As I was talking with a friend the other day, he came up with a different take on how people of faith should talk about themselves. Normally, he asserted, followers of Jesus will claim to be Christians, a name placed upon them in the early days of Christianity.
In Acts 11:26, Luke wrote “And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch”. For almost two thousand years, such a designation has been common throughout the world. It denotes a specific relationship to a particular religion, and now claims over two billion adherents on our globe.
But my friend asserts that just by claiming to be a Christian gives a patina of respectability that just might not be more than skin deep. So he has taken to correcting those who think of him as Christian by saying, “I am a CHRISTian”, putting emphasis on pronouncing Christ with the ian on as a suffix.
Some people might (and do) think of him as odd for doing this, but on further reflection I not only understand his reasoning but agree with him. He says that by claiming to be a CHRISTian, he is putting his life’s values and morals front and center. Christ becomes the center of his being and he then is reminded to live up to the teachings and example of Jesus.
In my years of preaching (more than fifty now) this idea of walking “in His steps” as Peter in 1 Peter 2:21encourages his readers to do, most of my sermons had as an emphasis being as close to the model of Christianity as we possible could be. (In His Steps also was the title of an excellent short novel by Charles Sheldon, written late in the nineteenth century. If you have never read it, I would encourage you to do so.)
A few years ago a phrase came into common usage for many people of faith known for its acronym WWJD? Charles Spurgeon used that phrase several times, in quotation marks, in a sermon in London, England, on June 28, 1881, and Sheldon’s novel was subtitled “What Would Jesus Do?” in 1896. The more modern popularity stemmed from a movement in the 1990s devoted to getting young people more involved in faith living, which saw bracelets with “WWJD” printed on them becoming a world wide phenomenon. Movies with that title were also produced, so that acronym is now instantly understood.
What my friend was advocating was a continual exercise in self-examination of a person’s own personal commitment to his or her faith. Do my actions measure up to the example of Jesus? Do my words conform to what He would have us say? Is our attitude and character consistent with the Bible’s teachings on moral conduct?
Since that conservation with my friend’s rather unconventional idea I have given some thought to that in my own life. What it does is to highlight both my strengths and weaknesses as a CHRISTian. Perhaps for each of us our own personal witness to our beliefs would be better if, each morning, we began with a solemn vow and prayer to live that day as Jesus would want us to do.
But another troubling trend is seen in the public sphere. We have seen over the past few years those in leadership roles openly rejecting the values they profess to hold. One of the most egregious is the number of people openly advocating for abortion on demand, many of these who belong to a church that has always opposed the practice. Others have supported the LGBTQ community’s agenda, in spite of claiming to believe the Bible, which states such activities are against God’s express will.
Belief in God or some higher power seems to be one of the expected qualities of political candidates these days. Only one person was an avowed atheist in Congress, Pete Stark of California, defeated for reelection in 2012. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, after he served, admitted to no belief in God, but even he was more willing to come out as openly gay during his political races than come out as an atheist.
With that in mind, what do we see on a daily basis out of our halls of power? From both sides of the political aisle we see members lie and distort the truth, when every major religion and church forbid such in its tenets of faith. We hear the drumbeat of character assassination each day against political foes, even though we know Holy Writ decries such from its followers.
How many times have we seen elected officials, who always seem to hold deeply felt religious views, get “caught out” cheating on their spouses, committing monetary fraud or use physical violence against others? Sexual harassment has been charged and admitted too many times to count. Instances of those who campaign on honesty and integrity but run afoul of both the law and morals are rampant and seem to increase as the years pass.
Although my friend’s idea about how to identify himself as a follower of Jesus was meant to be a personal one, if all those who believe in Christianity would take time to begin each day with the determination to be a CHRISTian, to “walk in His steps”, to determine to always ask “what would Jesus do?” I wonder how much better our public discourse would improve, our relationships become richer, and how well we all could live more in harmony with each other.
Is our faith nothing more than a label? How deep does it go?