Five ways people will know you are a Christian

If someone were to describe your life as a Christian what words would they use? Jesus said we would be know as his disciples because of our love for one another. Just by looking at your lifestyle can it be said that you are a Christian?

Here is an early description: The second century document called The Letter to Diognetus offers one of the most powerful and eloquent apologies for the Christian faith in its description of the early Christians. 

 “For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric lifestyle. This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the thought and reflection of ingenious men, nor do they promote any human doctrine, as some do. But while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship. They live in their own countries, but only as aliens; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign. They marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not expose their offspring.

The Reality of your "Status"

With our cooperation, the phenomenon of social media is increasingly putting our lives on display. There was a time when we created our own status through hard work, education, or material gain; in other cases, our status – defined by a lack of these attributes – was imposed on us. But with Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites, status is now something we simply declare. A perusal of these sites will clue you into what is happening in the lives of your friends and acquaintances, with all of the moment-by-moment graphic details. Declaring our status in this way has become a new extension of an old idolatry. Ever since Adam and Eve hid in the garden attempting to cover the shame of their sin, humanity has continued to follow in this never-ending quest to hide, justify, and manage what others see.

We do this, I think, not only to manage what others see, but also and more profoundly, we attempt to manage what God sees.  And of course this is a foolish and impossible task. Consider the words of 2 Chronicles 16:9: “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen the hearts of those fully committed to him.” No matter how desperately we attempt to hide from God, or each other, or even from ourselves, these attempts will always eventually leave us exposed to the elements of our own demise. Our identities become manufactured, photo-shopped expressions of who we wish we were. The comments we leave on the “walls” of others reinforce our preoccupation with splinters while we are pupil-deep with two-by-fours. As Tim Keller observes, “When your meaning in life is to fix someone else’s life, we may call it ‘co-dependency’ but it is really idolatry. An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, ‘If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.’ There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship with something, but perhaps the best one is worship.”

The Bible has a lot to say about the reality of our status. Ephesians 2:1 puts it simply, saying, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.” Our status wasn’t one of being sick or impaired – we were dead. And no matter how much we try to cover, hide, or perfume it, the stench of death at work in us remains. Death is a status that requires nothing short of a resurrection.

Because God in his word tells the truth about our status, he then has the power to supernaturally change that status. This is the power of the gospel to transform our lives, and move us from “death to life.” Jesus declared in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”  This is a truth Paul makes abundantly clear as we continue to read in Ephesians 2:4-5: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved.”

Our status has been transformed in Christ, so that now our identity and activity – all of it – flows from him. So the next time you update your “status,” remember this: for those who are in Christ, our eternal status is the declared righteousness of Jesus, along with the joy and peace this brings.