What Is A Christian? Series

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.” [1]

A little boy once asked his father, “Daddy, what is a Christian?” The dad patiently explained to his son what it is to be a Christian and all that God does in the life of a Christian. He spoke of the change God creates in the life of a Christian, giving careful attention to the evidence that Christ rules in the life of the Christian. When the father had at last given his best effort at describing what a Christian is, completing his explanation, the little boy asked, “Daddy, do we know one?”

What is a Christian? As an unbelieving world looks at the way you and I live out our lives before that world, would they be able to say what a Christian is by the evidence witnessed through how we live? How would you describe what a Christian is to someone inquiring what a Christian is? Should the people who live around you ask, “What is a Christian?” how will you respond to their question?

The little letter Jude wrote is addressed to a specific people. He identifies those to whom he wrote by means of the characteristics given in the opening verse of this brief missive. The letter is addressed to “those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.” And these words provide us with an understanding of what a Christian should look like.

The term “Christian,” carries different meanings in the estimate of different people. The term has become confused in the mind of many who assume that a Christian is anyone living in the western world. The assumption is that anyone from Canada, from the United States, from Australia, or from most European nations must be a Christian. Most Canadians think of themselves as being Christian, though the percentage of those actively participating in a religious organisation associated with Christendom are a distinct minority in the nation. By this criterion, anyone from India is a Hindu, a person from Gaza, Iran, or Syria must be a Muslim, and anyone from Israel is deemed to be a Jew. Even a brief consideration of that idea will prove it is errant. Followers of Christ are found throughout the world, though they may be a minority within their home nation.

It may interest you to know that the followers of the Risen Christ were not identified as Christians at the first. The earliest worshippers of Jesus—He is the Christ—were referred to as “Followers of The Way.” They were seen as a sect of the Jews, in no small measure because those first followers were themselves Jewish. Those who opposed the worship of Jesus as the Christ spoke of these first followers of Jesus as “The Way.” This was appropriate as the worshippers themselves identified as “The Way.”

In ACTS 9:1-2, we read, “Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”

We are given an account of opposition to Paul’s message as he ministered in Ephesus. It was at that time that we are told, “[Paul] entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus” [ACTS 19:8-9]. Later, in this same chapter, Doctor Luke writes about a riot in the city of Ephesus arising when certain individuals took offense at the group they identified as “The Way” [see ACTS 19:8-9]. Thus, we see that “The Way” was the identifying term to speak of those who worshipped the Risen Saviour.

When Paul presented his defense before Felix, he identified himself as belonging to “The Way.” Luke records Paul’s defense in this fashion, “Knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense. You can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem, and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city. Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man” [ACTS 24:10-16].