"Christian" is not an adjective

I’m not going to lie. I hated English class.

Being home-schooled by a grammar Nazi pretty much instilled this disdain in me from an early age. I mean really, who cares about verb-tense, or prepositional phrases?

Well, all this changed around 10th grade for me. I began to gain an appreciation for the things I had been taught and the way I had been taught them. English became enjoyable (except diagramming, ugh) to study and understand.


Grammatically speaking every sentence should have a noun and a verb. For example, the word Christian is a noun. A Christian is a person who follows Jesus. Follow is a verb.

Jesus used verbs all the time. Verbs like love, come, rest, learn, hear, etc. But somewhere along the line, we tried to make Christian an adjective instead of being about verbs.

“There is no such thing a Christian Democrat”

“I love Christian comedy!”

“There is no such thing as Christian *Insert Noun*”

These are all phases that we have heard at some point, and if we are being honest, we have probably used them ourselves. What I would like to submit, is that there is no ‘Christian’ anything.

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot said in an interview, “I am a Christian and I make music. The music is not saved. It is not Christian.” Whether we agree with him on everything or not, he had the right idea.

Around 300 AD the word Christendom was coined, which is just another word for “Christian culture” (For more in Christendom, click here). This can be seen evidently in the “Bible Belt” where to be a Christian just means to be part of that ‘southern’, conservative, culture.

Ethan Renoe put it like this, 

“When Christianity became widely accepted across western culture and Christendom became the predominant form of belief and action, this made room for “Christian things” to emerge.

And this is where the problem lies. Going back to what Jon Foreman said, there are no Christian ‘things’ but only people that follow Christ who do things. This is the type of people that we should be, and this is the type of action that we should be showing to the world. We ought not be seeking out a ‘Christian’ politician (we can see where that has gotten us) but we do need politicians who are followers of Christ.

By decreasing Christianity to an adjective, we as stated by Tullian Tchividjian, “fail to equip our people to apply their Christian faith to everything they do, everywhere they are.”

The world does not need more Christian sports heroes, Christian actors, or Christian business owners. The world needs more people who are following Christ, acting like Christ, and telling people about Christ, while operating our daily lives for His glory. May we be the ones that fix this!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Abrahamic Promise: The Life of Jacob

Image
How do the elements of the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 play out in the life of Jacob in Genesis? The promise of being a great nation is seen most clearly in the life of Jacob. He was the father unto those that would quite literally be called the children of Israel. The decedents of his sons would go on to make up the twelve tribes of Israel. God promised to bless Abraham. Even being the second born and not in line for the blessing and birthright of his father, we find Jacob being blessed. (Genesis 27:30) God promised to make his name great. Like his father Abraham, God did make the name of Jacob great. In a similar fashion to his grandfather, Jacob’s name was changed to Israel and would forever be known. God promised Abraham he would be a blessing. Like his father before him, Jacob was a blessing to his family. Jacob blessed his children in instructing them in the ways they should continue. (Genesis 49:1) In an extended way, we see the nations blessed by Jacob throug...
Read more

His Mercies are More (John Newton - 1767)

Image
“I can truly say, that I bear you upon my heart and in my prayers. I have rejoiced to see the beginning of a good and gracious work in you. And I have confidence in the Lord Jesus, that He will carry it on and complete it and that you will be amongst the number of those who shall sing redeeming love to eternity. Therefore fear none of the things appointed for you to suffer by the way. But gird up the loins of your mind, and hope to the end. Be not impatient, but wait humbly upon the Lord. You have one hard lesson to learn, that is, the evil of your own heart. You know something of it, but it is needful that you should know more. For the more we know of ourselves, the more we shall prize and love Jesus and His salvation. I hope what you find in yourself by daily experience will humble you, but not discourage you: humble you it should, and I believe it does. Are not you amazed sometimes that you should have so much as a hope, that, poor and needy as you are, the Lord thinketh of you? But...
Read more

Can Christian Have Homosexual Thoughts?

Image
Can someone who is Christian have homosexual thoughts/lusts?  They most certainly can! Every person, no matter who they are, will deal with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). This is the consequence of the fall, but there may be differences in the exact ways that it affects us (1 Cor. 6:11).   We are not given the choice on how the fall shows itself in our lives. We must realize that the fight against the temptation to sin is a fierce and seemingly endless, but the fight itself is not sin. Temptation only becomes sin when we yield to it. Even though regeneration kills the old man in Christ, we still carry the habits of that old nature (Rom. 7). No matter what these habits are, they may not just disappear when they are born again. We do not put our faith in Christ to get rid of homosexual or any other sinful desire, we do not put our faith in Christ to become morally upright, but we put our faith in Christ to gain Christ ...
Read more