My wife and I were out with some friends recently. Good people... people whom my heart loves. People I genuinely enjoy being around. Some of them I hadn’t seen in quite a while because of the differences in our priorities. These are folks that I war for in prayer, people who refuse the truth about our Father and His Son.
As the day went on, the conversation drifted toward old stories. Old habits. Old versions of ourselves. The kind of things we used to do without giving them a second thought.
At one point, one of my friends looked at my wife and asked a question that created pause and garnered attention: “So… how Christian is he?” Meaning, something similar to “How changed and how committed is he really,” referring to me.
He wasn’t trying to be offensive. He wasn’t mocking me. In fact, it was a fair question from someone who had watched my life change over the years. He could tell a marked difference, which spoke volumes.
But the question revealed something I think many people misunderstand about Christianity. And that is that there is no Christian rating system. No scorecard or some sort of ranking chart. No “Level 3 Christian” who prays before meals and a “Level 10 Christian” who only listens to worship music and quotes Scripture every five minutes.
The world often sees Christianity as behavior modification. A list of things you must stop doing and a list of things you start doing. All of the sudden, maybe he doesn’t drink or cuss. He doesn’t want to watch this or do that or go there.
Do this. Do that. Do more. Try harder.
But that’s not Christianity. Christianity is not behavior management. Christianity is personal transformation. Behavior management says, “I’m trying to become a better person.” Transformation says, “Jesus is making me a new person.”
One focuses on external appearances, the other changes the heart.
When I stopped enjoying some of the things I used to enjoy, it wasn’t because someone handed me a rulebook. It wasn’t because a pastor told me I couldn’t do certain things. It wasn’t because I woke up one morning determined to become more religious. Something deeper happened- my desires changed.
The things that once seemed fulfilling started feeling empty. The conversations that once entertained me started feeling shallow.The places I once chased for satisfaction no longer satisfied me. Not because I became better than anyone of the people that I love immensely (and pray that the truth does reach them). Rather, it was because I became different.
There is an important distinction there.
Christians are not people who think they are better than everyone else. True Christians are simply people who have encountered Jesus and can no longer pretend they haven’t. And the good news that they have found to be evident, they want to share with others that they love so that they too will experience and have the same.
When you encounter Christ, He changes the lens through which you see everything. By this, I mean your priorities change. Your values change. Your perspective changes.
Not overnight in every area at once mayle, but intentionally, gradually and genuinely.
The Apostle Paul described it this way: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.”
Notice what he didn’t say: He didn’t say you become a better version of the old creation. He said you become a new creation. The goal of Christianity isn’t to clean up the old man. The goal is to become a new man.
That’s why asking, “How Christian is he?” misses the point. The real question isn’t: How religious is he? How moral is he? How many Christian things does he do? The real question is: Has Jesus changed him?
Because Christianity is not about accumulating spiritual points, it is about surrendering your life to Christ, the evidence isn’t perfection: the evidence is direction.
Do you still struggle? Sure.
Do you still fail? Absolutely.
Do you still need grace? Every single day.
But your heart is moving toward God instead of away from Him. The person you are becoming no longer resembles the person you were. Not because of your strength… because of His.
So if someone asks my wife again, “How Christian is he?”
I hope the answer isn’t measured by what I don’t do. I hope the answer is found in what Jesus has done. I don’t want to people to look at me and see my religion, my performance or my level of self-control.
But in a life that continues to be transformed by the Savior who refused to leave me where He found me. I just want her to say… he’s all in. 100% in. And that pretty much describes it to me.
~ Devin
