The Moralistic Believer

THERE’S MORE TO BEING A CHRISTIAN THAN FOLLOWING A CHECKLIST

What was your score? Would you believe me if I said you could do all these things and still not be a Christian? I bet there are more boxes with other “good” Christian things you could check, but that’s not all there is to being a Christian. There is a lot more to being a follower and disciple of Jesus Christ than looking like a good person.  

More than Morals

Christians are simply people who love God. In The Atlantic, Ed Stetzer, president of Lifeway Research, says, “75 percent of Americans who self-identify as Christian are divided into three roughly equal groups. ‘Cultural Christians’ are Christians by heritage only. They do not practice a vibrant faith. ‘Congregational Christians’ have some connection to a church and may even occasionally attend, but like ‘Cultural Christians,’ they are not very faithful. Only the ‘Convictional Christians’ truly count as worshippers, for they orient their lives around faith in Jesus Christ.” Adding on religion might seem like a practical and easy step, but in the Bible, Jesus calls those who would follow Him to “deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). However, being a Christian in our culture often looks like a weekend habit or a charitable belief that there is a God. Those looking in may distrust or even mock the professed believer because they act like everyone else despite their list of religious activities and views.

The Heart Issue

My parents once sat me down and told me that I did all the “right” things, but there was still something wrong. They diagnosed me with a heart issue, saying, “Your heart needs to change before anything else will.” My parents went on to tell me that I laid down my love, time, and energy for my friends, but my attitude towards God seemed cold. Their warning fell on deaf ears because I did not want to hear their words. I believed I was doing everything and more that a Christian should be doing. Compared to my friends and those around me, I was a great Christian. The only problem with this picture was that my heart wasn’t affected. 

More than a Checklist

Matthew 6:21 says, “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” When people place their hope in Jesus, their desires become aligned with what He desires. The Bible becomes more than a checklist of rules to follow. In the Gospel of Luke, a lawyer tried to test Jesus by asking how to gain eternal life and about Jesus’ interpretation of the Old Testament law. Jesus responded with, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). God’s desire for us is to know Him through our relationship with Jesus. He gives us new passions and purpose to love God with our lives through His Word. 

When we desire to love God and follow Him, we have the freedom and ability to do His will when we have a relationship with Jesus. It’s not a list of things that will make us look like a “good” person or a way to compare ourselves to others. Jesus simply tells us to deny ourselves and follow Him (Matthew 16:24). A Christian might do some of the things listed, but it’s more simple than that. It’s not about the stuff you do; it’s about who you love.