spirit. It is this spirit which is particularly difficult to withstand. All those who do not personally possess a Divine power in their lives are always indulging in these fashions and the spirit of the times in every way. They are slaves and they drift along with the stream like pieces of dead wood. But a true Christian, having life can be likened to a fish that swims against the stream. The Christian being led of Christ defies the spirit of the times. The unbeliever is like a puppet that jumps and dances as other people pull the strings. But a Christian is unaffected by the fashions of the times. Neither the majority nor the masses can move him. He allows himself to be led only by Christ, his Head.
To be a Christian is not only to do that which is right and good to yourself; but also to bear and forgive all the wrong that others do to you (1 Peter 2:12,23). Since a true Christian is so rich in happiness and goodness, he "can afford to" suffer wrong. Even if he loses everything in this world, it matters nothing to him, since he shares all of heaven's riches with Christ (1 Corinthians 3:21). Christ suffered cruel unrighteousness. It is an honour for us to suffer with Him (1 Peter 4:16).
A Christian is one who seeks the eternal and not the temporal. A Christian knows at all times that one day he will have to give an account for his life and for all the things that he has done in his body - whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:9,10). He therefore seeks the things that are above and not the things of this earth. He gathers treasure in heaven and not on the earth. He is rich in God and not in this world. The Christian may not have had much in this world, but when he dies, he goes to eternal and perfect riches and glory.
A Christian is one who is anxious about NOTHING, because God is with him. He feels safe and at rest under God's care. No-one can hurt even a hair of his head without God's permission.
To be a Christian is to be ABSOLUTELY RIGHTEOUS and ABSOLUTELY MERCIFUL. When we are converted, our faith in Christ is reckoned to us for righteousness, even though we are still unrighteous (Romans 4:3-8). But this is just the beginning, not the end, Therefore it is written, "Let everyone who names the Name of Christ depart from iniquity... and follow righteousness.....for everyone who DOES righteousness (alone) is born of Him" (2 Timothy 2:18,22; 1 John 2:29). To be a Christian means to be righteous in ALL our ways. Therefore if a man has stolen some thing or committed some other unrighteous deed, when he becomes a Christian, he returns these things and sets all these matters right as soon as possible. If he is in debt, he begins at once to pay back his debt. There is no way of avoiding this. Those who do not do righteousness in such and other matters are not Christians and will certainly not enter the kingdom of God. Likewise also in the matter of mercy. Since God has been so exceedingly merciful to us, it requires that we be totally merciful to others too. There is no way of avoiding this either. To be a Christian is to be merciful to others just as God has been merciful to us. (James 2:13-16; Matthews 18:21-35).
To be a Christian is to continually recieve grace and power so as to put off all conscious sin so that we can be presented before God's face holy, unblameably and unreprovable (Jude 24:2; 2 Peter 3:14).
And finally, to be a Christian is to do that which is impossible according to human standards. It is everyone's experience that when they apply themselves to do that which is good and perfect, they find it to be impossible. Then they have two choices before them - either to give up (which is what most people do) or to seek help from God. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). It is faith in Christ that gives the power to do the impossible (Matthews 17:20;19:26). Without God's help I can do nothing good. But with His help, I can do all things (Phil. 4:13). In ourselves, we are hopeless and incorrigible. But as Christians, by the power of God we are able to do that which is naturally impossible.
- Elias Aslaksen
