Am I a good Christian?
Jan 22, 2020 15:14:35 GMT -6
Thomas Eversole, nocturnaliridescence, and 1 more like this
Post by Madelyn on Jan 22, 2020 15:14:35 GMT -6
Obviously, the answer should be an emphatic "Yes." And it should also be a shameful "No." In two different contexts of the word 'should'. Of course, every Christian should aspire towards the goal of being able to say that, yes, indeed they are a very good Christian, and that is something to be greatly desired. But, if we're being honest, the only answer any Christian can give is that they are not very good.
But let us suppose we were to create a metric in order to judge one another objectively, and God decided to allow us this curiosity for a time. A metric where every deed and misdeed could be weighed, and all of them in a person's life could be then tallied up to arrive at a total. Would I be nearer to the middle? The bottom? The top? It certainly shouldn't matter, as already in the name we find that we are all Christians, and then weighing each other's goodness is meaningless and in fact impossible for us. But suppose we could, and suppose it was not a colossal waste of time.
I have to wonder, as a person of numbers and charts and data and statistics, where I lie. Even if God doesn't care so much, and I don't ultimately care myself of the result. Just looking at the data would not only be a learning experience, likely the most interesting and influential of my entire life, but I would like to believe it would encourage me to work hard to raise my standing. Even though I know, even now, that trying to raise my standing among other Christians by being more good than them would only be the height of pride, which would serve to do nothing more than cause my ranking to plummet. Perhaps I would be blessed and find myself only humbled by what I find.
But who then is the best Christian ever?
Some unlearned or merely slightly misinformed people might cite Jesus himself. That's nonsense, however, as Jesus was not a Christian at all. He was a Jew. The very best Jew ever, for certain, but a Jew and not a Christian. The same would apply to John the Baptist, who of all the people that were not Christians, is uniquely qualified to be argued to have been one. As John the Baptist knew quite well that Jesus, specifically, was the one sent to die on the cross for our sins. Still, since he died before this happened, John the Baptist was incapable of being a Christian.
What of the saints, then? Peter? I think not. My father has a rather apt quip regarding Peter, that he only ever opened his mouth to switch feet. And if the very best of us were to be a man who denied Christ three times in one day, that should be a very sad statement about the rest of us, wouldn't you think? How about Paul? Well, we should all be familiar with all the things Paul did before becoming a Christian. He himself admitted that he was full of sin in Romans 7, that by learning the law of God his heart was filled with sin. Not the mark of an especially good Christian.
Perhaps some more recent examples. Let us investigate the candidacy of the Martin Luthers. All three, Martin Luther, King, and Jr, great and good men by our accounts, I should think that each would understand enough given their positions that none of them would waste any time in declaring "Of course I am a sinner. I would never presume to be a good Christian." I can't imagine any of them would say anything to the contrary. Only a simple or foolish Christian, which I do not believe these men were, would claim to be a good Christian. They might surely find it offensive to even ask!
So how could I, knowing not even the extent of my own sin, let alone the virtues and vices of anyone else, be so vain as to claim I was a good Christian? If I'm being truthful, I could not even say I'm trying my best. I know I can do better. As Paul says of himself in Romans 7:19, "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing." Any Christian who cannot say the same either does not properly understand sin and righteousness, or he is not a Christian at all.
All things said, with the understanding that this is a pedantic and worthless topic to indulge in considering, I think at some point it must become clear to everyone from Saint Peter all the way to myself, that if God so desired to torment us for whatever reason with a list of the top one hundred most good Christians ever, neither he, nor I, nor you, would recognize a single name on the list. All the most famous Christian names throughout history would be absent, and we would be left baffled. The Lord would only ask us, "What? I thought it was obvious. How could you not come to the same conclusion?"
But, being the God that he is, he would never do such a thing. And so, though I know it will not be, I would hope this might be the final word any Christian offers on the topic of whether or not they, or any other, is being a good Christian. It is not ours to decide.
But let us suppose we were to create a metric in order to judge one another objectively, and God decided to allow us this curiosity for a time. A metric where every deed and misdeed could be weighed, and all of them in a person's life could be then tallied up to arrive at a total. Would I be nearer to the middle? The bottom? The top? It certainly shouldn't matter, as already in the name we find that we are all Christians, and then weighing each other's goodness is meaningless and in fact impossible for us. But suppose we could, and suppose it was not a colossal waste of time.
I have to wonder, as a person of numbers and charts and data and statistics, where I lie. Even if God doesn't care so much, and I don't ultimately care myself of the result. Just looking at the data would not only be a learning experience, likely the most interesting and influential of my entire life, but I would like to believe it would encourage me to work hard to raise my standing. Even though I know, even now, that trying to raise my standing among other Christians by being more good than them would only be the height of pride, which would serve to do nothing more than cause my ranking to plummet. Perhaps I would be blessed and find myself only humbled by what I find.
But who then is the best Christian ever?
Some unlearned or merely slightly misinformed people might cite Jesus himself. That's nonsense, however, as Jesus was not a Christian at all. He was a Jew. The very best Jew ever, for certain, but a Jew and not a Christian. The same would apply to John the Baptist, who of all the people that were not Christians, is uniquely qualified to be argued to have been one. As John the Baptist knew quite well that Jesus, specifically, was the one sent to die on the cross for our sins. Still, since he died before this happened, John the Baptist was incapable of being a Christian.
What of the saints, then? Peter? I think not. My father has a rather apt quip regarding Peter, that he only ever opened his mouth to switch feet. And if the very best of us were to be a man who denied Christ three times in one day, that should be a very sad statement about the rest of us, wouldn't you think? How about Paul? Well, we should all be familiar with all the things Paul did before becoming a Christian. He himself admitted that he was full of sin in Romans 7, that by learning the law of God his heart was filled with sin. Not the mark of an especially good Christian.
Perhaps some more recent examples. Let us investigate the candidacy of the Martin Luthers. All three, Martin Luther, King, and Jr, great and good men by our accounts, I should think that each would understand enough given their positions that none of them would waste any time in declaring "Of course I am a sinner. I would never presume to be a good Christian." I can't imagine any of them would say anything to the contrary. Only a simple or foolish Christian, which I do not believe these men were, would claim to be a good Christian. They might surely find it offensive to even ask!
So how could I, knowing not even the extent of my own sin, let alone the virtues and vices of anyone else, be so vain as to claim I was a good Christian? If I'm being truthful, I could not even say I'm trying my best. I know I can do better. As Paul says of himself in Romans 7:19, "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing." Any Christian who cannot say the same either does not properly understand sin and righteousness, or he is not a Christian at all.
All things said, with the understanding that this is a pedantic and worthless topic to indulge in considering, I think at some point it must become clear to everyone from Saint Peter all the way to myself, that if God so desired to torment us for whatever reason with a list of the top one hundred most good Christians ever, neither he, nor I, nor you, would recognize a single name on the list. All the most famous Christian names throughout history would be absent, and we would be left baffled. The Lord would only ask us, "What? I thought it was obvious. How could you not come to the same conclusion?"
But, being the God that he is, he would never do such a thing. And so, though I know it will not be, I would hope this might be the final word any Christian offers on the topic of whether or not they, or any other, is being a good Christian. It is not ours to decide.