In follow-up to my “Boycott Christ-like” blog, I received a comment that too many use the term “Christian” improperly as well. Certainly, this is true. Many “cultural Christians” are not believers. Yet I found myself wanting to add a clarification to his comment that is important.
A Christian is one by faith, not behavior. Otherwise, we make Christianity about moralism. Anyone in Christ has a legitimate claim to the term “Christian,” regardless of where they are in their journey. You can be a sin-filled Christian. Anytime, we move outside positional righteousness, we have entered a danger zone theologically. There’s a reason the Bible’s most heated words from Jesus (to the Pharisees), and Paul (to the Galatians) go to moralists. Moralism is the antithesis of Christianity. It is why Jesus called the behaviorally obsessed Pharisees “whitewashed tombs.” And why Paul exhorted the Galatians, “Did your receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?” (Gal. 3:2). Moralism is intrinsically oppositional to grace. We should not ever link arms with that strain of thinking. Faith alone, not behavior, marks the Christian.
In the church, Christian moralism has done great harm. It fosters pride. It drives an attitudinal wedge between believers and those we are called to reach. Thus, we do not have Christ’s posture of supping with sinners. It also confuses Christians by exuding a message that they are somehow not worthy, when Christ’s grace is fully sufficient.
When I blogged on eliminating the term “Christ-like,” I would never use the same criteria to define Christians. Nor should we! My point was to say, why do we use the term “Christ-like” when we do not embrace his missional life? He lived and breathed the mission of God. We can call ourselves Christians by faith, but we should not call ourselves Christ-like, unless we live missionally, like him. You wouldn’t describe yourself as “Kobe-Bryant” like, if you never played basketball.
Missional engagement with non-believers is really about discipleship. It’s about following Christ’s ways. The fact that our version of Christianity is so much about “us” and not “them” is disturbing. It shows how far the North American church has drifted. We bought the wrong package.