I am Not a Christian

I am not a Christian.

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ.

If this sounds weird, if it freaks some of us Christians out, then it is good to consider this.

To be frank, telling people that I am a disciple does make me a little uncomfortable.  It means I don’t just go to church on Sundays or even on another weekday.  It means that I’m not just a nice person who helps out in Sunday School.  

It means I don’t just subscribe to a system of beliefs that perhaps tell us that Jesus came two thousand years ago to die for my sins and then rose from the dead, that because I believe in that I have a ticket to Heaven when I die.

Like the Tooth Fairy story…

A system of beliefs that affects only the afterlife is easy to hold on to.  No one can readily dispute about what happens beyond the grave.  It’s just a set of beliefs that Christians subscribe to.  Of course, then there’s the need to try to live by “Christian values” to complete the whole package.

But Jesus never called us to be Christians.  He called us to be His disciples.

I am called to be a disciple.  It means I sit at the feet of a real person.  I listen closely to Him and draw from His teachings.  I walk life with Him, aspiring to be like Him and growing in that direction.  I learn more about His character daily and understand increasingly His nature.  Studying His personality and marvelling at it should be an everyday part of my life.  It should manifest itself in me liking what He likes, thinking like He does, speaking His kind of words.  I should do more of what He does as I see the world more through His eyes.  Yes, present tense; for I claim that He is in me and one with me.  I should be willing to give up what He gave up to do what He did.  There should be a time when if people see me, they see Him because His very self has just rubbed itself off onto me.  They don’t discover as an eventuality that I go to a church to pay homage to Him on Sundays but realise that I am His disciple.

I am not trying to be a good Christian.  I am becoming like Jesus through knowing Him.

I am not a Christian.

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ.