According to dictionary.com, Christianity means, “The state
of being a Christian.” Well, then I
looked up what the same site said was a Christian, and I have to say, the
answer surprised me. There were four separate
definitions.
1.
of, pertaining to, or
derived from Jesus Christ or His teachings: a
Christian faith.
2. of, pertaining to,
believing in, or belonging to the religion
based on the teachings of Jesus Christ: Spain is a Christian
country.
3.
of or pertaining to Christians: many Christian deaths in the Crusades.
4. exhibiting a spirit proper
to a follower of Jesus Christ; Christlike: She displayed
true Christian charity.
5. decent; respectable: They
gave him a good Christian burial.
Now
I do have to give props to the dictionary.com people. The first 4 definitions are broad enough that
they pertain to ALL faiths that sit under the umbrella term Christian;
Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Mormon, and the seemingly thousands of Protestant
faiths.
The
last definition, I must say, is my preferred one.
“decent,
respectable.”
This goes along with what I always thought the definition of
being a Christian is; someone who is decent and respectable. We Christians have a wealth of a resource when
it comes to how we define ourselves in the Bible, and those of us who are Roman
Catholic have practically a library of scholarly writings by saints and popes,
as well the Catechesis, what we believe is the end-all and be-all book of Roman
Catholic laws (its online with its own search engine if you are ever
interested). I have not read all of
these, but I hope to someday. St.
Catherine of Sienna’s (who was illiterate her entire life, btw) work on a women’s
role in the Catholic church is suppose to be really passionate and relevant no
matter what century you are living in, but I digress.
Personally, I like to look at the Gospel according to St.
Matthew for a basic definition of Christianity.
It is all there; the Beatitudes, the Golden Rule, and my personal
favorite,7:1-5. That thought is what I
will leave you with today:
1 Stop judging,
that you may not be judged. 2 For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you
measure will be measured out to you. 3 Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive
the wooden beam in your own eye? 4 How can you say to
your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden
beam is in your eye? 5 You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye
first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s
eye.
1 comment:
Good post:) I'm baptist and for me Christianity is defined as being Christ-like. We're human of course we can't fill those shoes lol. But we can strive to be that way and as your last passage said to do our best not to rush to judge our fellow man least we be judged as well :)
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