What does it mean to be a Christian

"And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch" [Acts 11:26b]

    What does it mean to be a Christian?  Some believe they are Christians because they know they are not Jewish, or Islamic, so they must be Christians, right?  I have heard it said that America is a Christian nation, and I am an American so I must be a Christian.  Many people believe they are Christians because they go to church. Others feel that to be a Christian is to be a moral person.  Have you ever heard someone talking about their atheist friend say something like "He's more of a Christian than most people I know at church?"    So many people have no idea what it is to be a Christian.  Even people, supposedly Christian people, who have grown up reading their Bibles and attending Church whenever the doors are open, are in the dark about what it means to be a Christian. 

    The Scripture seems to be pretty clear about what a Christian is.  Why is there so much confusion over what it is to be a Christian?  Here in our verse Christians was a name that people gave to the Disciples.  One of the problems today is that many people call themselves Christians, but are by no means disciples of Christ.  Perhaps there is confusion over what it is to be a disciple.  

    We must remember that there were more than twelve disciples of Christ. The disciples that are being called Christians at Antioch in our verse are not the twelve that most people associate with the word "disciples" but are the people being taught by Paul and Barnabas.  You and I are presented with the opportunity to be disciples of Christ if we should accept and respond to His teachings that are found in the Scriptures.  A disciple by definition is one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another.  So a disciple of Christ is one who accepts His teachings and shares them with others.  I want to point out there is a difference in one who accepts the teachings and one who studies the teachings.  Many people study the Bible, they read it and out right deny it, or try to twist its meaning to be something it's not.  A disciple however will study it and accept what it says, they may question what it means, but ultimately will accept its teaching instead of trying to force their views upon it.  

    Christ had this to say about being one of His disciples "'If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple'"[Luke 14:26-27] In other words to be His disciple we must make Him the greatest affection in our lives.  We must be willing to give up everything to follow Him.  Matthew puts it this way"Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.'"[Matthew 16:24-25]  So often we fall short in that willingness to lose our own lives, or our own ideals, our own sense of what is good and just.  We are unwilling to let that go and accept His teachings.  However He requires exactly that.

    So if being a Christian is to be His disciple, and to be His disciple is to follow Him, what is it to follow Him?  Jesus tells the fishermen Simon and Andrew that if they should follow Him, He would make them fishers of men[Mark 1:17]. When we follow Jesus we allow Him to make us into what He desires us to be.  We allow Him to form us as the potter forms the clay.  Not only do we allow Him to mold us, but He unites us to Himself.  "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 'I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.'"[John 8:12]  Christ's promise here is that if we follow Him we will have the light of life, which is how John describes Christ in the first chapter of his account of the gospel.  As we follow Christ we allow Him to mold us, shape us, and conform us, to be united with Him. Paul writes it this way "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these he also glorified."[Romans 8:28-30]  In other words Paul is saying that a Christian is one whom God is conforming to His image, whom he is justifying, so that he maybe glorified with Christ.  

    Christians are not just people who go to church, but they are people who long to know Christ better and strive to be like Him.  Christians are not just moral people, but a people who have been rejuvenated by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who die to self and live for Christ.  Christians are not just born into the faith like a nationality, but have made a personal decision to humble themselves and accept that they can do nothing of themselves to save themselves and so they submit themselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ as their savior.  Can you be called a Christian according to this, or is it just something you call yourself?