Christian or Less Christian?

I have, in the past few days, met a few friends who've been telling me that they've been criticized (or have been being criticized) and accused in one way or another by a group of people (most being their saved friends) of being "less Christian" or "less saved".

I have so badly wanted – and so desperately desired - to know where such referrals are being derived from, and why they have to be used on such a beautiful creation as I was then talking to. In such a way of wanting to understand, I have realized a few things which I choose to address in this post.

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To begin with, I have been asking myself: so there is a certain group of people who are more Christian than others? Anyway, what is that even supposed to mean: when one declares for all beautiful Heaven and unveiled earth to hear, “I am more Christian…!!??”

In certain contexts, this may not be debatable at all, but in other numerous ones, it is incredibly unscrupulous as far as Christian doctrine is concerned.

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It is true that the phrases more Christian and/or less Christian come from an urge within a people in Christianity who want to think that various attributes, factors and loyalism within the Christian life contribute to more or less spirituality amongst saints; and that various actions and deeds make one to be more or less pious/righteous as compared to a few others around them - who knowingly or not are the yard stick for such attributes.

I don’t deny that every Christian should possess certain habits and attributes to prove to the world and saints alike that they are now born again (Matthew 3:8 (ESV) Bear fruit in keeping with repentance and Ephesians 4:1 (ESV) I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,), but it is not true that all of us are able to achieve the same level of spirituality overnight. Also, putting in mind the kind of backgrounds we had before coming to Christ, and the different places where all we are from, it is impossible for the work of regeneration and transformation to Christlikeness to happen at the same rate within every Christian. The apostle Paul in Philippians 3:12 (ESV) “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” gives witness to this. We grow differently yeah, but we all seek to become like Christ in the long run.

From my observations, it is not normally spiritual maturity that is being measured in most cases when one is being referred to as more Christian or less Christian but an adherence to certain rules created by some of us and which we so wish to subject others to - weak and strong alike. It is then that we are justified to say that we are masters yielding a dogma which we use to enslave whosoever does not know, follow or obey it. This is evidentially seen in the Colossian church during Paul’s time when he warns them against such people; Colossians 2:8 (ESV) See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. But again if it is spiritual maturity that is being “measured” by such a people within us, and that spiritual maturity makes one more (or less) saved (or Christian), I reiterate that even THAT (the spiritual maturity) is a relative thing.

For instance, we may find masters of such a law claiming that once a lady wears a pair of trousers, even a very decent one in any case – and of course you may wish to debate the word decency as used here, which I don’t mind - or once a gentleman plaits his hair, they immediately cease to make any spiritual sense and become less Christian, less saved or worse still, apostate as they refer to them.

And these masters will want to make it a rule within a given congregation that if any lady wears a trouser, or a gentleman plaits his hair, they have denied the LORD. And if, they (these masters) are given more room to spread their yeast-like gospel (pseudo-gospel), even the weak and the new to the Christian walk will not attend church services in such a congregation or church for fear of being judged, prejudiced or maligned by them. Such a dogma is created to intimidate people into thinking that spirituality in a Christian context is a product of works/deeds and not of the work of grace by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the very thing the apostle Paul addresses in Ephesians 2:8 (ESV) > For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast…

But I want to speak out boldly and say that in any case where these masters would so much want to use spiritual maturity as the determining factor for anyone to call another more or less saved or (more or less Christian), the following should be considered;  

a)      Spiritual maturity is a relative thing. It is different things to different people all over the Christian world. Only God has the right gauge for who is spiritually mature and who is not. We may blabber all we want, but this is the truth. (I share below a few signs of spiritual maturity.)

b)      At different stages of spiritual maturity, we all tend to view life through different eyes, thus the tendency to think of others as less or more saved than others at these times. This is a proven truth. (One who is still growing spiritually will abhor certain things about people of which they will tolerate once they are at a certain level of maturity.)

