Definitions Part 2: What is Christianity? What makes something or someone Christian?

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Ephesians 5:1-2 ESV

My last post was a discussion about Jesus and Religion. I want to continue that with further discussion as to what is Christianity. And to quote C.S. Lewis again, “For God humbled himself to become man, so religion humbled itself to become Christianity.” Now this quote really caught my attention. The idea that religion humbled itself to become Christianity just resonated within me.

One can write many books on this topic, so I will try my best to do it in but a few short paragraphs and still come up with a justifying answer.

So what makes someone or something Christian?

Is it voting Republican?

Is it being prolife?

Is it going to church every Sunday?

Is it reciting a prayer?

Is it a genre of music?

Is it a religion?

Is it a worldview?

Is it a list of rules?

When we think of ‘Christian’ we think of it in two ways, as a religion and as a type of label. And I’ve notice, we love trying to clarify and reform that label.

“I’m not a Christian, I’m a Christ Follower.” (Which is just saying the same exact thing.)

Sometimes we get so fixated on the label, that the label itself will lose all of its meaning. The label becomes dead. My best example of when a label loses its meaning and purpose is with Religion. Then labels become weapons to throw at and divide people.

We are not labels, we are more than just mere words. We are souls.

When I was in high school, my nickname was Jesus. The nickname was a weird combination of people being aware of what I believed in and my long hair. At first, I couldn’t tell if people were making fun of me, but then I realized it was like a term of endearment and an acknowledged statement of who I was. And having Jesus as my nickname was a pretty good reminder of who and what I represented.

When we describe Christians, oftentimes we are called the Salt of the Earth, the Light of the World, a City on a Hill. We just hear the words but not the meaning anymore or it was never really explained as to what that means.

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that the may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Matt 5:13-16 ESV

When salt loses its saltiness, it is useless.

When a label loses its purpose, it is useless. Even if that label is Christian.

We are supposed to be a light in this world, to stand up like a light upon a light stand, a city on a hill.

So what is my answer as to what makes someone or something Christian?

It’s a choice. It’s a daily choice to…

To make God bigger in my life. I must decrease so He may increase (John 3:30)

To love God with all my heart, mind and soul, and to love my neighbor (Matt 22:37-40).

To love my enemies (Matthew 5:43-47)

To die to my selfish ambitions and give all my life away. To be a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2)

To uphold the law (Romans 3:31)

When this change happens in your heart and in your mind, (Ephesians 4:22) and it will directly change how you live.

“But the aim of our instruction is love the comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith…Now we know that the law is good, if one uses is legitimately.”

1 Timothy 1:5, 8 ESV

If we are to ‘reclaim’ religion, we have to acknowledge the wrongs that have been selfishly committed for the sake of ‘christian religion’. The only we can do that is to humble ourselves, confess our wrongs, be legitimately sorry about it, and do something to change.

But, if I had to pick a ‘label’, I want to go back to the beginning. I think this is the one that best sums up the miracle, the love He has for us and the responsibility we have:

Image Bearer

“So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them.”

Genesis 1:27a ESV

But Here's another label that I hear tossed around a lot: 
HIPSTER CHRISTIANITY. 

I hear it as a positive thing, as an insult but never in the same way. What do you think it means?

need to be really bothered once in a while

“We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?” 

 Ray Bradbury

Definitions Part 1: Jesus vs Religion

Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes and musters before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and the loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

James 1:26,27 MSG

So this video had taken over my Facebook newsfeed the other week. It went viral. Everyone was reposting. And after watching it myself, I reposted it because I understood and agreed with the poet, Jefferson Bethke. Then the next week, the Christian blogosphere went crazy. Suddenly everyone was freaking out over how illogical, condescending, inaccurate, and unchristian this video was. I watched it again with a more critical eye, and I think many of us are missing Bethke’s point.

When I was in high school and people would find out I was a Christian, the conversation would go something like this:

“Oh, so you’re religious?”

I would say something like this, probably rolling my eyes at this point. “NO. It’s more than that just religion. Its more than just something I do.”

I have always hated that term. Always. To me, it meant two things, (1) doing something superstitiously in hopes of saving my own soul and (2) those who showed off their religion like one who flaunted his knowledge to make you feel stupid, one who overly demonstrates his power just to make you feel worthless, or one who shows his opulence to make you feel poor, to put it simply, religious pride. Either way, ‘religion’ seems to always have man at its center.

Looking at history, religion has a terrible track record with the Crusades, the Inquisition, and even the current war of terrorism. Religion has developed many negative connotations to it, despite the actual definition of it (literal definition). Man using ‘religion’ to accomplish his own personal goals. What a perversion of what we are supposed to be? We can’t keep sweeping this under the rug anymore.

In the video Bethke is referring to the modern day Sadducees and Pharisees. Let me make it a bit more personal, more post-modern for you. When I say religion, I think we can expand that to church pride. The men who pride themselves on how good they were at the law, at church, than what the law/church was supposed to be, and condemning those who could not do it as good as they did. The elite, the self-righteous, the hypocrites.

Religion has become focused on how man can save himself. It has become a selfish thing. There is nothing real, no authentic faith or genuine conviction. It was all about how could I make my own name better, how could use this for my own glory. As Bethke, says it’s become this list of chores, a façade, behavior modification. Religion has become a mask to hide behind and to judge others from. And it’s this type of religion is bondage and makes many into slaves.

Religion could be dressed up so close to the truth, that we sometimes don’t even realize how blind we are to the real truth.

 Before we jump to conclusions about how terrible this video is, take one second and think. Are you upset because you are personally offended and sought to defend yourself? Or can you take your eyes off yourself and realize the point of this video, that maybe we’re losing sight of the humbling, Christ-centered truth?

"Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good- above all, that we are better than someone else- I think we maybe sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil." 

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The title of the video is this: that Jesus is GREATER than a religion man created. Instead of you or I trying (and failing Romans 3:23) to save ourselves by being ‘religious’, Jesus saved us already. He abolished the need for man to save himself. Jesus was the fulfillment of the Law. Up until that point, we had to sacrifice animals and perform rituals of cleansing. But when God sent His son as the Ultimate sacrifice. We no longer ‘needed’ the law for that purpose. The curtain was torn. (Matt 27:51)

The rest of the New Testament is spent trying to explain the idea of grace and works go together, hand in hand. Religion, or works, alone does not work and belief alone doesn’t make sense. Both are natural requirements. (James 2:14-26 and Romans 2:12-29, 3:21-26)

“For a God humbled himself to become man, so religion humbled itself to become Christianity.”

 -C.S. Lewis

Letters to Mary Van Deusen

February 5, 1956

So then what is Christianity? What makes someone or something Christian? I would like to know what you think. 

For my thoughts, check out my next post.