It has been said that the term Christian is a noun, not an adjective. So, let’s think about that. I would certainly agree that Christian is a noun. They are people. Christians are personal, real-flesh, and blood followers of Christ, absolutely and indubitably. It is people who are converted and born again, not your dog or toaster. So, yes, Christian is a noun. Christ came to save people so that men and women repent and place their allegiance to Jesus. We have all heard the phrase, the Church is the people, not the building! Ok, ok.
So what about an adjective?
Well…and this is where it gets squishy. Yes? See, the issue with Christian only being a noun means that Christianity must be sealed inside our meat bag frames. However, to declare that Christianity is only a noun and not an adjective is to reject Christian cultures and societies. It is to say that, keeping your Christianity to yourself, is the correct thinking on this. If Christian cannot be an adjective, then yes, privatize your faith and don’t bring it into the marketplace of ideas, let alone outside your house.
But that has obvious implications. This thinking would readily say, don’t legislate your morality, and Keep the public space neutral. The Gospel doesn’t promulgate through political force. I would agree that it doesn’t spread that way, but is it always wrong to have a Law that agrees–Thou Shalt Not Steal? Because friends, that is a Christian Law through and through. I would hope that it is obvious, but we can and should have laws that are Christian.
I want to be able to say, no, you cannot murder because there is a God overhead. When it is a matter of human wisdom, we stop answering murder with the death penalty as we have. When it is a matter of personal custom, then we can begin to arbitrarily apply the laws–as we are. We will prosecute when someone defends themselves but not when the aggressor attacks. We will prosecute thievery if it is in our taxes, but not when it is people in victim groups robbing Target trying to even out past grievances. We will prosecute public indecency unless it is attached to the fallen alphabet rainbow people. We know that is evil and unjust because our country was founded on the idea that “Christian” can be an adjective. We were set up as a Christian Nation, one that was under God and granted rights from God. The Government is to protect the rights given by God, not to establish them.
Many verses establish a way of life for the Christian. In fact, Christianity was first called The Way, after the Way of Christ. Christians were identified by their public behavior. It was the way they specifically interacted with the culture and customs around them. There was a Christian response to even the eating of meat, just as the attending of parties and sacrifices. There were correct responses in concert with the ways of Christ. Faith requires actions.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. (1 Corinthians 11:1-2)
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. … (Ephesians 5:1-7)
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. (1 Peter 4:16)
And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. (Acts 11:26)
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:24)
Ok, but that is still the individual. Really? So the question becomes, does living out the way of Christ create Christian culture? Can culture be made into the adjective of Chrisitan? Do the nouns of Christians create things/adjectives of Christ? If you can grant such an obvious premise, then you will begin to understand the attack on Western Civilization occurring all around us. The attack on Western Civilization is all about how the secular world definitely grants that Christianity can be an adjective. While Christians may deny the idea of Christian adjectives, the world does not, and that is why it is in their crosshairs.
Now, some undiscerning among us might say, that is the problem! If we went back to just being nouns rather than adjectives, then they would leave us alone. But pardon my eye-rolling, and do so before I hurt myself, but that kind of thinking is why our society is in shambles. The reason Dragqueens are reading to our children in public spaces is because we fell for the ploy that we ought to keep it to ourselves and not impact culture. And once the Christian culture is eradicated, you best believe that corporeal Christians are next. Uprooting what we built is to undermine what we are. Secularists do not for one moment limit their understanding to nounal usage.
Jesus told us to go and disciple the nations. God wants us to disciple the nations, baptize them, and teach them all that Jesus did. Those nations will take on identities. They will establish laws, make art, create culture, learn to an enterprise, and be industrious. Baptized nations will change the world, in the same way, they will draw the crosshairs once they become weak, and lose their foundation. That begins to happen when we seriously think we can be nouns without adjectives.
That muted expression will not win the world. But that is where this thinking comes from. We ought not to try to change the world, but wait out the Lord’s arrival. Well, the Lord told parables about that, and we still haven’t grasped it. The Lord wants his workers busy in the field planting and establishing fruit, not playing guessing games about his arrival. Living like a Christian will have a significantly better impact than simply wearing the name tag. Go, make a difference. Live your faith.
thanks
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