Do you Identify as a Christian?

How you define yourself can be picked up pretty quickly in introductory conversations.  I am a runner.  A teacher.  A writer.  One or the other will be mentioned within the first few minutes of talking to someone, and these things can be a great hinge for the rest of conversation. Not only that, how I look at the world is affected by this identity.

Identity test: can you make a Jeff Foxworthy joke of how you’d act, based on your identity.  “You know you’re a runner if…you’re always admiring the long waking paths in any new neighborhood you drive through.” “You know you’re a writer if…you keep a bundle of notes of ideas and thoughts at hand”.  “You know you’re a teacher if…any time you discover something new, you start imagining how you’d make it into an active learning experience.”  You know you’re a Christian if….?

Well, Are you a Christian? How prominent is that as part of your identity? Does it come up in the first 10 minutes of conversation? The first hour? How many identity aspects take precedence first in recognition? Why is that? Is it because Christians take so much scrutiny in our society? Because it’s impolite or incorrect?

Acts 5:27

“The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.” Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!

John 15:18-19

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.”

Would the hesitation change if we lived in a society where Christianity is encouraged and accepted or would the excuse merely change to focus on the fact that since your faith is so common it’s not worth commenting?

Matthew5:14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

What is your light? Just your kindness? Your goodness? Where do those come from? Isn’t it integral to credit Jesus for it all?

Luke 9:**25** What good is it for someone to gain the whole world (i.e. popularity, acceptance or approval among people), and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

But first they must hear about it (Romans 10).

How many people know you’re a Christian? If it’s an essential part of your identity, everyone should.