Being A Christian

Who is a Christian? My Twitter feed has been a minefield this weekend because I dared to post “Actually you can’t be a gay Christian. You’re a gay person who attends church”. This was essentially in response to people saying what if gay Christians want to be married in church.

So who’s a Christian? And does attending a church make you one? Simply put, a Christian is a follower of Christ. To follow Christ means leaving everything and following him. It means saying yea I want to be like you. I want to change from my sinful ways and walk out my salvation. I want to walk towards holiness without which no man shall see God. In that walk is it possible to falter every now and again? Yes. But because you have the grace of God in you, you’re able to pick yourself up and approach the throne of grace with a contrite heart and a repentant soul. And because Jesus is pleading on your behalf, God forgives you and restores you back to his fold.

The word of God also says this, just because you have this grace you can readily access, does that mean you should continue in sin? The answer is no.

I heard words like but is being gay a worse sin than a lying tongue; an adulterous man; a murderer; a thief? Or is it even a sin to be gay? Now while being gay isn’t a weightier sin than any of the aforementioned, you must remember that the first step to being like Christ and following him is abandoning your sinful ways and accepting him as your Lord and Saviour. How can you continue to be gay yet say you’ve repented of your sin? Is it even a sin? There’s no debate in the bible regarding this. It’s a sin. A lot of people would argue that the Old Testament Sodom and Gomorrah is just trope. Well the bible that Christians read says God personally came down to supervise the destruction of those cities because of this sin. God may have to apologise to those people if it’s not sin.

Is there redemption for all and including gay people? Yes. Just as the murderer can be saved so can the gay person. We often think attending a church makes you a Christian; being pious makes you a Christian; believing in God makes you a Christian. That’s why I got questions like but there are murderers who are Christians or pastors who are adulterous or elders are common thieves. Sorry to burst your bubble. These people may attend a church but insofar as they have not truly repented, and believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, they’re not Christians. Christianity is not religiosity.

Why should a church join people of same sex (a friend pointed out that there are churches already doing so) the bible is very clear. Not all who claim to be in the body of Christ are in the body(that’s what church truly is). A church has the word of God as it’s standard. The church of Jesus Christ will not perpetuate sin because they do not want to offend. In the words of Billy Graham “ Our society strives to avoid any possibility of offending anyone except God”.

May we all find Jesus in our daily lives. May we be truly baptised (immersed in the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit).

Please feel free to leave a comment without abusing my lineage.