By Angela Rose
“Christian” has become such a wide spread label. I almost dislike putting that label on myself. Being a “Christian” means to be Christ-like, yet the majority of the people that claim to be a “Christian” are far from it. I am not talking about the people that truly love God and strive daily to die to self and live a holy life like Christ. I am talking about the people that claim to be a “Christian” because they go to church, or they attended church when they grew up, or they are a ‘good’ person, or they just believe there is a God. My previous pastor used to say “Going to church does not make you a Christian anymore than going to McDonald’s makes you a Big Mac.” How true is that! Also just because you believe there is a God doesn’t mean you will go to Heaven. The devil and his demons believe there is a God, yet they were thrown from Heaven. Anybody can look around them at creation and conclude that there is a God. Everything created is too magnificent to conclude otherwise.
What does the Bible say about what it means to give up the sinful life and to become a true Christian? Colossians 3:5-10 “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices…”
A true “Christian” is to give up his old self and to be made new by the blood of Christ. That is not to say that “Christians” never struggle with sin. We will be tempted to sin because we live in a physical body that was born to sin. Our flesh continually tries to pull us back into sin. The difference is when you truly give your heart over to Christ you no longer want to sin. When you do sin, your conscience alerts you that what you did was wrong. You will no longer feel comfortable sinning. The Holy Spirit in you convicts you of that sin. When you are in Christ you will no longer want to sin. Through Christ you have been given the ability to refuse to sin. Many churches teach ‘grace’ wrong. God did not give us grace so that we can continue to sin and keep asking for forgiveness. Grace is given so that we can look to Christ for His help to not enter into sin. Yet when we do slip up and sin, we can ask for grace and forgiveness. The difference is your heart. If you truly love God and look to Him for His help to not sin and yet still do, God will convict you and you will ask forgiveness and turn away from it. The Holy Spirit will continue to convict you until you hate the sin as God does.
The problem with many churches is they teach it’s ok if you sin, you just have to ask God to forgive you. Not true! God sees your heart. If you think ‘I can live how I want and God will love me no matter what’, that is not true. God loves all of His creation, but God hates Sin! Because God loves you, He can not allow you to live in sin (death). For example, many of the churches are accepting homosexually into their churches. Their defense is God loves everybody so we should love them also. Yes, we should love them but not to their death. Sin leads to death! If we truly loved them, we would love them as a person but speak truth into their lives. If your child was running to the street into oncoming traffic would you not stop them because you love them and want them to live? You wouldn’t sit back and say ‘I love you so I am going to let you do what you want.’ No! God is a much better parent than we are. He loves us so much that He doesn’t want us to destroy ourselves with sin. If we love people, we have to love them as God loves them. God hates sin and we as “Christians” must love the sinner but hate the sin.
So many people claim to be “Christians” yet they advocate for the lgbtq… and /or vote for pro-choice. A true “Christian” loves the sinner yet hates the sin. We can not play on both sides of the fence. Matthew 6:24 says “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” We cannot say we are a “Christian” and advocate sin! We can love the sinner and speak truth into their life with love. We do not have to condemn the person; conviction is the Holy Spirit’s job. We are to only bring truth and to advocate life into them. Sin will not enter the gates of Heaven! If we truly love these people and want them to have eternal life in Heaven then they need to know the truth. God also says, that we can do all these wonderful things on earth and claim we are a “Christian” yet not know Him. Matthew 7:21 says “Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
God’s will is for us to turn away from sin and our old ways, to die to ourselves, to die to sin. Being a “Christian” is much more than saying a simple prayer and then going to heaven when you die. It is a daily walk with God. A continual dying of ourselves and becoming more like Christ. Being a “Christian” is not a label, it’s a lifestyle. It’s a relationship with the heavenly father. Yes, we will sin and fall short of God’s will sometimes. The difference between a true “Christian” and labeled “Christian” is a true “Christian” will hate sin more and more every day and extract it from their lives. They will never advocate sin (death) in someone’s life. As “Christians” we are to love the sinner, but not the sin!
