What is Christianity?
''Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.'' Acts 11:25 - 26
So, the label 'Christian' is connected to the word 'Disciple'. So, who (or what) is a disciple?
'Disciple' is a word translated from the greek word 'mathēteuō'. It means a student or follower of a teacher i.e. 'Rabbi'.
Jesus did not call his followers Christians but people (i.e. the society), identifying his followers, called them Christians. Christian is from the Greek word 'Christianos' implying followers of Christ (the Messiah).
This though, is how Jesus identified his followers:
'' Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.''John 14:23-25 NIV
In other words, from Jesus' standpoint, a Christian is one who loves Jesus and obeys his teaching.
So Christianity is a focus on loving Jesus and obeying his teachings i.e. as the King James version puts it, ''If a man love me, he will keep my words''.
This is our call back to mere Christianity. Jesus is calling us to the simplicity of loving him and prioritising his teachings. If we love him, we will spend time with him in prayer, reading and following his words with the help of his Holy Spirit. This is where the power and unity of the gospel lies: in what C.S Lewis called, 'mere' Christianity.
I will quote this excerpt not because I am inspired by his work (though one cannot help but be), but because here is the very thing the Lord has impressed on me and even much stronger today and I couldn't put it better:
(excerpts From C.S Lewis' Screwtape Letters:)
My dear Wormwood (a tempter/junior devil),
The real trouble about the set your patient is living in is that it is merely Christian. They all have individual interests, of course, but the bond remains mere Christianity. What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call 'Christianity And'. You know - Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Psychology, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Psychical Research, Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and spelling reform. If they must be Christians let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian colouring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing.'' pg135 chpt 25
And:
''Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. then quietly and gradually nurse him onto the stage at which religion (Christianity) becomes merely part of the 'cause', in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce... . The attitude which you want to guard against is that in which temporal affairs are treated primarily as material for obedience. Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man (the Christian), and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes and crusades matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours - the more 'religious' he is (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here,
Your affectionate uncle#SCREWTAPE (a senior tempter(devil)'' pg34, 35 chpt7
I apologise for the long excerpt but if anyone could say what has been pointed out to me for some time, they could not say it better than those allegorical words of C.S Lewis.
John the Apostle said:
''Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.''1 John 2:15-17
When we say don't be worldly, we don't mean don't love people who are not yet believers, it means to set your affection on things above rather than the things below. A worldly mindset is not just one that is full of sexual immorality or greed; it is also one more preoccupied with matters of this earth than with loving Jesus and keeping his word. Doing the works of Jesus is no substitute for his person. as I wrote as a reminder in my journal, I am not after living a life that 'looks like Jesus', I am after Jesus. HE is the end - not the means to an end.
''because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.'' - 1 Thessalonians 1:5
''Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,'' Matthew 28:19
''Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.'' Colossians 3:2
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