The False Price of Christian Membership

The False Price of Christian Membership

Psalm 78:1-4, 52-72
Exodus 16:27-36
Acts 15:1-5, 22-35

You Must Obey…who?

Ah, the silly fathers of the early church. So lost so confused. So sad. They really mucked up a lot of things for the rest of us from the very beginning.
We never should have had to “do” anything to “be” a “Christian”. No pledge of faith, no outward mark or sign, no public declaration, no baptisms… none of these things “make” a “Christian”. The sad fact is that there was never anything that any of us could do or say to “earn” us God’s Grace and love. It is a free gift (Rom 5:16-17, 6:23), and cannot be earned!
However, from the very first days of the Christian church, the church fathers screwed it all up and made it something to “earn” and “keep”.
For instance, we read in Acts 15:

• One faction of early church father’s (mostly converted Pharisaic Jews) demanded that all male converts, including Gentiles, must conform to and obey the Law of Moses (Torah). They believed that no man could be truly “Christian” without conforming to the rite of circumcision. That’s a tough sales pitch to any adult male, Gentile or not.
• Then there was another faction that believed that forcing non-Jewish males to be circumcised was wrong, yet they still required certain standards of their own: no eating of food sacrificed at altars, no eating animals that were strangled as part of their butchering, and no sexual immorality.

While it may seem that the anti-circumcision group was being a little more reasonable, both groups were wrong. Dead wrong.
For you see, Yeshua the Anointed (“Jesus Christ” to the unfamiliar) gave no such requirements on behavior. There was nothing that should be “done” to prove your “Christian status” except one, just one, demand:

The True Cost of Membership

John 13
34. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Become, Belove, Behold

No creeds, no secret handshake, no circumcision, no baptism, no anointing, no ritual… just… love!
“Being Christian” is not about something you can earn, it is about becoming something. It is about becoming the kind of soul that loves others as Christ loved us.
And it is so much harder than reciting a creed or eating a wafer.
To “be Christian” is to become love, to belove God and the universal family of God, and to behold True Grace as it flows from you to the world.
For the sake of the world and all the people in it.
Not for your sake.
Never for your sake.
That’s “being Christian”.