Real Christians Are Different

"Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too." (From Philippians 2 in the New Living Translation)

Did you ever see the bumper sticker that says, "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven." That is a true statement, but I wonder if it gives the wrong impression to some people? It is possible that such a statement could leave someone with the attitude, "I am not perfect but I am forgiven and on my way to Heaven so it doesn't matter how I live."

It is true that if we confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God has raised Him from the dead we will be saved (Romans 10). But Jesus said that not everyone who calls Him Lord will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Christians were wicked sinners who heard the Gospel and realized there was nothing they could ever do to make themselves right with God. They became God's children by grace through faith and God forgave their sin. God brought them alive. They were born again. He created them anew, spiritually, and gave them a new, second nature.

If people are truly Christians -- or Christ followers -- they begin to think differently than they used to think. They feel differently than they used to feel. Their behavior changes, too. Yet, while we are still on this earth, we will also keep the old, sinful nature. (See Romans 7) We will be tempted to behave in our old ways, and there will be times when we yield to temptation and sin against God. We will find ourselves needing to repent of our wrong thoughts, feelings and actions. And God WILL forgive, just as He promised.

When I used to work in the laboratory, there were a lot of warning labels there for our protection: "CAUTION FLAMMABLE", "POISON", "ACID".  We knew what those labels meant and what needed to be done in order to handle them safely. There were other labels that simply identified what was inside the container: "DISTILLED WATER", for example. Christians wear an invisible label of sorts that identifies them as "NEW CREATURE".

Christians make mistakes and we will sin. We will "blow it"!  But if we are truly followers of Christ, God is making us more and more like Jesus. In our hearts we will not want to live the old way. It will be our desire to live for Christ and be obedient to what He expects of us. We will be different. We need to take a look at ourselves and ask, "am I for real?