Instead of asking how our society defines a Christian, maybe the better question is, how do you define a Christian?  Typically in the church you will hear that a Christian is defined as Jesus Christ in one, as meaning Jesus living in the person who believes.  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Christian as “a person who believes in the teachings of Jesus Christ” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Christian).  What does it mean to “believe” in Jesus’ teachings?  To me, believing in His teachings is living out His teachings.  Jesus taught us many things, but he said of most importance is The Great Command.  The passage from Mark reads:

“One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, ‘What commandment is the foremost of all?’  Jesus answered, ‘The foremost is, “HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD YOUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.” And the second is this, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”  There is no other commandment greater than these’” (Mark 12:28-31, NASB).

One thing I have learned in life is that you cannot give what you do not have.  This love we are called to give to God is a love that is much bigger than we can choose to do on our own.  It is a desperate love of completeness without even a hint of reservation or concern.  The only way to obtain a love so vast is to first receive the fullness of the love of God.  This means we must accept the fact that God loves you just how you are!  God loves you unconditionally!

We must receive the love of God before we could ever think about loving God in return.  One of the greatest withholdings of God’s love is that we believe we have to first clean ourselves up before God can love us.  We read Paul’s writings such as in Colossians as stating, “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry” (Col. 3:5, NASB), and believe that we need to try and stop doing these things on our own effort to bring death to the desires of the flesh.  This misconception has come from teaching the need of obedience to Biblical law, which the devil is okay with, because he knows this doesn’t work.  We must come to the understanding that our death to the sinful nature of the flesh starts with receiving the love of God.

To me, one of the greatest teachings in Scripture is found in the gospel John, chapters 13-17, because these teachings are directly from the mouth of Jesus.  In chapter 17, Jesus prayed first for the current disciples and then he prayed for those who would believe through the disciples teachings; us.  Jesus concludes His prayer to God by stating, “and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26, NASB).  The desire of God the Father in sending Jesus to be our sacrificial lamb was for us to receive the love Jesus had from the Father.  God desired for you to receive His love first and foremost, so that Jesus could fully be in you.

This is being a CHRISTian; receiving God’s complete love, so Jesus can be in one.  Simply ask God to help you receive His love in full.  Then ask Him to help you love Him in return with that love He has given you.  Throughout every day ask for more of God’s love; for Him to continually help you receive His love so you can give more love to Him and fulfill The Great Command.  This is when you see your nature change and Paul’s inspired words from God take effect.

I desire to live a Faith-Full life, in the fullness of His love, as a CHRISTian.