Christian or Christ-like?

I heard a podcast that caused me to ponder for quite a bit today.  The podcast guy who was being interviewed said that the early Christians, in the first 3 centuries after Christ, would ask other people, "Are you Christ-like?" not "Are you Christian?"  That changes things around a certain amount, doesn't it?

If you're a Christian, it implies a simple belief system.  You believe Christ is who He says He is.  If you're Christ-like though, well that's another thing entirely.  To be sure, we must be Christian in order to be Christ-like if we have any hope of using it for good at least.  I will mention here though that I have met several atheists who were more loving than Christians which is a cause for concern.

What does it mean to be Christ-like?  If you're a Christian, it simply means you intelligently assent to a certain belief in Christ.  To be Christ-like though, well that's just downright painful at times.  You see, I don't believe it's really in our nature to be Christ-like.  He commands us to love our enemies after all.  That surely doesn't come naturally to us, does it?  That takes a tremendous amount of self-discipline and prayer to truly love one's enemies.

He also commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves.  That's another tricky one.  I'm friends with a couple of my neighbors, but do I truly love them?  That's another thing entirely.  One of my neighbors I don't even know because they're never outside and/or wanting to chat.

Are you Christ-like?  Are you growing in your love for God and for others?  That's usually a pretty good test to see if we're becoming more Christ-like I think.  See, you can know all about someone like Jesus, and never actually know them.  Take famous people as a prime example.  There are doubtless fans who know every minute detail about their chosen idol but don't actually know that person.  It's the same way with Christ.  We can know all about Him from reading the Bible a million times; but until we actually come to know Him intimately we will never become Christ-like.

There are also the fruit of the spirit as a measuring rod.  Are we growing in our fruit?  And I'm not talking about the easy way out either of evangelizing strangers.  Are you growing in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self-control?  You see, sometimes I think we make the mistake of measuring the wrong things.  My pastor talks about how it used to be the three B's that churches were all concerned with; those being butts, bucks and baptisms.  Now he laments that people are measuring much the same thing but just disguising it as how many missional communities a church has as opposed to how many people they have.

A long time ago, I heard a sermon that talked about how the guy never prayed for patience anymore.  His reason was that God would always give him situations to grow his patience when he would pray for it.  I've followed that man's advice for many years, but perhaps it's time to start praying for patience again.  It is a fruit that we're supposed to grow in after all, right?

If we're asked if we're Christian the answer is easy, yes or no.  But when we're asked if we're Christ-like, that's a much more difficult question, isn't it?  Are you bearing fruit?  Are you growing in your love for God and those that He's placed in your life?  These are difficult questions to be sure, but we must ask them so as to be aware of where we stand in our walk with Jesus.