True Christianity

QUESTION: What is True Christianity?

ANSWER:

True Christianity has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with relationship. The very word Christian means "little Christ" or "Christ-like."

God created each one of us to have a personal, intimate, growing relationship with Him. Everything else that He has planned for us flows out of that relationship.

Let's compare this relationship to a marriage—a wonderful, nurturing, growing, loving marriage. Most of us would not say, "I'm married" if, in fact, we were not. Going to a wedding does not mean that you are married. The relationship starts long before the ceremony. First, two people meet. There you have initial contact, on a surface level. Christianity has this same step. When did you first hear about Christ? What was your first response to Him? I believe your first response to Him would have been influenced by what it was you heard about Him, and who it was you heard it from.

After the initial meeting, when you show interest, you don't just say, "Okay, we're married now." No, you get to know the person better, possibly even through writing love letters to one another. Guess what? God has written you the longest, most tender, most beautiful, most revealing Love Letter in history! It's the Bible. In this Love Letter, He reveals to us who He is, and how much He loves us.

You might have God's Love Letter somewhere in your home. If not, you can find it online. We should make it a point to read it daily, hungrily, to reveal more and more about God's love and who He is to us!

From the "courting" stage, the relationship proceeds to the commitment level. This is where you decide that you want to be true only to this One. It's important to note; however, that at this point you don't stop spending time with them and assume you know all there is to know about them. That would be crazy, wouldn't it?

True Christianity – Developing the Relationship
So many Christians seem to think that once they commit to Christ, they don't have to have personal contact with Him anymore. No, as in marriage, your Christian relationship requires constant interaction with the One you love. No relationship can grow, or even maintain itself, if time is not spent together.

• Communication is so important in a relationship. This means verbal interaction between you and God. This is simply you talking to Him (prayer) knowing that He's listening to you, and you hearing from Him. He speaks to us through His Word, the Bible. So how can we expect to hear from Him if we don't spend time daily reading what He has to say to us?
  
  
• The marriage relationship also has another correlation—fidelity. You would never go into a marriage planning to have other relationships. Why would we enter into a salvation relationship with God thinking that our love can be shared with other "gods."
  
  
• When you truly love someone, you want to spend time with them. And through spending time with them, you come to know what things really make them happy, and what things cause them pain. When you truly love someone, you want to do only what pleases them, and you want to avoid what causes them pain. It is the same with our relationship with Christ. And when we start living like that, we are living as He did, pleasing to the Father, rather than grieving Him, and in so doing, we are being "little Christ's" or "Christ-like."

So, you see, Christianity is not about going through the motions of any religion. It's purely about the personal, intimate, growing, fruitful relationship that we have with God through Christ.

When we see Christianity as a religion, it's easy to "go through the motions" and "act like everyone else" in church. But when we see it, as it truly is, as an intimate, personal, growing, loving relationship with God through Christ, it takes on a whole new meaning—its true meaning.