What Is A Christian?

This question comes up in a lot of political discussions, particularly when the not-particularly-religious run out of arguments and seek to hammer the religious for not being kind enough to agree with them. The most typical formulation is "How can you claim to be a christian and yet support....?"

WordGirl and I have a pretty simple definition of what it means to be a christian that you might find useful for these and other situations. It isn't fancy, it isn't the height of theology, but it boils it down for us.

A christian is one who believes Jesus Christ is the path to God, and whom is striving to move closer to God along Christ's path.

If you believe Christ is the way to God, but choose not to follow his path, you're no more a christian than a person who sits at home listening to a police band radio is a policeman, or a person with season tickets to NFL games is a football player.

If you strive to become closer to God, but do not believe Christ is the way to do so, you may be a pious Jew or Muslim, but you're not a christian.

The "striving to move closer to God" part seems to be the most controversial piece, but we all know people who profess a christian faith but live in a manner indistinguishable from atheists.

The "striving" verb is important---note that at any given moment we may actually be moving away from God through sin. Christians are sinners too, but are distinguished in part by trying not to sin, and expressing remorse, contrition, and repentance when we do.

In any case, it works for us, and may work for you.