What exactly is a Christian? It may seem like a strange question, but it’s extremely relevant in today’s world because Christianity is frequently misrepresented.
A person will often say that he or she is a Christian simply based on the fact that they aren’t Muslim, or Buddhist, or Hindu, or because they live in a “Christian” country. So the individual assumes that he must be a Christian. In reality, that makes no more sense than saying that one is a Hindu because the person lives in India.
Someone else will claim to be a “small c” Christian. However, that is like claiming to be a “small b” Buddhist. One is either a Buddhist or not a Buddhist. By definition, a Buddhist is someone who believes in and follows the teachings of Buddha. By definition, a Muslim is someone who believes in and follows the teachings of Mohammed. By definition, a Christian is someone who believes in and follows the teachings of Christianity’s founder, Jesus Christ.
Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?
One also should ask himself the question “Which Jesus Christ and what message did He bring?” If a self-professed Buddhist said that Buddha was a woman who died for the sins of the world, other Buddhists would quickly make it clear that this isn’t the real Buddha and that this individual is misrepresenting the message Buddha brought. Any dispute on the matter could be resolved by consulting historical records to determine who Buddha was and what his teachings were all about.
That is the same case with Christianity. In the Scriptures, the apostle Paul admonished the Christians in Corinth for falling victim to false teachings, and he made it clear that there was another Jesus and gospel. “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” (2 Cor. 11:3-4, NIV) Even from the earliest days of the church, false teachers were distorting the perception of Jesus and his teachings.
Wolves Among the Sheep
Understanding the true nature of Christianity is important. Many people claim to be Christian, but their actions may leave a sour taste in the mouth of the non-Christian. Perhaps this Christian feels that he can steal or lie regularly because Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9 that "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." This Christian reasons that since a person isn't save by works, but by God's grace, then it doesn't matter what he does. However, this same Paul wrote in Romans 6:1-2 "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" Although Christians are far from perfect, habitually doing things like that aren’t reflective of a genuine Christian and this Christian ends up leaving a false impression of Christianity in the minds of those he meets.
Perhaps someone has been saying that to be a true Christian one has to belong to their church and obey their leaders and follow their strict laws. Someone else may claim that Jesus is just a good man and nothing more or that Jesus was an angel who came to earth. Another may claim that no one can ever be sure of going to heaven when they die.
This view of Jesus and Christianity is flawed. The only way to know the truth is to compare all teachings with the Bible - the main historical record of Christ’s activities and the very Word of God. To be sure, false teachers will appeal to the Bible to support their views as well, but to do so they need to quote Scripture out of context and ignore other portions of Scripture.
As the apostle Paul warned “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!” Acts 20:29-31.
Testing the Spirits
To conclude, as we have seen, it is a mistake to assume that a person or organization is Christian based simply on the claim that they are Christian. When Paul was teaching the Bereans, Luke, the writer of the Book of Acts, wrote "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." (Acts 17:11, emphasis added) They wouldn't even take the word of the apostle Paul, but rightly compared his words to Scripture. The apostle John wrote "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." (1 John 4:1)
It is the duty of every Christian to test the teachings of every person or organization claiming to be from God and a genuine teacher will not take offense, but welcome such testing.
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