c)      It is not they that “know” and quote scripture that are counted righteous before God, but those that are doers of that Word which they have heard. Just because one quotes the Word, talks about it, prays and fasts a lot and so forth and so on, it does not qualify them as being more Christian than others: Romans 2:13 (ESV) For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified; James 1:22 (ESV) But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

To add to this, every generation of these masters of a modified gospel has had its own way of defining “the more Christian” Christian, “the less Christian” Christian and of what is right and what is wrong. But they have altogether failed because whatever we think is right today, was so wrong a few decades ago. If those who existed then were to be put in today’s society, they may faint and die from “the supposed level of abomination that is present today.” It therefore indicates that this should not be the way we measure any society’s or congregation’s righteousness (that is if righteousness is something measurable by man), because man’s definition of what is or what is not righteous changes over time and within contexts (geologically, environmentally, culturally and socially.) Only God’s definition of holiness and righteousness is immutable.

For instance, when my dad was my age, the very musical instruments, types of singing and a dressing code we are so proud of today were termed as an abomination then.

Pastor Francis Chan is wrong in the following video when he says that lukewarm Christians are not saved: "Are Lukewarm Christians Saved". Salvation and being lukewarm are two separate things. Being lukewarm does not steal away one’s salvation, it only makes one a worldly Christian – the one the apostle John talk about in 1John 2:15 (ESV) Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; meaning that we cease to walk in God’s love when we become lukewarm, not that our salvation disappears at the point we become worldly/lukewarm… (Oh, I know this is a million times debatable, but that is my take.)

They once were saved before they became lukewarm, right? They are Christians, right? They are lukewarm Christians, not lukewarm pagans, right? It is true that they are not devoted to Christianity as to make them devoted Christians, but that does not mean that they are not saved. They have become cold to the voice of the Spirit of God – they are disobedient children of the same house, not disobedient children of another house.

If we were to say that every born again person who sins ceases to be Christian the moment they sin, it would be like saying a child ceases to belong to a family just by eating from another family (that is if eating from another family is denied in that family in the same way sin is denied within Christianity.)

It is not like I am trying to defend a state of being lukewarm but that I am trying to open our eyes to Truth. A child that has wronged the father does not cease to belong to the family unless they are snatched away or adopted by another family; that is if God is the father to the child and the child is completely adopted into another family, that is when the child ceases to be Christian (a child of God). Based on the above argument, it may therefore be right to say a Christian is lukewarm but not less Christian, but it not right to say that lukewarm Christians have lost their salvation. No.

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Below are my various views on this matter with Biblical references where it deems necessary;

1. The church or Christianity is for the lost, for the lonely, for the misfits, for the outcast and the maligned, for the rich and the poor, for both the so-called acceptable and the unacceptable in society; it is for everyone in this world, for all seeking to embrace the Savior unto perfection – becoming like Him both in word and deed. The person called a Christian is derived from all kinds of people all over the world, and anyone qualifies to be called thus so long as they accept to terms and conditions I mention below in point number 9 below.
2. Christianity is a process of increasing sanctification – no one becomes perfect overnight, nor do we become like Jesus with the twinkling of an eye after confessing Him into our lives! (Philippians 3:12 (ESV) Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own; Romans 12:2 (ESV) Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
3. Being spiritual and being spiritually mature are two very different things. Being spiritual is relatively anything from adhering to worship towards a deity to having rules that govern a manner of worship; but being spiritually mature has to follow the rules in point number 7 below.
4. These two: a born again person and a Christian are one and the same thing; and we should put in mind that both refer to the changed person as a result of what happens in point number 9 below and not just lip service and a form of godliness. 
5. In such cases as when referring to a given person regarding the services they offer to the church or the community, I would suggest the following (using a rapper as an example); there is actually no difference between "a Christian rapper" and "a rapper who is Christian", "Christian rap" and "rap that is Christian". This is because even if the singer is a follower of Jesus Christ, there should not be an issue with whether he/she is “a Christian rapper” or “a rapper that is Christian”. If the transformation due to the presence of Christ in their lives is evident, you can call them anything you want, but that won’t change who they are. This is addressed a bit in this article.

