What does it mean to be a Christian? I ask because the Christian church doesn't live like it, and that's sad.

Question

The Christian church has fallen into thinking and acting like the world when we are to be separate. If we call ourselves a Christian it must mean something to us because we have realized that we can not make to heaven by works as some think or by who we are. And because Christ has done for us what we could not do on our own.

Answer 1

A Christian is someone who at some point in their lives has honestly come to the conclusion that they are bound to sin without the help of God, repented of their sins and genuinely asked Christ, as the divine son of God born as a human on Earth, crucified to death for all human sin for all time on the cross and returned to life, to take control of their life. I fall into that category and i regard myself as a Christian because of that definition. However, it doesn't say anything about what one believes or does now, and Christians themselves would say it doesn't stop one from sinning.

Christianity demands that one does not judge others and that only God can know what valid excuses someone may have for behaving in what another might see as a sinful manner. Therefore i cannot judge others on this matter from a Christian perspective. Having said that, it also says that there is a gift of discernment, i.e. that it is possible for some Christians to tell if someone else is a Christian, and that people can be known to be with or without Christ by their "fruits", in other words, what they do as a result of being Christian or not.

If Christianity is worth anything, it must make one a better person because Christ would be able to use his divine power to help one to overcome sin and do good even if doing good is sometimes very hard. That doesn't mean a Christian is perfect. It does mean, though, that judging by Christian values, one might expect a genuine Christian to behave better after coming to Christ than before.

I went to Church for many years and was very active in it. I also studied Scripture every day, prayed regularly and ran a Bible study group. I also put Christian principles into practice in my life, with the help of God. I have not lost my belief in God or God's goodness, power and will to do good for humanity. The people i got to know through the Church were friendly people committed to getting closer to God in many ways. Their primary aim was to grow in Christ and bring others to Christ, and to help make the world a better place in a practical way.

However...

It pains me to say this, and i know that God commands Christians not to judge others, but i really could not say that i could see that Christ was making the people i knew at Church better people, and that made me doubt that this miraculous power that i had had a strong faith in really existed, despite the fact that i believe i can see its effects in my life. What i actually found was that a considerable number of the people at Church were very focussed on material things, behaved conventionally in the ways of the world rather than those of God, and to be honest appeared to be quite selfish. Also, when i compared them to other friends and acquaintances of mine who were not Christian, it pains me to say this, but i really found that actually, those other people who were not were kinder, less concerned with money, recognised what was really important, e.g. love, concern for others and so forth, and in the end, were better people than the Christians i knew, on the whole. It wasn't just that there were bad examples in the Church but actually that the people there, whom i presume were Christians, were actually more badly behaved, on the whole, than the other people i knew, and when i say that i am using Christian, Biblical standards to assess their lives. I should not be so judgemental, i know, but i couldn't help noticing this.

I don't know why this should be. I mentioned the gift of discernment before. I believe i have this gift, it's a gift of the Spirit, and i believe it enables me to tell that these people i have criticised are Christians, and i have no explanation for this. The most charitable explanation that i can come up with is that without Christ, these people would have been even worse, but that is a really distressing prospect. Christ did say that He came into the world to save sinners rather than the righteous, but St Paul also said that no-one was really righteous and that all have sinned, so that makes that explanation unlikely because it means that the other people i know have not been saved and need Christ in their lives even though they are better-behaved, and dare i say sin less, than those in the Church.

It's all very sad and i don't know what to make of it.

Answer 2

Here are some ideas and suggestions:
1. Look around you for the word 'Exit' and leave quietly. (I just did this myself 2 weeks ago.)
2. Take some time out to get all the double talk out of your head. For example, write down the things the church was doing and saying that were depressing you. Then, if you haven't done it already, study what the gospels have to say about those things.
3. Find some other way(s) to express your faith, for example, help with a community youth project, lunch club, community building refurbishment or with some other practical project of help to your community or volunteer as a tutor for something, whatever. It doesn't have to be organized by the church, just something useful to others.
4. After 6 months or more, when you're good and ready, go and look at some other churches in your area, but don't stop doing the above! That way, if the new church is no better, at least you can maintain your own service and keep some friends. Regards, Steven.

Answer 3

Take Christ out of the word Christian and all you have is "I Am Nothing." For being a Christian is all about "Jesus." All else is sinking sand. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said "I am a slave / a bondsman for Christ." I, too, am a slave and there is no other Master that I would rather have than Jesus Christ. I do not agree that the true Church of Christ is not acting like it. There are a whole lot of ravenous wolves amongst the sheep; Nevertheless, God's Word says that no matter how evil the world becomes He will "always" have His elect, those who will never cave in or be crushed by the works of Satan, and we will endure to the end.

Answer 4

It is very true that most 'so called' Christian religions today do not follow what the Bible really teaches., and therefore those people cannot call themselves Christian.

But this should not be surprising , prophecy in the Bible foretold that in the first century their would be a great apostasy within Christianity.

This is where most of the words religions came from.
Yes , from them taking in pagan teachings such as hellfire , the immortality of the soul and the trinity doctrine they have separated themselves from healthful teachings that God approves of.

True Christians today follow the perfect example of Christ , from the truth according the the holy scriptures, and DO follow what the Bible really teaches.

For more Bible based info please feel free to email me.

Answer 5

Sad to say but some Christians want the "things" God has to offer, but don't want Christ and all that it means to be Christ-like. Then you also have to realize that all churches aren't headed by men who were called by God, some just sent themselves and they're leading ppl astray. It's all so sad and it's heartbreaking for true ppl of God. My heart aches as I see some of the things that are happening RIGHT UP IN SOME OF THESE CHURCHES.

Answer 6

Being a Christian, to me, has the same meaning it always has had. That is to have a personal, one-on-one relationship w/ Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior.
I let the church and hypocritical actions of men, get in the way of my relationship w/ Jesus, for decades. The church is made up of fallible men, nothing special about them, necessarily.
T

Answer 7

A Christian is someone who lives in Christ.
Be patient with the Church...God has not finished with it yet.
Live your bit...it is much more powerful than criticism

Answer 8

in step with probability baby he needs you in looking your own way. My mothers famous pray went like this God furnish me the serenity to settle for the flaws i won't be able to alter The braveness to alter the element i will And the awareness to understand the adaptation. sometimes in our lives we come to a element the place only could take only a sprint time to give up and assessment earlier we bypass on. right that's yet another poem that would help. study the words heavily...and think of...they have which skill. Footprints interior the Sand One night a guy had a dream. He dreamed he became walking alongside the sea coast with the LORD. around the sky flashed scenes from his life. for each scene he observed 2 instruments of footprints interior the sand: one belonging to him, and the different to the LORD. while the final scene of his life flashed earlier him, he regarded returned on the footprints interior the sand. He observed that many cases alongside the process his life there became only one set of footprints. He additionally observed that it handed off on the very lowest and saddest cases in his life. This quite stricken him and he puzzled the LORD approximately it: "LORD, you suggested that once i desperate to persist with you, you will walk with me each and every of ways. yet I surely have observed that interior the main complicated cases in my life, there is just one set of footprints. i do no longer understand why while i mandatory you maximum you're able to bypass away me." The LORD spoke back: "My son, my efficient baby, i admire you and that i could in no way bypass away you. for the time of your cases of trial and suffering, once you notice only one set of footprints, it became then that I carried you." written by using Mary Stevenson sometimes, my expensive one...you're able to fall returned on your faith and understand that God has a reason of the lesson he's coaching you at a given 2d. reward, Aviana

Answer 9

Free will. I know a lot of great churches. You have not visited them all

Answer 10

Following the will of God, on a regular basis.