The Measure of a Christian

Ever ask yourself the question, “How am I doing in my Christian walk?”

What we’re talking about here is that big theological word “sanctification” which just means God makes us more and more like Him the more we spend time with Him.  Someone once told me sanctification is like going to the end of the Santa Monica Pier and trying to jump to Catalina Island 26 miles away.  Some will get closer than others, but no one is going to reach it or even come close.  We’ll never reach perfection this side of heaven, but we should see improvement.

We wonder how we’re doing.  We’re human.  God recognizes this desire and gives us “tape measures” to tell us where we are in our Christian walk.  One of these is found in Galatians 5:22-23, 

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

These fruit of the Spirit shouldn’t be goals in our lives so much as symptoms of a Christian walk.  If we have yielded our lives to God’s Spirit, we should see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control increase in us.  The amount of increase of these traits in our lives should give us a good idea of our progress.  Do we see we are more loving, joyful, peaceful, etc. than we were, say, five years ago?  We should be if we are letting God work in us.

Another “measuring tape” is found in 1 Cor. 13: 4-7, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

To check how you’re doing, replace the word “love” in the passage with your name: “Mike is patient and kind; Mike does not envy or boast….”  You get the picture.  Most of us are embarrassed when we read the text that way, but it’s a good indicator how much we are or aren’t releasing control of our lives to the Holy Spirit.

The natural reaction to all of this is, “I need to be more loving, I need to be more patient to people, I’ll be kinder.  I’ll work on my envy and boasting, etc.” when the real response should be, “I need to spend more time with the Lord and in His Word.”  By building up our relationship with God and letting go of our flesh, these traits will automatically follow.  The more God is revealed in our lives, the less prominent we become.  That’s the Christian goal, isn’t it, the world seeing more of God and less of us?

True, God gives us commands such as at the end of James chapter 1 where He says, “This is pure and undefiled religion, to visit orphans and widows in their distress….”  These are things Christians should be doing.  Since God’s Word reveals His nature to us, obeying His commands joyfully indicates a change of mind and heart in us.  The more we let God take control of us, the more we understand God, and the more of us we want to give up to Him.

Augustine said we must believe in order to understand anything about God.  That sounds like a cop-out for Christians.  It sounds like our beliefs are based on blind faith, but they aren’t.  Augustine was brought to Christ through intense questioning of some passing evangelists and accepting the rational arguments they presented.  What Augustine meant was that the more we believe in God, the closer we walk with Him and the better we will understand His ways.

To summarize, we can measure how we’re doing in our walk with Christ by looking at our lives.  We should see fruit and more of it every day.  If we’re letting God work in us, there should be a noticeable change.  If there is no change, maybe we might look at our relationship with God.  Are we talking with Him?  Do we listen for His voice?  Do we read the Bible?  If we’re not seeing fruit in our lives, that’s the fix.

If you have a comment, question, of criticism you would like to see addressed on this blog, please mention it in the comments square or email me at AnswersAZ@gmail.com