What even is a "Christian?"

What is a Christian?

"A Christian is someone who believes in their heart and confesses with their mouth that Jesus is their Lord (Romans 10:9)."

What does it mean to believe that Jesus is Lord?

"That means conforming to his will and not your own. That means acknowledging sin (which is where we disobey and rebel against God) and struggling not to."

That Bible is pretty clear that no one is without sin (1 John 1:8), but it is about fighting not to and acknowledging that we need God's help that makes Jesus Lord over them. get asked a lot of times about how I could possibly love God and love a girl at the same time. Many times people get angry with me and do not understand how I could have peace about wanting to marry a girl yet still claiming to be a Christian. However, that is really none of their concern. My relationship with the Lord is between me and God. As long as I keep that relationship first in my life and keep him first in my heart I truly believe that is all that matters. And it is important for you to know that your relationship with God is really all that matters. Keeping him first in your life and being at peace with Him is key. I truly believe that I can love a girl and Him at the same time as long as He is my first priority. I truly want to serve God in everything I say and do, so why does it matter what others think?

There are people out there that criticize my life while they are either having sex before marriage, living with someone who is unsaved, addicted to drugs or alcohol... and honestly, it’s not my place to judge! The Bible talks about all of those things, however, who are we to judge the lives of others. Aren’t we hear to share the Love is God? We all have one life. One small small life. We have one life that the Lord has given us and who are we to waste it on judging others. Not to say that we shouldn’t help those in need or give advice, but I think presenting judgment or giving advice are two different things. (In my opinion)

Also, judging others hurts the opportunity for others to believe. Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that good trees bear good fruit, while bad trees bear bad fruit. The church’s rejection of same-sex relationships has caused tremendous, needless suffering to the LGBT community—bad fruit. Those harmful consequences should make Christians open to reconsidering the church’s traditional teaching.

There is a lot more to being a Christian than first meets the eye. To follow Christ, we must study His life and see what He did and how He lived. The apostle Paul instructed Christians to “imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1, emphasis added throughout). We are to imitate or live our daily lives following Jesus’ example. Being a Christian goes far beyond just using the title “Christian” or having an emotional experience of “giving your heart to the Lord.”

The apostle John explained more about this in 1 John 2:6: “He who says he abides in Him [in Jesus Christ] ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”

How did Jesus live when He was on earth? The four Gospels in the New Testament describe Christ’s life day in and day out. He dedicated Himself to a life of service to God and to other people. He obeyed the laws and commandments of God and submitted His will to the Father’s will. Being a Christian involves a complete change—the Bible calls it repentance—which is to change from the way humans normally think and act.

There is so much in the Bible, and there is so much that I could write about "what a Christian should be" ... but in all reality, I have no say. Christianity (in my opinion) is about YOU and your relationship with GOD. That's it! No one can really talk or explain what "being a Christian" is because its not about the labels or anything else but the relationship you have with the Creator.