What is a Christian?

"And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." (Acts 11:26)

Many people are called Christians in our day. Some are like the lady who recieved her citizen ship and said she was glad to finally be a Christian. Unfortunately, being an American doesn't make you a Christian.

The word translated 'Christian', 'christianos' means 'follower of Christ'. It is sometimes defined as 'little Christs'. The idea is of conciously and actively following as closely as possible, not merely moving in a roughly parallel direction. The word translated 'disciple' means in the noun form, 'a student of'.

In Luke 14:26, we find that to be his disciples, we must be willing to place Christ above our family or our own desires and goals. Verse 27 stresses that we cannot be his disciples if we are not willing to take up our cross, while verse 33 makes it clear we must also be willing to give up our possessions. If we are not, we connot be his disciples.

From Acts 11: 26 it is clear that one must be a disciple to be called a Christian.

Jesus said, "it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master," (Matthew 10:25). The disciples goal is to be like his teacher. He describes himself thus, "my judgement is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. If we are truly his disciples, that will be our attitude as well.

In Jophn 14:21, we read "he that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me:". Verse 24 says, "He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings:".

To act like a Christian is to pretend to be one. To be one is a great deal different than to act like one. Are you one or are you just acting like one? Do you know what God wants us to do? Are you doing it?