6. It is actually abnormal to think a lady as Christian just because they dress in a certain way which we observers think is good. It is also wrong to think that because she wears in a certain manner, she is diabolic. (Are catholic nuns more holy and righteous before God than Joyce Meyer just because they wear “good clothing”? Who is this that determines what good clothing is anyway?) In this line of thought, it is also feeble of mind to think of all men who plait their hair, wear studs, have bling (sic), do tattoos and so forth and so on to be “less Christian” on the account of what we see. Heaven may tell you something else in the long run, by the way.
7. A spiritually mature person has the following abilities;

a)      The ability to distinguish good from evil: Heb 5:14 (ESV) “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

b)      The ability not to judge except for offering positive rebuke/criticism and bearing with the weak in spiritual matters. Rom 14:1 (ESV) As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions; Rom 14:10 (ESV) Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 1Corinthians 13:6 (ESV) it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

c)      The ability to love others as they love themselves in all things Matthew 7:12 (ESV) “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

d)     Spirit filled Romans 8:9 (ESV) You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

8. Nothing makes anyone pure or impure except for what they conceive that yields whatever comes out of them. Mark 7:18-23 (ESV) And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” ( Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person”; Acts 10:15 (ESV) And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
9. We are qualified to be Christians through the confession we make (Romans 10:10 (ESV) For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved) and birth by the Holy Spirit into the family of God after the confession is made (John 1:12-13 (ESV) But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God and Romans 8:9 (ESV) You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.)

Conclusion

Here is C S Lewis’s take on who is the person that should be called Christian (from Mere Christianity):

“Far deeper objections may be felt-and have been expressed- against my use of the word Christian to mean one who accepts the common doctrines of Christianity. People ask: ‘Who are you, to lay down who is, and who is not a Christian?’ or ‘May not many a man who cannot believe these doctrines be far more truly a Christian, far closer to the spirit of Christ, than some who do?’ Now this objection is in one sense very right, very charitable, very spiritual, very sensitive…

“Now if once we allow people to start spiritualising and refining, or as they might say ‘deepening,’ the sense of the word Christian, it too will speedily become a useless word. In the first place, Christians themselves will never be able to apply it to anyone. It is not for us to say who, in the deepest sense, is or is not close to the spirit of Christ. We do not see into men's hearts. We cannot judge, and are indeed forbidden to judge.

It would be wicked arrogance for us to say that any man is, or is not, a Christian in this refined sense. And obviously a word which we can never apply is not going to be a very useful word. As for the unbelievers, they will no doubt cheerfully use the word in the refined sense. It will become in their mouths simply a term of praise. In calling anyone a Christian they will mean that they think him a good man. But that way of using the word will be no enrichment of the language, for we already have the word good. Meanwhile, the word Christian will have been spoiled for any really useful purpose it might have served.

“We must therefore stick to the original, obvious meaning. The name Christians was first given at Antioch (Acts 11:26) to "the disciples," to those who accepted the teaching of the apostles. There is no question of its being restricted to those who profited by that teaching as much as they should have. There is no question of its being extended to those who in some refined, spiritual inward fashion were ‘far closer to the spirit of Christ’ than the less satisfactory of the disciples. The point is not a theological, or moral one. It is only a question of using words so that we can all understand what is being said. When a man who accepts the Christian doctrine lives unworthily of it, it is much clearer to say he is a bad Christian than to say he is not a Christian…"

Although there is a measure for spiritual maturity; although we should be careful when we use such a measurement against others so that we may not come out as thinking of ourselves as "more spiritual" than others, because by so doing, we may end up sinning.
(1 Corinthians 8:1-3 (ESV) Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God; Romans 12:3 (ESV) For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.)

Bonface Morris.